James Broad (10 November 1891 – 22 August 1963) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for various

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

clubs in the 1910s and 1920s, including

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...

and Everton. His brother

Tommy Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...

was also a footballer.

Career

Born in

Stalybridge Stalybridge () is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 23,731 at the 2011 Census. Historic counties of England, Historically divided between Cheshire and Lancashire, it is east of Manchester city centre and no ...

, Cheshire (now

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

), Broad began his football career with St Mark's (West Gorton), before moving to

Stalybridge Celtic Stalybridge Celtic Football Club is an English football club based in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. They are currently members of the and play at Bower Fold. The team traditionally plays in a blue and white strip. In 1921 Stalybridge Celtic ...

. He joined Manchester City in 1911,

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

in 1912, and then

in 1913, without having made an appearance for either United or City. In his one season with Oldham, Broad made 15 appearances and scored five goals, but he was allowed to join

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton ...

of Scotland in 1914. He returned to England with

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

in 1919, scoring 39 goals in 54 games for the club, mostly in the

Southern Football League The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English fo ...

. Broad was brought to

by wealthy director John Slater along with his brother

. The idea was that winger Tommy would supply crosses for Jimmy to convert and it worked very well as in 1921–22 Stoke gained promotion with Jimmy top-scoring with 27 goals. However Stoke struggled in the First Division and despite Jimmy scoring 26 goals Stoke were relegated back to the Second Division. In 1923–24 a promotion challenge failed to materialise and at the end of the season the board decided to reduce the wage bill by releasing ten players which included the Broad brothers. Jimmy and eight unwanted teammates arrived at the

Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. History ...

and ransacked the offices causing a considerable amount of damage. He joined Everton in 1924, via

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...

, and scored eight goals in 18 games for the Toffees. In 1925, he moved to New Brighton, for whom he scored three goals in 11 matches, and then he joined

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

in 1926. After just one game for Watford, in which he scored a goal, Broad was sacked for a breach of discipline. He moved into non-league football with Caernarvon Town and

Taunton Town Taunton Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Taunton, Somerset. They compete in the , the sixth tier of English football and play their home matches at Wordsworth Drive, which they moved into during the 1953 season. ...

, before returning to New Brighton at the age of 38. However, he did not make any appearances for New Brighton before joining

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

. He then went on to do some coaching with

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. They currently p ...

in Spain as well as in Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Holland and South Africa. At the age of 40 in 1931 he finally settled down taking up the post of groundsman at

Chelmsford City Chelmsford City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chelmsford, Essex, England. Currently members of they play at the Melbourne Stadium. History Chelmsford Chelmsford Football Club was established in 1878 by members o ...

a position he kept until his death in 1963.

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

; Stoke *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

runner-up: 1922–23

References

;General * * ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Broad, Jimmy 1891 births 1963 deaths People from Stalybridge English footballers Association football forwards Manchester City F.C. players Stalybridge Celtic F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Sittingbourne F.C. players Everton F.C. players New Brighton A.F.C. players Watford F.C. players Caernarfon Town F.C. players Taunton Town F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players English Football League players Chelmsford City F.C. non-playing staff Association football coaches