Frank Taylor (30 April 1916 – 2 January 1970) 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 lea ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

who played in

the 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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

for

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

and managed

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

and

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

Playing career

Taylor was a full-back who started his playing career with

in 1936. He made his senior debut on 13 March 1937 in a 1–0 win at Chelsea. He played in the same team as his older brother

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, incl ...

a handful of times, but it was only after his sibling left the club in Summer 1938 that Frank became a first team regular. Taylor missed just one game of the 1938–39 season that saw Wolves reach the 1939 FA Cup Final, where they lost 4–1 to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

. The suspension of league football in September 1939 due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

effectively ended Taylor's playing career. Although he turned out in some wartime fixtures for Wolves, he left the club and playing football in 1944.

Management career

In June 1948 Taylor was appointed manager of

, and then became Frank Buckley's assistant at

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

, also doing a similar role at

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

before becoming

manager in 1952. Taylor had the tough task of taking over from the long-serving

Bob McGrory Robert Gerald McGrory (17 October 1891 – 24 May 1954) was a Scottish footballer who played in the Football League for Burnley and Stoke City with whom he later had a long spell as manager. McGrory played football with Dumbarton before joinin ...

who had been at Stoke for 31 years as a player and manager. The first act Taylor did was to erect a sign above the players dressing room which read: '' Are you 90 minutes fit? It's the last 20 minutes that count – train for it''. In his first season Stoke were relegated from the First Division after losing their final match of the season. Taylor's main task now was to gain a return to the top tier but narrowly missed out in 1954–55, 1956–57 and 1958–59 finishing 5th three times. But after an awful 1959–60 campaign which saw Stoke finish in 17th position and could have been relegated to the third tier, chairman Albert Henshall decided that Stoke were going backwards and not forwards and so Taylor was sacked. This came as a big shock to Taylor who vowed never to become involved with football again.

Career statistics

As a player

Source:

As a manager

Honours

;

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

runner-up:

1939 This year also marks the start of the World War II, Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Events related to World War II have a "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Coming into effect in Nazi Ger ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Frank 1916 births 1970 deaths English men's footballers English Football League players Stoke City F.C. managers Scarborough F.C. managers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players English Football League managers Men's association football fullbacks English football managers Footballers from Hemsworth 20th-century English sportsmen