John Henry Brown (19 March 1899 – 9 April 1962) was an English

football goalkeeper The goalkeeper (sometimes written as goal-keeper, abbreviated as GK, keeper, keeps, or goalie) is a position in association football. It is the most specialised position in the sport. The goalkeeper's main role is to stop the opposing team from ...

who played almost all his professional career with

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

before moving to play briefly for

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...

. Brown's career lasted from 1923 to 1937 during which time he made 466 League appearances (508 including FA Cup). He will be remembered for being Sheffield Wednesday's goalkeeper during a golden period between 1925 and 1935 in which they won two Division One championships, the

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 ...

and a Division Two championship. He also played six times for the

England national football team The England national football team have represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Eng ...

.Since 1888.
Gives career statistics.

Playing career

Early days

Jack Brown was born in

Hodthorpe Hodthorpe is an urban village in the parish of Hodthorpe and Belph, Bolsover, Derbyshire, lying close to the Nottinghamshire border and on the edge of Sherwood Forest. The village has two principal streets, Queens Road (the main road running thro ...

, Derbyshire. On leaving school he worked as a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

at Manton colliery. As a junior, he played for local junior clubs Worksop Wesley and Netherton, initially he was a

centre forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

before switching because his side were short of a goalkeeper. In 1919 he signed for

non-league Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

club

Worksop Town Worksop Town Football Club is an English football club based in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. The team play in the . They are nicknamed ''The Tigers'' and play their home games at Sandy Lane in Worksop. History Previous clubs The club claims it w ...

and played in a team that were

Midland League The Midland Football League, officially known as the Capelli Sport Midland Football League since January 2025 for sponsorship reasons, is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midl ...

champions in the 1921–22 season and reached the third round of the FA Cup in that season and the following one. The third round tie in 1922–23 was against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

away at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

, Brown had a superb game as Worksop held Tottenham to a 0–0 draw. Worksop's directors requested that the replay be held at Tottenham's ground again for financial reasons. Tottenham won the replay 9–0 but Jack Brown had done enough to grab the attention of

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

clubs and he promptly signed for Sheffield Wednesday in February 1923 for a fee of £360.

Sheffield Wednesday

Brown was signed by Wednesday as an understudy to long serving international keeper

Teddy Davison John Edward Davison (2 September 1887 – 1 February 1971) was an English footballer and manager who had a long and successful association with the football clubs of Sheffield, playing for The Wednesday for 18 years and later managing Sheffield ...

who was by then 36 years old and reaching the end of his career. Brown made his debut for the club on 21 April 1923 in an away match at

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

, however that was his only match that season. Brown was almost released by the club at the start of the 1923–24 season but a broken arm for Davison ensured he was kept on the books. For the following two seasons Brown and Davison shared goalkeeping duties and it was not until the 1925–26 season that Brown became first choice. Jack Brown was ever present in that season as The Owls won the Division Two championship, one of his most telling contributions was a penalty save two minutes from time in a crucial away match with promotion rivals Chelsea in April 1926.''"One Hundred Years at Hillsborough"'', Jason Dickinson, Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career. Brown's good form earned a call up from the England team and he played his first international against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

on 12 February 1927 at Wrexham's

Racecourse Ground The Racecourse Ground (), is a football stadium in Wrexham, Wales. It is the home of Wrexham A.F.C., Wrexham AFC. It is the largest stadium in North Wales and the List of football stadiums in Wales, fifth-largest in Wales. It is the world's o ...

. This resulted in a 3–3 draw with Brown picking up a bad injury. He recovered from the injury and was called up again on 2 April and played in a 2–1 victory against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

with a reporter from the Athletic News saying, ''"Brown kept a splendid goal and in my opinion is in Sam Hardy's class"''. In all Brown played six times for England, never once finishing on the losing side, winning five and drawing one, he played his last international on 19 October 1929. Brown was ever present throughout Sheffield Wednesday's Division One championship winning side in 1928–29 and only missed one match the following season when they retained the title. He played in Sheffield Wednesday's 2–1 defeat by Arsenal in the Charity Shield at Stamford Bridge in October 1930. He remained first choice for the following seven seasons, although he did lose his place occasionally to Jack Breedon between 1930 and 1933. He played in all six FA Cup ties in 1935 as Wednesday won the cup and made some outstanding saves in the final win against

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

. He also played as Wednesday won the 1935 FA Charity Shield. Brown made his final appearance for Sheffield Wednesday on 20 March 1937 as the team were relegated back to Division Two. In total he made 507 appearances for The Owls in all competitions and is second on the list of appearance makers behind Andrew Wilson, he is one of only three players who have made over 500 appearances for the club. In September 1937 he was transferred to Hartlepool United but only played one game for them, a 3–1 defeat against

Gateshead F.C. Gateshead Football Club is a professional association football club based in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the , the fifth level of the English football league system, and play their home matches at the Gateshead Inte ...

on 18 September. He then decided to retire from football at the age of 38.SWFC Archive.
Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career.''"The Men Who Made Sheffield Wednesday Football Club"'', Tony Matthews, Page 39 Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career.

After football

After retiring Brown ran an

off-licence A liquor store is a retail business that predominantly sells prepackaged alcoholic beverages, including liquors (typically in bottles), wine or beer, usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, he then became the landlord of a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

before becoming a newsagent in the Highfield area of Sheffield. He also worked for the Sheffield Drill and Twist Company in

Handsworth, South Yorkshire Handsworth is a suburb of south eastern Sheffield, in South Yorkshire, England. It covers an area of approximately , and has a population of approximately 9,957. It has five schools, four churches, a variety of small shops, a large supermarket ...

. He died on 9 April 1962, aged 63.''"The Wednesday Boys"'', Jason Dickinson & John Brodie, Page 46 Gives biographical information.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Jack Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Worksop Town F.C. players England men's international footballers English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers 1899 births 1962 deaths People from Whitwell, Derbyshire Footballers from Derbyshire English Football League players English Football League representative players 20th-century English sportsmen