James Dunn (25 November 1923 – 31 December 2014) was a Scottish

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 ...

, who spent the majority of his league career with

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 ...

. He was the son of a Scottish international footballer, also named Jimmy Dunn.

Career

Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

but raised in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

after his father transferred from

Hibernian Hibernian may refer to: * Of Hibernia, Latin name for Ireland; hence ** Irish (disambiguation) Hibernian, Hibernians or The Hibernian may refer to: Sports clubs * Hibernian F.C., a Scottish football club, founded 1875 * Hibernian W.F.C., a Sc ...

to Everton, Dunn junior joined

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

as an apprentice in 1941, signing professionally the following year. The start of his official league career was delayed due to World War II, during which Dunn worked as a fireman. He made 100 unofficial wartime appearances for Wolves, but was mostly in the reserves when league football resumed in the 1946/47 season. He made just three first team appearances, but one of those was a league championship decider that Wolves lost 2–1 to

. He broke through in the following campaign and was also a regular player in the next season, which saw him win the 1949 FA Cup. A back injury sidelined him for most of the 1949/50 season, but he recovered to feature strongly during the next two years. He eventually left Molineux to join

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

in 1953 for £15,000. After suffering relegation to the third tier with Derby in 1955, he moved into

non-league football 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 ...

with

Worcester City Worcester City Football Club is an English Association football, football club based in Worcester, England, Worcester, Worcestershire. The club play in the Southern Football League Premier Division Central, the seventh tier of English football. ...

, and later also played for

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and Runcorn Docks, cargo port in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. Runcorn is on the south bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. It is upstream from the port of Live ...

. Upon retiring from the game, he ran a pub in

Penn, West Midlands Penn is an area divided between the The City of Wolverhampton, City of Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire district. The population of the Wolverhampton Ward taken at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 12,718. Originally, it was a ...

before qualifying as a physiotherapist. In this role, he became a trainer at

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 ...

in 1963 and was on the bench at the 1967 League Cup and 1968 FA Cup finals. After leaving the club he joined the staff at Edgbaston Health Clinic, owned by Bernard Thomas, to run the gym and swimming pool and also worked as a 'rep' in

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

. On 31 December 2014 Dunn died at the age of 91.

References

External links

* 1923 births 2014 deaths Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish men's footballers Men's association football inside forwards English Football League players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Worcester City F.C. players Footballers from Merseyside Anglo-Scots 20th-century Scottish sportsmen {{Scotland-footy-forward-1920s-stub