International Football History and Statistics

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On this day in football history

1950 George Hardwick, the greatest left back of the immeadiate post war era, transferred from Middlesborough to Oldham Athletic as player manager. He had made his debut for Boro in 1936, but made a name for himself during the War when he played 12 unofficial internationals for England. He remanied in the England line up after the War winning 13 peace time caps. Oldham won the Third Division North title in 1953 under his stewardship, and he finally retired from playing in 1956. He had appeared in 153 League matches scoring 5 goals for Boro, and made 190 League appearances for Oldham scoring 15 goals.

1958 Len Graham, the Doncaster Rovers and Irish full back signed for Torquay United. He had 8 seasons at Doncaster playing 303 League matches, but only managed to play 19 matches for Torquay.He won 13 Irish caps between 1950 and 1959.

1958 David Halliday resigned as manager of Leicester City thus ending a footballing career that had lasted 50 years. He had began his career as a free scoring centre forward at St Mirren. He later moved to Dundee, Sunderland (where he set the scoring record of 43 goals in one season in 1928-1929), Arsenal, Manchester City and Clapton Orient. When he hung up his boots in 1935 he had a career record of 447 appearances (in England and Scotland combined) scoring 338 goals. He went on to manage Aberdeen where he won the Scottish League and the Scottish Cup, and had joined Leicester as manager in 1955.

1959 Dave Hickson, Everton centre forward left the club for the second time to join arch rivals Liverpool. He made his Everton debut in 1951, joining Aston Villa in September 1955, moved on to Huddersfield Town later that season, before returning to Goodison Park in 1957. He had two years at Liverpool, then a short spell in Ireland, then a spell at Bury, before signing for his last club Tranmere Rovers in the summer of 1962. He finally retired from League football in 1964 with a record of 405 League appearances scoring 180 goals.

1963 Newcastle United signed Stan Anderson, Sunderlands long serving England international wing half. In his 12 years at Roker Park he had appeared in 402 League matches and scored 31 goals. He had also won 2 full England caps in 1962, five years after appearing for the under 23 side. He went on to Captain United to the Second Division Title in 1965 and appeared in 81 League games and scored 13 goals for them. He was signed by Middlesborough as player coach in November 1965. In a vain effort to prevent relegation to the Third Division he played 21 matches managing to score 2 goals. He was later appionted manager in April 1966.