| Jabba's Comments |
Billy Hampson's early days as a player were itinerant,
spending some time at Bury, Rochdale and Norwich before moving to Newcastle
United in 1914. He guested occasionally for Leeds City during World War I,
but resumed his duties with Newcastle, and became the oldest player to
appear in an FA Cup Final when he took the field for the 1924 victory
over Aston Villa at the age of 41. He finally retired from playing in 1930
and moved into management at Carlisle United, where his main achievement
was to discover Bill Shankly's playing talents before moving to Leeds via
Ashington.
He brought in several players from Northern Ireland - and developed
a youth side that won the Central League in 1936-37. When war
intervened, the side he was developing was disrupted, and when the
normal operation of the Football League resumed in 1946-47, Hampson
kept faith with the aging players who had served the club well nearly
10 years before. This proved to be disastrous as the club picked up
just 4 points between the turn of the year and the end of the season,
and with just one draw (and twenty defeats) away from home, relegation
was inevitable. Hampson resigned the manager's job and took up the
post of chief scout, which he held for less than a year before
dropping out of the professional game.
Olivia(10)Abbie(8) and Billy(12)Hampson say: We think Billy Hampson
was top man. But then we would
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