George Hardwick

George Hardwick
Personnel
Surname	George Francis Moutrey Hardwick
birthday	February 2, 1920
place of birth	Saltburn ,  England
date of death	April 19, 2004
Place of death	Stockton-on-Tees ,  England
position	Defender (left)
Juniors
Years	station
0000-1935	South Bank East End
1935-1937	Middlesbrough FC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1937-1950	Middlesbrough FC	143 0(5)
1950-1956	Oldham Athletic	190 (14)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1946-1948	England	13 0(0)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1950-1956	Oldham Athletic
1957	Netherlands
1957-1959	PSV Eindhoven
1964-1965	Sunderland AFC
1 Only league games are given.

Memorial at Riverside Stadium , Middlesbrough

George Francis Moutrey Hardwick (born February 2, 1920 in Saltburn , † April 19, 2004 in Stockton-on-Tees ) was an English football player and coach . The left defender was the first team captain of the English national team after the Second World War and later coached various clubs at home and abroad, including the Dutch national team for a short time .

Career as a soccer player

Hardwick came from a footballing family, with his grandfather Frank in particular having earned merit at Middlesbrough Ironopolis in the 1890s . He joined Middlesbrough FC as a 15-year-old amateur in 1935 and resisted the lure of bigger clubs such as Arsenal FC and Glasgow Rangers because of his homeland . Only two years later, the young left defender became a professional player and in December 1937 he made his first appearances for the first division.

Due to his playful elegance and anticipatory skills, Hardwick was considered to be one of the most promising talents before the outbreak of World War II and the associated long interruption of official game operations ensured that his sporting career suffered a setback. During the fighting he served as a sergeant in the RAF Bomber Command ; he was wounded in the leg here during an air raid on the base station on the Isle of Sheppey . After his recovery, he played two finals in the Football League War Cup South as a guest actor for Chelsea FC , lost the first in 1944 and was successful a year later. Hardwick completed a total of 17 unofficial "international war games" for England by 1945.

After the resumption of official football competitions, Hardwick returned to the old place of work and was in a team with Wilf Mannion , who occasionally ran into danger of relegation, but in the end always ended the seasons in midfield. On September 28, 1946 he also made his debut against Northern Ireland in the English national team (7: 2) and even did so as captain - he is still the last debutant as team captain with the "Three Lions". He played his 13 international matches for England without a break and formed a "defender pair" with Laurie Scott from Arsenal FC , who had also served in the Royal Air Force . Only an injury, which he suffered in his last game on April 10, 1948 against Scotland (2-0), ended this series. He lost the captaincy to goalkeeper Frank Swift of Manchester City and his left-back position to John Aston of Manchester United . In addition to his appearances for England, there were three more games for a selection of the Football League ; in addition, he was the captain of an all-British selection, which on May 10, 1947 in Hampden Park against a rest of Europe clearly had the upper hand 6-1.

In view of this high status in British football, Hardwick surprised in 1950 with his move to the third division Oldham Athletic , where he then held the post of player- coach. The "Latics" had the personnel cost 15,000 pounds and this seemed to pay off three years later when Hardwick had formed a third division champion from the "basement child". In the second-rate Second Division , however, the team had to learn the hard way, rose again immediately and after a disappointing 1955/56 season "Gentleman George", as Hardwick was called, left the club and ended his active career in the same year.

Coaching career

In the following five years Hardwick worked on the European mainland and initially looked after a football team for the US Army stationed in Germany . Between 1957 and 1959 he coached PSV Eindhoven and was also bond coach of the Netherlands in five international matches in 1957 . There he won one of five international matches between January 30 and May 26 and lost three games. He later held a director position within the Dutch Football Association .

Hardwick returned to Middlesbrough in 1961 and worked there in the coaching staff of Middlesbrough FC before he took a position as head coach at Sunderland AFC again in November 1964 . The club was in the relegation battle of the First Division and under the new coach managed to stay in league with rank 15. Somewhat surprisingly, this did not prevent the Presidium from dismissing Hardwick from office after only 169 days, as the latter had wanted an even better ranking. With the end in Sunderland, Hardwick's time in the limelight of English football was over and after a brief stint for the lower-class Gateshead FC, the ex-footballer took over the chairmanship of a steel construction company in 1970.

George Hardwick, who was married for the second time, died on April 19, 2004. He left two sons.

Web links

• Obituary for George Hardwick (The Independent)
• Player statistics in the Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Database
• Profile on englandfootballonline.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ "England Players - George Hardwick" (englandfootballonline.com)
2. ^ "Dutch National Team Coaches" (RSSSF)