John Harris (soccer player, 1917)

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John Harris
John Harris (1947) .png
John Harris in November 1947
Personnel
birthday June 30, 1917
place of birth Glasgow ,  Scotland
date of death July 24, 1988
Place of death Sheffield ,  England
position Middle runner
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1932-1934 Swindon Town 0 ( 00)
1934-1939 Swansea Town 28 ( 04)
1939 Tottenham Hotspur 0 ( 00)
1939-1945 Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 ( 00)
1945-1956 Chelsea FC 326 (14)
1956-1957 Chester FC 27 ( 01)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1956-1959 Chester FC
1959-1968 Sheffield United
1969-1973 Sheffield United
1 Only league games are given.

John Harris (born June 30, 1917 in Glasgow , † July 24, 1988 in Sheffield ) was a Scottish football player and coach . He was best known as captain of the championship team of Chelsea FC from the 1954/55 season and later as the long-time first division coach of Sheffield United .

Athletic career

Career as an active player

John Harris was born in Glasgow in 1917 to Neil Harris , who was to win the FA Cup with Newcastle United in 1924 . The Filius followed in his father's footsteps and after his first steps as an amateur at Swindon Town , his father took him on in August 1934 in the Swansea Town squad , after they had taken over the role of head coach. In April 1935, John Harris made his debut in an English second division game against Bradford Park Avenue and in the early part of his career he acted in the position of the striker . In 1939 Harris then changed clubs twice and after a stopover at Tottenham Hotspur from February, he went on to the first division side Wolverhampton Wanderers in May . With the "Wolves", however, he came only to a few competitive games and during the war-related interruption of official game operations Harris spent most of the time as a loan player at Southampton FC and later Chelsea FC , during which time he retrained as a center runner .

Shortly after the fighting of World War II ended, Harris signed a permanent contract in Chelsea and in the following years he developed into a leading figure in the "Blues". As a strong tackle and technically adept central defensive player, he was a regular at Chelsea and captain of the team for the next eleven years, before Roy Bentley later took over the "armband". He played a total of 364 competitive games for the club, 326 of them in the first division. In the 1954/55 championship season he contributed 31 league appearances as team captain. A year later, the 39-year-old left Chelsea in mid-1956 to become a player-coach at Chester FC . Shortly thereafter, he ended his active career in order to focus entirely on coaching from now on.

Coaching career

Chester first played under his direction in the northern division of the third division and after the introduction of the fourth division in 1958 in the fourth division. From December 1958, rumors increased that the second division Sheffield United wanted to sign him. After Joe Mercer's resignation , the coaching position there became vacant and in March 1959, enforcement was finally announced - somewhat surprising, because the experts had meanwhile expected the interim coach Archie Clark . However, Harris quickly overcame the initial reservations about himself. The sporting success was not long in coming and already in his first "complete" season 1960/61 he led the "Blades" over the second division championship to promotion to the top English division. This was followed by a respectable success in the FA Cup , when his men had to admit defeat in the semifinals only in the second replay. In the following season 1961/62 the sporting upward trend continued and Harris reached with the fifth place in the First Division, the highest placement in his coaching career. However, since the club had reached its limits financially, Harris was committed to a wise transfer policy. So he often had to sell important players, especially in September 1967 the loss of scorer Mick Jones to Leeds United hurt. Harris was considered to be a calm and ascetic contemporary who appeared with a steady hand as a “gentleman” and loved to promote young players and talents from the region. These included Len Badger , Alan Woodward , Frank Barlow , Geoff Salmons , John Flynn and Alan Birchenall and, from the beginning of 1968, Tony Currie . However, the steady bloodletting took its toll and after relegation in the 1967/68 season he made room in the coaching chair for Arthur Rowley to serve as the club's general manager from then on.

After only a year Rowley left the club again and so Harris joined the season 1969/70 for his second coaching time. He repeated ten years after his first promotion with Sheffield the return to the first division by winning again the second division championship in 1971 . In the First Division, Harris' team got off to a spectacular start with eight wins from their first ten games before slipping to ninth place after a disappointing second half of the 1971/72 season. A year and a half later, Harris retired from the coaching business and became managing director at Sheffield United after Christmas 1973 - he was succeeded by Ken Furphy . His commitment to the club lasted until August 1977. He then hired local rivals Sheffield Wednesday and worked under head coaches Len Ashurst , Jack Charlton and Howard Wilkinson as chief scout .

On July 24, 1988, "Gentleman John", as he was called in football circles, died after a long illness.

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Retro: Sheffield United's modest 'quiet man' made a big mark (The Star)
  2. ↑ Denis Clarebrough & Andrew Kirkham: Sheffield United - The Complete Record . DB Publishing, Derby 2012, ISBN 978-1-78091-019-2 .
personal data
SURNAME Harris, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION scottish soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1988
Place of death Sheffield , England