| 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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