Robert Walker (10 January 1879 – 28 August 1930) was a Scottish professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
.
Club career
Walker joined Hearts from Dalry Primrose in 1896, making his debut in a "trial" match vs Sunderland. He played in a few games that clinched Hearts' second League Championship in 1897. Walker was the first Hearts player to score over 100 league goals, and he scored their 1000th SFL goal. Other notable achievements are his 33 goals against Hibernian, which is the record tally in the Edinburgh Derby if local competitions are included. He scored two
hat-tricks
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wi ...
against Hearts' main rivals, the first at the age of 19 years and 9 months in a 5–1 victory at
Easter Road
Easter Road is a association football, football stadium located in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Hibernian F.C., Hibernian (Hibs). The stadium currently has an all-seated capacity ...
on 28 October 1898. He repeated the feat on 18 September 1905, again at Easter Road, in a 3–0 win.
The 1901
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Celtic 4–3. With the score poised at 3–3 ''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...
'' reported: ''"the Edinburgh team soon showed that they were not going to relinquish the grasp of the cup which their play entitled them to, and Walker once more proved himself the grandest forward on the field. Taking the ball some thirty yards right through the opposition, he shot straight and true. M'Arthur saved, but sent the "leather" to
Bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...
, who tipped it over to
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
. By the last named it was again sent towards the Celtic custodian who muddled his attempt to avert, and again the Hearts were one to the good."'' After this match
Charlie Thomson
Charles Richard Thomson (2 March 1930 – 6 January 2009), also known as Chic Thomson, was a Scottish football goalkeeper. After playing for Clyde he won the 1954–55 Football League with Chelsea and the 1959 FA Cup Final with Nottingham Fores ...
dubbed him "The Best Player in Europe" and his style of football, involving brilliant footwork and sublime passing was known as "Walkerism". He also played in Hearts Scottish Cup win of 1906.
During Hearts' first overseas tour to
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
in May 1912, King Haakon of Norway attended one of the games to specifically see Walker play.
Walker became a Hearts director in 1920. He died at the age of 51 in August 1930. Huge crowds lined the funeral route and thousands stood round his graveside. His obituary in ''The Scotsman'' stated ''"The Hearts never had a more brilliant forward than Walker. He was amazingly clever in manipulating the ball, and , it was on skill alone that he relied, for he was never favoured with physique. With the ball at his feet he could turn on his course elusively, and in such little space, that he could often put a whole defence out of position with his deft movement."''
The Football Encyclopaedia from 1934, edited by Frank Johnston, referred to him simply as ''"Bobby Walker, the greatest natural footballer who ever played."''
International career
He was the most
capped
In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...
Scottish footballer for Heart of Midlothian with 29 caps until the record was broken in 2006 by Steven Pressley. He held the Scotland national team caps record at various points from 1905 to 1931.
If caps are "weighted" to measure the number of games that were possible to play in a season, he is third in the all time Scottish caps list. His Scotland career of 13 Years, 1 Month and 3 days places him no 11 in the all-time list. He shares the record of 11 Scottish caps versus
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, along with
Alan Morton
Alan Lauder Morton (24 April 1893 – 12 December 1971) was a Scottish footballer who played as a outside left for Queen's Park, Rangers and Scotland.
Playing career Club
Morton was born in the Jordanhill district of Glasgow. He grew up in A ...
of Queens Park and Rangers. The record would have been 12 as he played in the '' Ibrox disaster'' match of 5 April 1902 which has subsequently been declared unofficial. In addition he won 14
Scottish League XI
The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...
caps, which places him 7th in the all-time list.
International goals
:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.''
Personal life
His brother Alex Walker also played for Hearts.
He was the uncle of St Mirren and Scotland defender
George Walker George Walker may refer to:
Arts and letters
* George Walker (chess player) (1803–1879), English chess player and writer
*George Walker (composer) (1922–2018), American composer
* George Walker (illustrator) (1781–1856), author of ''The Co ...
List of one-club men in association football
:
A one-club man is a sportsman who has played his entire professional career with only one club. The term is often used in the context of team sports such as football or rugby.
Retired players
:''Players must have been at their club for a ...