John Bryson Hunter (6 April 1878 – 12 January 1966), also known as "Sailor" Hunter, was a Scottish football player and
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities ...
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Re ...
, and at the age of 18 he signed for
Abercorn
Abercorn (Gaelic: ''Obar Chùirnidh'', Old English: ''Æbbercurnig'') is a village and civil parish in West Lothian, Scotland. Close to the south coast of the Firth of Forth, the village is around west of South Queensferry. The parish had a pop ...
, who had been relegated to Division Two the previous season. While Abercorn did not improve any during his time there – in his final season they finished bottom of the Second Division and thus bottom of the League, Hunter was duly signed by Liverpool. He was part of the Liverpool side that won their first ever English league championship in 1900–01. A year later he moved back to Scotland, signing for Hearts for £300 in a joint transfer with Tom Robertson. He was part of the Hearts side that lost the
1903 Scottish Cup Final
The 1902–03 Scottish Cup was the 30th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The cup was won by Rangers when they beat Heart of Midlothian 2–0 in the final at Celtic Park after two replays to claim the trophy f ...
to Rangers.
In 1904 he joined Woolwich Arsenal in a £165 transfer, playing 22 times for them in
1904–05
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* ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film
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Music ...
before joining
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
of the Southern League. It was when he joined Dundee in 1907, that he became a prolific goalscorer and earned his only cap for
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 ...
in a 3–2 defeat by
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
at
Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
Clyde Clyde may refer to:
People
* Clyde (given name)
* Clyde (surname)
Places
For townships see also Clyde Township
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* Clyde, New South Wales
* Clyde, Victoria
* Clyde River, New South Wales
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* Clyde, Alberta
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team who had knocked out the champions Celtic 3–1 in the semi-final, and were 2–0 up in the final with six minutes to play, when Hunter scored a goal to give Dundee hope. Two minutes later Dundee equalised. The first replay ended in a 0–0 draw but Dundee won the second replay 2–1, with Hunter scoring the winning goal. He signed for Clyde in September 1910, but injury forced him to retire six months later.
Managerial career
Two months later, in April 1911, Hunter was appointed secretary-manager at Motherwell at the age of 32. Motherwell had finished second bottom of Division One in the previous season, just above relegated Queens Park. Hunter would improve their position slightly in the following season, and the reserve side had won their League title. Motherwell improved steadily, although the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
interrupted this progress. In 1916–17 Hunter gave a debut to young centre-forward
Hughie Ferguson
Hugh Ferguson (2 March 1895 – 8 January 1930) was a Scottish professional footballer. Born in Motherwell, he played for Parkhead at junior level as a semi-professional and was one of the most sought after young players in Scotland before sig ...
, who scored and followed it up with a hat-trick a week later against Dundee. Ferguson was Motherwell's top scorer in every season he played at
Fir Park
Fir Park Stadium is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell and was the temporary home of Gretna for the 2007–08 SPL season. M ...
, and to this day he remains Motherwell's all-time top scorer. For the next four seasons Motherwell never finished lower than fifth in the league, but over time financial restraints began to tell on the club; local unemployment was higher than it had ever been and crowds were down, and the club had to abandon their reserve team. Motherwell began to slip in the league and they finished the 1924–25 third from bottom, on the same points total as the two teams immediately below them: only Ferguson's goals that kept them up. The following season started off pretty well for Motherwell but in October Hughie Ferguson was sold to Cardiff City.
Hunter had a replacement for Ferguson in Willie MacFadyen, who would more than justify the managers faith in him. Motherwell finished fifth that season and for the next eight seasons they would not finish lower than third, with a League title in 1931–32. Hunter would remain as manager at Fir Park until 1946 when George Stevenson, inside left and playmaker of the team which won the Championship would take over. ''Sailor'' found it hard to leave Fir Park and remained as club secretary until his retirement in 1959 at the age of 80. The club granted him a weekly pension upon his retirement. He died in January 1966.
On the 9 November 2016, Motherwell FC renamed the East Stand at Fir Park the 'John Hunter Stand' with the club saying at the time:
On 4 November 2020, it was announced that Hunter was to be inducted into the Motherwell F.C. Hall of Fame.
Honours
As a player
*
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish First Division
The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013.
History
The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as ...