Gerald William Taylor (born 15 August 1947) is an English former

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 lea ...

who played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

as a defender for

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

, where he spent the majority of his playing career, and

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

, and in the

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association (USA) was a professional association football, soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League ( ...

league for the

Los Angeles Wolves The Los Angeles Wolves were an American professional Association football, soccer team that played for two seasons. In 1967 they played in the United Soccer Association, finishing as champions, and in 1968 North American Soccer League season, ...

Career

Taylor was born in

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

, and began his football career at Wath Wanderers, the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

-based nursery club of

, before heading south to join them. After proving himself in the reserve ranks, he progressed to making his first team debut on 31 December 1966 in a goalless draw with

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. He remained in the team for the remainder of the 1966–67 season as the club won

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the First Division, and was part of the squad that won the

league that summer under the

guise. The defender was often reserve to players such as

Joe Wilson Addison Graves "Joe" Wilson Sr. (born July 31, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving as the U.S. representative for since 2001. A member of the Republican Party, his district stretches from Columbia to the Georgia–South Caro ...

Bobby Thomson Robert Brown Thomson (October 25, 1923 – August 16, 2010) was an American professional baseball player, nicknamed "the Staten Island Scot". He was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants (1946–53, 1957), Milwaukee Brave ...

Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

and

Derek Parkin Derek Parkin (born 2 January 1948) is an English former football player who made a record number of appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers (609). He also played for Huddersfield Town and Stoke City as well as the England under-23 national sid ...

in the Wolves defence over his career, but played in both legs of the

1972 UEFA Cup Final The 1972 UEFA Cup Final was the final of the first UEFA Cup football tournament. It was a two-legged contest played on 3 May and 17 May 1972 between two English clubs, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. This was the first UEFA club com ...

. With fewer opportunities in his latter years with the club, he spent time on loan at

in 1975. After 192 appearances in total for Wolves, he retired from the professional game in 1976. He spent 26 years in the police force, and then worked at the

RAF Museum The Royal Air Force Museum is a museum dedicated to the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. The museum is a non-departmental public body and is a registered charity. It has two public sites, Royal Air Force Museum London and Royal Air Fo ...

in Cosford.

References

External links

League stats
at Neil Brown's site {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Gerry 1947 births Living people Footballers from Kingston upon Hull English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Los Angeles Wolves players Swindon Town F.C. players English Football League players United Soccer Association players English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States English expatriate men's footballers