John Hudson (11 October 1860 – 21 November 1941) was an English

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 as a half back. Born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, Hudson played for hometown clubs

, The Wednesday and Sheffield United; he also represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

at international level.

Career

Club career

Hudson played most of his club football in the

area, starting out with

Heeley Heeley was a cluster of small villages which now form a suburb in the south of the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The village has existed at least since 1343, its name deriving from ''Heah Leah'', ''High Lea'' then ''Hely'', mea ...

before joining

. As a semi-professional Hudson played for a number of different teams in this period, as allowed by FA rules. He joined The Wednesday in 1880, making his debut that December. While at Wednesday, Hudson made 16 appearances in the FA Cup, before the advent of

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 ...

. During his time with Wednesday, Hudson was briefly club secretary and a committee man. He left The Wednesday in 1885 after taking a benefit match and then spent a short time with Blackburn Olympic. Hudson answered the advertisement from new club Sheffield United asking for players for their inaugural season and was one of the first individuals signed by the club. He played in the club's very first match in September 1889, a friendly against Nottingham Rangers and served as team captain during that first season, in which he was virtually ever present. The following year however he was plagued by injuries and made only six appearances, eventually retiring to take up a position of trainer at The Wednesday.

International career

He also earned one international cap for

in February 1883. In his solitary international appearance, he was appointed

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

and led his country to a 7–0 victory over

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Personal life

In the 1881

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Hudson was described as a "German Silver Caster", and was living with his mother at School Lane, Sheffield. Following his retirement from playing Hudson became the licensee of the Castle Inn in Sheffield, and married Annie Mellor in September 1888. Hudson was the father in law of Sheffield Wednesday footballer Jimmy Spoors.

References

External links

*
Profile at EnglandFC.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson, John 1860 births 1941 deaths Footballers from Sheffield English men's footballers England men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Heeley F.C. players Park Grange F.C. players Owlerton F.C. players Sheffield F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Walkley F.C. players Blackburn Olympic F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Midland Football League players