Goalkeeping has become the great talking point in the run-up to Newcastle United’s Wembley final on Sunday.
Arguably the most famous keeper to play for United was Jimmy Lawrence, who from 1904 to 1922, made a record 496 appearances for the club and played in Newcastle’s glory era of three title wins and five runs to FA Cup finals. What is not so well known is that Jimmy knocked six years off his age to prolong his stellar and lengthy footballing career.
The revelation is just one detail from a mass of new information uncovered by Newcastle United historian Paul Joannou.
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Paul’s publication of two heavyweight volumes on Newcastle in 2011 and 2014 could have been considered a life’s work. The 400-page Newcastle United: The Ultimate Who’s Who followed his 343-page Newcastle United: The Ultimate Record.
But the arrival of the online British Newspaper Archive, by Findmypast in collaboration with the British Library, saw Paul return to his researches with a vengeance. The archive offers 63m pages from 1,000 newspaper titles in the UK and Ireland. Such a vast new resource has seen Paul produce a new supplement to Who’s Who, adding and updating a sea of facts about United players’ careers and lives.
“It is a never-ending task as there is so much in the online archive. So many facts, figures and anecdotes. It’s a huge upgrade,” says Paul.
Paul has now covered United’s history up to season 2021-22, with 1,573 player biographies, profiles of 24 managers, 89 senior backroom staff, and 140 directors and officials – a total of 1,826 individuals. A planned second supplement will include all new arrivals since 2014 – around 150 personalities. He is also working on a supplement for The Ultimate Record.
“The archive is an enormous bank of contemporary reports noting United’s footballers, simply a treasure trove,” says Paul.
So what has emerged? “In pre-war years it appears that quite frequently players told a few white lies regarding their age when they moved from club to club,” says Paul. “But with growing data available, family history information is much more readily available.
“Several United footballers adjusted their age when joining the club in an era when it was not easy to verify and check dates of birth.”
During his career, Jimmy Lawrence used a false birth date, removing six years from his age. In various official documents he is recorded as being born in 1885, although his birth and death certificates show 1879.
Consequently, he is United’s oldest player being 43 years, one month and 29 days when he faced Bradford City in April 1922. What will fascinate United fans are details such as striker Carl Cort being the half brother of Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and that he set up a football academy in Las Vegas from 2016-2019.
Or that another United striker, Mark Viduka, by 2020 had returned to Croatia, living near Zagreb and running a coffee shop, while burly centre forward Billy Whitehurst after football was employed in a power station, ran a pub and also took part in a spot of bare-knuckle boxing. Two players have also appeared on BBC TV Question Time – Joey Barton and Jermaine Jenas.
Kieron Dyer featured in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of here in 2015, while Paul Gascoigne was part of the Italian version of the programme.
Other United player details:
- John Alderson, born in Crook in County Durham. In 1912 became Barcelona’s second-only manager-coach when he joined the club after taking part in a tour with West Auckland Wanderers.
- Sammy Ameobi has the distinction of scoring the fastest ever goal as a Premier League substitute eight seconds after entering the pitch against Spurs in 2014. He also represented the Caribbean island of Curacao in World Cup qualifying matches and was later based in Holland, producing rap and hip hop songs.
- Demba Ba. Played for Beskitas, Shanghai Shenhua, Lugano in Switzerland. After retirement was founder and co-owner of San Diego 1904 FC. Ba is chairman and in ownership with Eden Hazard.
- David Creighton Brooks. In the First World War worked in Armstrong’s armaments factory in Newcastle and involved in women’s football when Munitionettes teams were popular. Coach and promoter of the North America tour in the 1920s of the Dick Kerr Ladies’ team, who wore black and white stripes in what was a landmark first tour for women’s football. Brooks left the tour to become manager of the Philadelphia club.
- Dave Beasant was 50 when he was a substitute for Stevenage v Carlisle in 2015.
- John Bowman who played for United in the 1890s was described as a “meteoric player of short stature and equally abbreviated temper.”
- Mickey Burns was a trustee and director of the National Football Museum.
- Stephen Carr jointly set up the Marbella-based SALA Group showcasing La Sala venues on Spain’s Mediterranean coast of nightclubs, bars and beach clubs. In 2021 created his own clothing brand.
- Richard Little played for Jarrow Croft before United. Joined the Royal Navy and took part in Jutland, the First World War’s greatest sea battle.
- Obafemi Martins, played in China for Shanghai Shenhua and Wuhan Zall. Brother in law of Mario Balotelli.
- Details of football contract of Harry Reay, from Bedlington. Wage, 10 shillings a week, £20 lump sum, and a job in a toffee shop for 25 shillings a week.
- The eventual chairman of Newcastle United, William McKeag, joined the army at 17 during the First World War and volunteered to be part of the force that fought alongside the White Russians against the Bolsheviks. Promoted to be the youngest non-commissioned officer in the army at the time, highly decorated for bravery and rose to rank of major.
Newcastle United Who's Who Supplement 1 by Paul Joannou is produced by Novo Publishing.
