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| Tell a Friend Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:34 am Post subject: Local Sunderland Hero to be honoured posthumously |
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Local Sunderland Hero to be honoured posthumously
With this season’s FA Cup now in full swing, it is fitting that Sunderland City Council have announced plans to officially honour the instigator of the competition, Charles William Alcock, by putting up a blue plaque on the Sunderland house he was born in.
Born in 1842, Alcock became FA Secretary in 1871. In July of that year, he suggested “that a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association”. Consequently, 1872 saw the first ever FA Cup competition, with fifteen teams participating in the tournament that the whole world has grown to know and love to this day.
However, this was only one of Alcock’s many achievements.
He was a footballer himself, captaining England against Scotland on March 6, 1875, in his only international game. And the winning captain of that inaugural FA Cup? One Charles William Alcock, captain of Wanderers F.C., a club he had helped to found.
He not only featured in the FA Cup as a player, but also as a referee, taking charge of the 1875 and 1879 finals. Wayne Rooney as the man in black for this year’s Wembley showcase, anyone?
Alcock was also a mover and shaker in football’s posher cousin, cricket. He was there at the first county match in 1867, as Middlesex captain, before going on to play for Essex and to serve as secretary of Surrey.
Now that it’s been discovered that the house Alcock was born in is still standing, Sunderland City Council are planning to adorn it with that famous blue plaque of honour.
Hopefully we’ll start to see more cities and towns honouring their original local football heroes in similar ways.
Written by Autumn for UKEvents.net |
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