Bill Hooper (English footballer)

Frederick William Hooper (14 November 1894 – 1982) was an English professional footballer who scored 62 goals from 166 appearances in the Football League, playing for Oldham Athletic, Darlington and Rochdale. An inside forward, he scored Darlington's first Football League goal.

Bill Hooper
Personal information
Full name Frederick William Hooper[1]
Date of birth (1894-11-14)14 November 1894[1]
Place of birth Darlington, England
Date of death 1982 (aged 87–88)[1][2]
Place of death Darlington, England
Height 5 ft 7+1⁄2 in (1.71 m)[3]
Position(s) Inside forward[1]
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Cockfield
Rise Carr
1919–1920 Oldham Athletic 5 (1)
1920–1926 Darlington[lower-alpha 1] 141 (60)
1926–1927 Rochdale 20 (1)
Consett
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Personal life

Hooper was born in Darlington, County Durham,[1] where his father worked in the local rolling mills. His younger brother Mark played 500 matches in the Football League and won two First Division titles and one FA Cup with Sheffield Wednesday. Two other brothers, Carl and Danny, also played League football, and an uncle, Charlie Roberts, captained Manchester United and played for England. Hooper's two sisters, Sarah and Betty, were members of various Darlington-based women's teams that played charity matches in the 1920s and 1930s, raising money for causes including the National Union of Railwaymen's Orphans Fund.[4][5]

In 1973, Hooper was interviewed by David Frost for an edition of The Frost Programme focussing on Darlington F.C. as an illustration of the unglamorous end of football, described 40 years later by the Northern Echo as "an insight into a town's heart-aching relationship with its football club, and a reminder of the ridiculous resilience of optimism".[6] Hooper died in Darlington in late 1982.[1][2]

Football career

Hooper played for Cockfield[7] and for Darlington club Rise Carr before the First World War interrupted his progress. After the war, he played five times for First Division club Oldham Athletic, where his older brother Danny was also on the books. He then returned home and signed for Darlington.[1] He and Tommy Winship were instrumental in Darlington finishing as runners-up in the North Eastern League, which led to their inclusion in the newly formed Football League Third Division North.[8]

On the opening day of the season, 27 August 1921, Darlington played Halifax Town at home, and beat them 2–0. After "barely a minute", Winship crossed for Hooper to score Darlington's first goal in the Football League; the goal came so quickly that the Northern Echo reported how Hooper could "in all probability, lay claim to the honour of being the first player to score a goal in the Northern Section of the Third Division".[8][9] He finished the season as Darlington's top scorer, with 18 goals from 31 games,[8] as the club finished in second place in the division.[10]

Three seasons later, playing alongside younger brother Mark, Hooper contributed to Darlington's Third Division North title and promotion to the Second Division.[8] After one season at the higher level, in which Darlington's 15th place remains, as of 2020, their best ever finish,[10] Hooper left the club and became one of several new recruits to the forward line of ambitious Third Division club Rochdale.[11] He played 20 League matches, his only goal coming in a 3–1 defeat of Wrexham, in 1926–27, which was his final season in the Football League.[1][12]

Notes
  1. Figures include appearances and goals in the Football League only, not those from the 1919–20 North Eastern League season.

References
  1. Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: SoccerData. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-899468-67-6.
  2. "Index entry". FreeBMD. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  3. "League Clubs and their Player for the Coming Season: The Northern Section: Darlington". Athletic News. Manchester. 4 August 1924. p. 3.
  4. Lloyd, Chris (14 February 2007). "Echo Memories: Women's football was a big hit despite patronising comments". The Northern Echo. Darlington. p. 8. Archived from the original on 25 July 2007. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  5. Lloyd, Chris (28 February 2007). "Echo Memories: Women take on the men's role on and off the football pitch". The Northern Echo. Darlington. p. 24. Archived from the original on 28 June 2013 – via AccessMyLibrary.
  6. Lloyd, Chris (10 September 2013). "The Frost Programme". The Northern Echo. Darlington. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  7. Mercurius (1 February 1928). "Occasional Notes" (PDF). Teesdale Mercury. p. 5.
  8. Lloyd, Chris (16 August 2003). "The day Feethams started life as a football ground". The Northern Echo. Darlington. p. 10 – via Newsbank.
  9. "Darlington FC 125th Anniversary 1–41". The Northern Echo. Darlington. 25 April 2009. p. 2.
  10. "Darlington". Football Club History Database. Richard Rundle. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  11. "Rochdale ambition". Daily Express. 24 August 1926. p. 13.
  12. "League Results and Tables". The Times. London. 20 September 1926. p. 5.
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