Gordon Burness

John Gordon Burness (October 2, 1906 – June 20, 1989)[1] was a soccer wing forward who earned a cap with both the Canadian and U.S. national teams.[2] He began his career in Scotland before moving to Canada and then the United States, where he spent six seasons in the American Soccer League.

Gordon Burness
Personal information
Full name John Gordon Burness
Date of birth October 2, 1906
Place of birth Montrose, Scotland
Date of death July 20, 1989(1989-07-20) (aged 82)
Place of death Needham, Massachusetts, United States
Position(s) Wing Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Brechin Victoria
1923 Forfar Athletic 11 (0)
1923–1924 Brechin City 19 (1)
Toronto Scottish
1925–1927 Brooklyn Wanderers 24 (5)
1927–1929 Boston Soccer Club 98 (11)
1929 New Bedford Whalers 10 (1)
1930 Pawtucket Rangers 20 (1)
Fall 1930 Fall River F.C. 6 (2)
Spring 1931 → New York Yankees 12 (3)
Fall 1931 Boston Bears 10 (2)
International career
1925 Canada 1 (1)
1926 United States 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Born in Montrose, Burness began playing with local junior side Brechin Victoria, then Forfar Athletic in the Scottish Football League in summer 1923. At the end of the same year, he transferred to Brechin City.[3] He then left Scotland for Canada where he played for Toronto Scottish.[4]

In 1925, he signed with the Brooklyn Wanderers of the American Soccer League.[5] After two seasons, he transferred to the Boston Soccer Club, winning the 1927–28 league title with them.

Burness began the 1929–30 season with Boston, but moved to the New Bedford Whalers after only four games. He played ten with the Whalers, then transferred to the Pawtucket Rangers for one game in the 1929–30 season. He then played nineteen games of the 1930 fall season in Pawtucket, before transferring to the Fall River F.C. for the final six league games. The 'Marksmen' merged with the New York Soccer Club in 1931 to form the New York Yankees. Burness remained with the renamed team for the 1931 spring season. However, the team had already begun games in the National Challenge Cup under the name Fall River, so Burness and his teammates won the National Cup as the Fall River F.C. That cup went to three games and Burness scored one of the two Fall River goals in the 2–0 final game victory.[6] He then finished his professional career with the Boston Bears in the 1931 fall season.[7]

National team

Burness earned his first cap, with Canada, in a 6–1 loss to the United States on November 8, 1925. He scored the lone Canadian goal in the loss. A year later, he became one of a handful of players to earn a cap with two countries when he played for the U.S. in a 6–2 win over Canada on November 6, 1926.[8]

Post soccer career

Burness later worked as a traffic controller of ocean shipping for Exxon Oil Company.[9]

See also

References
  1. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014
  2. "Players Appearing for Two or More Countries". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  3. John Litster (October 2012). "A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players". Scottish Football Historian magazine.
  4. Jose, Colin (2001). On-Side - 125 Years of Soccer in Ontario. Vaughan, Ontario: Ontario Soccer Association and Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum. p. 193.
  5. "December 24, 1925 The Globe article". Archived from the original on 21 October 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  6. "The Year in American Soccer - 1931". Archived from the original on 16 June 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
  7. Jose, Colin (1998). American Soccer League, 1921-1931 (Hardback). The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-3429-4. ().
  8. RSSSF Archived 2010-01-13 at the Wayback Machine
  9. "J. Gordon Burness was Shipping Controller; AT 82" Boston Globe - Sunday, July 23, 1989
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