Biography
George Graham Stoddart was born in Kirkcaldy, a Fife town on the Firth of Forth coast, to a father who was a sailmaker then a foreman in the nearby Forth & Clyde Ropery works. At 17 George joined Raith Rovers from local junior side Leslie Hearts and was regarded a promising prospect at inside right until World War One intervened. Joining up in 1915, George initially served in the Army then in 1917 he switched to the Royal Flying Corps (which became the Royal Air Force in 1918) where he worked as a carpenter. Demobilised to the RAF Reserve in 1919, Stoddart returned to Raith Rovers and impressed enough to encourage Hull City to sign him in November 1920 after a one month trial in the Tigers’ reserves.
Stoddart was immediately given his debut by manager David Menzies, who saw the Scotsman as replacement for Dave Mercer, City’s forward who was set for a transfer to First Division side Sheffield United. In six consecutive starts the Tigers Stoddart failed to score any goals, indeedthe Tigers as a team failed to score in those six games and after a good start to the season City spiralled into the bottom half of the Second Division table. Rightly or wrongly, Stoddart was dropped after this goalless streak and despite scoring a fair few goals for the Reserves he returned to the first team only one more time, a February 1921 1-1 draw against Stockport County. George remained with the Tigers during the 1921/22 season but did not make any further senior appearances and left the club in the 1922 close season.
In August 1922 he joined Scottish junior side Dundee Hibernian but was looking for a move three months later. Further traces of his football career have not been found. He returned to Kirkcaldy to work as a joiner and lived a mile and a half from his childhood home. He died in October 1961.
Details
Nationality: Scotland
Date/Place of Birth: 9 March 1897, Kirkcaldy
Hull City First Game: 13 November 1920, Port Vale A (Division Two), 23 years, 249 days old
Hull City Final Game: 3 February 1921, Stockport County H (Division Two), 23 years, 331 days old
Clubs
Leslie Hearts, Raith Rovers (1914-1920), Hull City (1920-1922), Dundee Hibernian (1922)
Hull City Record
Career: 7 apps, 0 goals
George Stoddart| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920/21 | 7 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1921/22 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |