Biography
Inside left Sam Smith joined the Tigers in June 1928 and stepped straight into the first team, starting the first eight league games of the season. He scored his first City goal in his second appearance, the winner in a 1-0 win over Oldham, but by late September manager Bill McCracken was able to restore teenage forward and future England international Ronnie Starling, consigning Smith to the City reserves. He returned for the two Christmas fixtures against Preston North End and scored in Christmas Day 5-1 victory. But he remained on the fringes of the first team until the last three games of the seson, which he started in preference to another young future England international, Sam Weaver. Smith left the Tigers in the 1929 close season.
Samuel James William Smith was born in Stafford and was an England schoolboy international during World War One before coming into men’s football in his late teens playing in the Black Country for Darby End Victoria and Birmingham & District League side Cradley Heath. He joined Cardiff City in February 1924 but during three years in South Wales Smith made only five first team starts. In May 1927 he joined Port Vale where he made a handful of starts including a January 1928 match against Hull City where he impressed the City hierarchy.
Smith spent the 1929/30 season at Millwall where he started just a solitary League game. He then returned to the West Midlands and played for Kidderminster Harriers but soon disappeared from the footballing scene. By 1939 he was living in Rugeley, a few miles east of his Stafford birthplace, where worked as a railwayman. He died in the Cornish resort of Falmouth in June 1988.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 14 November 1904, Stafford
Hull City First Game: 25 August 1928, Southampton H (Division Two), 23 years, 285 days old
Hull City Final Game: 4 May 1929, Nottingham Forest H (Division Two), 24 years, 171 days old
Clubs
Darby End Victoria, Cradley Heath (1923-1924), Cardiff City (1924-1927), Port Vale (1927-1928), Hull City (1928-1929), Millwall (1929-1930), Kidderminster Harriers (1930)
Hull City Record
Career: 14 apps, 2 goals
Sam Smith| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1928/29 | 14 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |