Biography

Six foot tall right back John Quantick joined the Tigers in June 1933 after his release by West Bromwich Albion. Slotting into City’s Reserve side initially, he had to wait nearly a full season before his first team debut at the end of the 1933/34 season during the period when Hayden Green resigned as the Tigers’ manager to be replaced by Jack Hill. At the start of the 1934/35 season Hill initially selected Yorkshireman Cliff Woodhead and former Scottish international Bob Thomson as full backs, but after three starts Thomson was jettisoned and Quantick came into the team. From then onwards Quantick started every senior fixture for the rest of the season apart from one game in November and another the following May.
Striking up a strong partnership with Woodhead, Quantick missed just eight games during the 1935/36 season and became a valuable and established regular in City’s first eleven. It was therefore a loss when Quantick was injured early in the 1936/37 season and replaced at right back by new signing Wally Annables. Quantick returned for twelve of the last 13 fixtures of the season after new manager Ernest Blackburn took over to club and John scored his only Tigers goal during a March 1937 3-2 victory over Barrow. City offered Quantick terms for another year during the 1937 close season but by July 1937 he had decided to turn his back on professional football and take over the running of a pub in West Bromwich.
John Henry Quantick was born in the South Wales mining village of Cwm, a few miles south of Ebbw Vale and north of Newport. His father was a coal miner who hailed from Somerset and that was likely to be the career that beckoned for John too. He spent the 1929/30 season playing local football for his village team Cwm and in August 1930 he made the move to Welsh League side Ebbw Vale. Before the end of his first season at Ebbw Vale, in March 1931, Quantick moved to English Second Division side West Bromwich Albion. The Throstles won promotion to the First Division within weeks of Quantick’s signing and while he impressed for the Reserves at The Hawthorns he was unable to break into the first team. In November 1932 he moved to Dudley Town, an early form of loan move whereby his registration remained with Albion. After impressing at Dudley he joined Hull City in the 1933 close season.
Quantick most likely focused on his job as a licensed victualler during the 1937/38 season and was absent from football but in July 1938 he lured back into the game when he signed for Worcester City, who had just joined the Southern League. Within two months Quantick’s contract was cancelled by mutual consent and in January 1939 he was permitted to sign amateur terms for Birmingham Combination side Birmingham City Transport. He served the City Transport team until 1946 while also working for the municipal bus company as a conductor. He remained in Birmingham for the rest of his life, dying in the city in January 1972.
Details
Nationality: Wales
Date/Place of Birth: 6 July 1909, Cwm
Hull City First Game: 31 March 1934, Nottingham Forest A (Division Two), 24 years, 268 days old
Hull City Final Game: 1 May 1937, Darlington H (Division Three North), 27 years, 299 days old
Clubs
Cwm (1929-1930), Ebbw Vale (1930-1931), West Bromwich Albion (1931-1932), Dudley Town (1932-1933), Hull City (1933-1937), Worcester City (1938), Birmingham City Transport (1939-1946)
Hull City Record
Career: 90 apps, 1 goals
John QuantickSeason | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1933/34 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
1934/35 | 38 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
1935/36 | 33 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
1936/37 | 15 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 |