Biography
Left sided defender John Francis “Frank” Varney was born in Oxford and played for Oxford City and the Royal Air Force representative team prior to joining Hull City as an amateur in August 1949. Once demobilised in December 1949 Varney joined City’s professional ranks, but was held in reserve behind the impressive array of defensive talents assembled by manager Raich Carter. In October 1950 an injury crisis in Carter’s newly promoted squad gave Varney his first team chance in an away fixture at Maine Road, the home of Manchester City, in front of 45,000 supporters – quite a baptism! He made further appearances intermittently during the remainder of that season but was not retained by the Tigers in the 1951 close season.
In May 1951 Varney joined Lincoln City where he spent two seasons, made a further 20 league appearances and won a Division Three North champions medal in May 1952. Varney married and had a son in Hull in 1953, a year later he joined Oxford United, a Southern League side at the time, where he played a further two seasons. He stayed in the Oxford area after his football career ended, when he died at the age of 91 in September 2021 he was Hull City’s oldest surviving player.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 27 November 1929, Oxford
Hull City First Game: 28 October 1950, Manchester City A (Division Two), 20 years, 335 days old
Hull City Final Game: 7 April 1951, Queens Park Rangers A (Division Two), 21 years, 131 days old
Clubs
Oxford City, Hull City (1949-1951), Lincoln City (1951-1953), Oxford United (1954-1956)
Hull City Record
Career: 10 apps, 0 goals
Frank VarneySeason | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1949/50 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
1950/51 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Does anyone know if Frank Varney is still alive? I can’t find any information about him on any other sites.
Hi Chris, as far as I know yes. I lean heavily on the Barry Hugman’s Footballers website, which is pretty comprehensive in that regard, and they have not yet recorded Varney’s passing.
That said some research we did found that Varney was on the electoral roll in Oxford until 2005, at which point he stopped appearing. He may have moved of course, rather than died.
Hope that helps.
i think this is my uncle John.
He died last Thursday 30.9.21