Biography
Young centre half Jack Houghton agreed to join the Tigers from North East junior football in April 1910. He made his Tigers debut in November 1910 against Barnsley, then returned to the first team for four starts in late December and early January, deputising for regular Scottish centre back James McIntosh. Jack returned to first team action at the end of the season, starting four of the last seven league games during April 1911 and scoring twice against Huddersfield Town and Stockport County. During 1911 Houghton was lodging with fellow player Jack McQuillan, as was City forward Arthur Temple who also hailed from Wallsend.
Houghton was again used in a support role during the first half of the 1911/12 season making a solitary appearance in December 1911 against Clapton Orient. In January 1912 Houghton was redeployed at right back and scored against Burnley in the first game in his new position. He closed out the 1911/12 season with fourteen consecutive starts at right back and a new role appeared to have been found for the young Geordie.
Alas he was unable to maintain his first team place during the 1912/13 season and made just three starts filling in for injured colleagues, He left the club in the 1913 close season.
John “Jack” Houghton was born in Wallsend on the north bank of the River Tyne and in his teenage years he played for Northern Amateur League side Wallsend Elm Villa. In 1908 Jack signed professional terms for the North Eastern League side Wallsend Park Villa and served the club for two years – in March 1910 he scored a hattrick of penalties for Park Villa, quite a feat at any level of the game.
In May 1913 Division Two side Fulham paid £175 for Houghton’s services, he went straight into the Cottagers’ first eleven at left back and started every game during the 1913/14 season. He missed the middle third of the subsequent 1914/15 season but remained a key part of the Fulham first team squad before World War One drew league football to a halt in the summer of 1915. He continued to play wartime fixtures for Fulham for another year while serving in the Army.
Jack returned to Fulham when league football resumed in September 1919 and was a peripheral figure for two seasons, occasionally playing with another player called Jack Houghton who was signed from Glasgow Rangers in November 1919. His final appearance for Fulham in October 1920 took his tally to 64 senior appearances.
In October 1920 Jack returned to the North East to play Northern Alliance football for Newburn FC but soon drifted out of the game. By the 1930s he had returned to the East Riding and was landlord of the Station Hotel in Patrington, placing adverts in the Hull Daily Mail that extolled his virtues as a former Tiger in an attempt to lure in thirsty celebrity hunters from across Holderness. Jack died in Hull in August 1950.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 23 October 1888, Wallsend
Hull City First Game: 5 November 1910, Barnsley H (Division Two), 22 years, 13 days old
Hull City Final Game: 28 December 1912, Blackpool A (Division Two), 24 years, 66 days old
Clubs
Wallsend Elm Villa (1907-1908), Wallsend Park Villa (1908-1910), Hull City (1910-1913), Fulham (1913-1920), Newburn FC (1920-1921)
Hull City Record
Career: 28 apps, 3 goals
Jack HoughtonSeason | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1910/11 | 9 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
1911/12 | 16 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
1912/13 | 3 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Wow this is my great grandad n had no idea as a kid growing up of his history!