Archie Hunter
Archibald " Archie " Hunter ( born September 23, 1859 in Joppa, Ayrshire, † November 29, 1894 in Aston, Birmingham) was a Scottish football player. He captained Aston Villa in 1887 for the FA Cup victory and first title win in the club's history.
Sports career
Hunter learned to play football in his native Scotland with Third Lanark in Glasgow and Ayr Thistle, a predecessor of today's club Ayr United. From there, he wanted to originally join the work team of the FC in the English Calthorpe Wolverhampton, then let himself but persuaded by his compatriot George Ramsay to switch to Aston Villa to Birmingham. Aston Villa was at that time still in the development phase and was not the best address in the young sport of football, but Hunter should lead as a future team leader, the team steadily increased in the Scottish tradition to the top of English football.
The first game for Aston Villa graduated from Hunter in October 1878 against FC Queen's Park, who came to Perry Barr among others, the star players George Ker, Malcolm Fraser, James Richmond, Charles Campbell and John Kay. Although he had a good performance with his new team and his brother Andy Hunter the side, he succumbed to the Scottish team significantly. In the following decade, Hunter has been involved as a center forward instrumental that developed Aston Villa nationally to a fixed size. In his career he scored in 41 Cup games a total of 33 gates, where especially the FA Cup success in 1887 is mentioned. There, he scored in every round a hit and his performance in the 2-0 final win against West Bromwich Albion Stadium The Oval on April 2, 1887 was classified as critical to winning the title in newspaper reports from that time. With the second goal in the last minute, he was solely responsible for the decision in the final.
After ten years at Aston Villa, where he had completed exclusively Cup and friendly matches, the foundation of the Football League made in 1888 that Hunter for the first time took part in a national championship round. In the first season he won the runner-up behind Preston North End. Significantly weaker started the following season, when Aston Villa firmly placed in the lower half of the table. At the beginning, the team had won only six of the 18 games and also lost at Everton clearly with 0:7. Far more tragic than the result, however, was that Hunter collapsed just after half- time with a heart attack and so had to finish in the fledgling American Football League his career after only 32 league games. Even the dream of an international match for the Scottish national team could not be fulfilled - the Scottish Football Association had also during this time always refused to invoke playing in England Scots in the selection.
After the football
Heart attack met Hunter so severely that he had to stay in bed for the future. The first English championship of Aston Villa he experienced shortly before his death at the age of 35 years with yet. Whenever it allowed his health, he asked to be erected in his bed, so as to observe the audience, who were on their way to play his old club.
In later recognition of his points value for the early English football, him the Football League Association took in 1998 in the list of "Football League 100 Legends " on.
Achievements
- English Cup Winners: 1887