George Cummings (footballer)
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | George Wilfred Cummings | ||
Date of birth | 5 June 1913 | ||
Place of birth | Falkirk, Scotland | ||
Date of death | 9 April 1987 | (aged 73)||
Place of death | Birmingham, England | ||
Height | 5 ft 11+1⁄2 in (1.82 m)[1] | ||
Position(s) | Left back | ||
Youth career | |||
Thornbridge Waverley[2] | |||
Thornbridge Welfare[2] | |||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
– | Grange Rovers | ||
1932–1935 | Partick Thistle | 114 | (1) |
1935–1949 | Aston Villa | 210 | (0) |
Total | 324 | (1) | |
International career | |||
1934–1935 | Scottish League XI | 2 | (0) |
1935–1939 | Scotland | 9 | (0) |
1944 | Scotland (wartime) | 1 | (0) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
George Wilfred Cummings (5 June 1913 – 9 April 1987) was a Scottish footballer of the 1930s and 1940s, who played as a left back.[3]
Club career
[edit]Cummings was the captain of Aston Villa's great post-World War II defence,[4] having signed for the club in November 1935 from Partick Thistle,[5] where he had made a total of 138 appearances in all competitions, scoring one goal,[6] and won a Glasgow Cup medal with the Jags in 1934.[7]
At Villa Park, Cummings gained a Second Division championship medal in 1938 and a Football League War Cup tankard in 1944, also guesting for several teams (including hometown club Falkirk) during the conflict.[5][2] He was the Villans' club captain from 1945 to his retirement in 1949, and was popular with supporters due to his never-say-die spirit and no-nonsense defending. He played 421 times for the club in total, including wartime competitions – his peacetime total being just over half of that.[2]
On retirement as a player he was a youth coach at Aston Villa for three years, and also worked for the Dunlop Rubber Company and Hardy Spicer Ltd. in Birmingham.
International career
[edit]Cummings represented both Scotland (nine caps, three while at Partick Thistle)[8] and the Scottish League XI (two caps),[9] also playing in an SFA tour of North America in 1935 and in one wartime international in 1944.[10][11]
References
[edit]- ^ "Villa have talent to succeed". Sunday Dispatch Football Guide. London. 23 August 1936. p. vi – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d George Cummings, Aston Villa Player Database
- ^ "George Cummings". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
- ^ George Cummings, The Real History of Aston Villa Football Club
- ^ a b John Litster (October 2012). "A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players". Scottish Football Historian magazine.
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(help) - ^ Players C, Partick Thistle History Archive
- ^ Partick Thistle Win The Glasgow Cup, The Glasgow Herald, 15 October 1934, via Partick Thistle History Archive
- ^ George Cummings at the Scottish Football Association
- ^ "[SFL player] George Cummings". London Hearts Supporters' Club. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ "[Scotland player – including unofficial matches] George Cummings". London Hearts Supporters' Club. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
- ^ Mitchell, Andy (2021). The men who made Scotland: The definitive Who's Who of Scottish Football Internationalists 1872-1939. Amazon. ISBN 9798513846642.
External links
[edit]- George Cummings at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database