Ferguson: John (Jock)

1912-1913 (Leeds City Player Details)

Left Back

Born: Dundee: 17-09-1887

Debut: v Fulham (a): 07-09-1912

5’8” 11st 9lb (1912)

Ferguson started his career with Arbroath and then joined St Johnstone for the 1910-11 season before joining up with his home town team, Dundee where he made twenty-one appearances in the 1911-12 season. He was discovered by Herbert Chapman and moved to Leeds City in June 1912. He went straight into the first team at Left Back and was first choice for the first nine fixtures with John George his partner at right back. He missed the next three games but was replaced by Charlie Copeland, who took over the right back position with John George, who had also featured exclusive at right back to that point, moving over to left back to replace Ferguson. He was back in favour for the next seven games and maintained the left back position for that period, six of them with John George at right-back, but the final with the latter in the right half spot and Charlie Copeland at right-back. After that George Affleck became first choice Left Back and Ferguson played just one more game before the end of the season, his seventeenth and final game with Leeds City, a 1-2 defeat at Glossop on 15th March 1913. He was released by City at the season's end. He had short spells with Gateshead in 1913-14 and then in Scotland with Clydebank but then he became a trail-blazer in the new USA League and played there with Bethlehem Steel, and then with Philadelphia Field, playing Twenty-two games for them in the ASL in 1921-22 season. He then moved to J.& P. Coats of Rhode Island making Twenty-four appearances for them in the 1922-23 season. He then returned to see out his career with Bethlehem Steel, making fifteen appearances in 1923-24, fourteen in 1924-25, five in 1925-26, nine in 1926-27, and two in his final season of 1927-28. Ferguson was one of the leading players in American soccer before 1920, starring for the Bethlehem Steel team that dominated the era between 1915 and 1920. During Ferguson’s thirteen seasons with Bethlehem Steel, he won league titles seven times, the U.S. Open Cup five times and the American Football Association Cup five times. The left back, who formed a famous partnership in the Bethlehem defence with right back Sam Fletcher, played for Bethlehem from 1914 to 1928, with the exception of the 1922-23 season. His first game was an exhibition match with the University of Pennsylvania on April 12, 1915. Ferguson became a regular with Bethlehem. In the first few years of Ferguson’s time with Bethlehem, the team competed in various amateur Pennsylvania leagues. In 1917, they joined the professional National Association Football League, winning three consecutive league titles from 1919 to 1921. In 1921, the first American Soccer League replaced the NAFBL. Bethlehem’s owners decided to move the team to Philadelphia, renaming the team the Philadelphia Field Club for the 1921-1922 ASL season. Ferguson spent that season in Philadelphia, winning the first ASL league title. In 1922, he moved to J.& P. Coats. He won the 1922-1923 league title, giving him five league and four Challenge Cup titles. On 8th September 1923, he returned to Bethlehem, winning one last league title in 1927. From 1915 to 1919, Ferguson played in five consecutive National Challenge Cup finals as Bethlehem Steel won four, losing only the 1917 title game to the Fall River Rovers. He possibly ranked second only to Archie Stark among Bethlehem Steel’s greatest stars. With Bethlehem, he starred in the teams that won the U.S. Open Cup in 1915, 1916, 1918 and 1919, and finished second in 1917. He was still with Bethlehem when it won the cup for a fifth time in 1926, but by then he was no longer a regular and didn’t play in the final. Ferguson played for a string of Bethlehem teams that won league championships, beginning with American League of Philadelphia in the 1914-15 season. During Ferguson’s years with Bethlehem, it won that league twice, the National Association Football League three times and the American Soccer League twice. Ferguson also won the ASL title during his one season away from Bethlehem, with J.& P. Coates in 1923. He earned one cap with the U.S. national team in a 1-0 loss to Canada on 27th June 1925. He was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1950. He probably earned more in USA than he would have done with City. He died at Bethlehem, USA on19th September1973.