Armitage: Leonard (Len)

1920-1923 (Player Details)

Centre Forward

Born: Sheffield: 20-10-1899

Debut v South Shields (h): 01-09-1920

5’ 9 1/2” 11st 7lb (1923)

Initially a Wing or Centre-Half, Armitage won an ESFA Shield Medal while playing for Sheffield Boys in 1914 and turned out for Sheffield Forge and Rolling Mills, Walkley Amateurs and Wadsley Bridge before joining Sheffield Wednesday in January 1914. He played three games for the Owls before he was transferred to Leeds in June 1920. He marked his debut by scoring the first goal in a 1-2 defeat by South Shields on 1st September 1920, and in so doing became the first player ever to score for Leeds United. He left for Third Division North side, Wigan Borough, in June 1923, where he scored twenty-one goals in twenty-eight League appearances, before signing for Second Division Stoke City in March 1924. It was there that he enjoyed his best days, winning a Third Division North Championship Medal and toured with the F.A. team to South Africa in 1929. Although now a defender, he became the designated penalty kick specialist and was successful on eight occasions which helped to boost his goalscoring to nineteen from one hundred and ninety-four League appearances. He left Stoke City for Rhyl in June 1931 before signing for Second Division Port Vale, as a defender, in June 1932 for two seasons, where he scored twice in eleven League appearances. He died at Wortley, Sheffield in the summer of 1972. His grandfather, Tom Armitage, was a Yorkshire cricketer and was in the first-ever England touring team to Australia. His brother Tom was also a very promising footballer. He signed with Sheffield Wednesday at the end of the First World War. On Christmas Day 1923 while playing for the Owls against Rotherham Town he was hit in the kidneys by the ball and, in great pain, he played until the half-time break, when he was sent straight to hospital where he died five days later aged twenty-six.