Chisholm: Kenneth McTaggart (Ken)

1948-1949 (Player Details)

Inside Forward

Born: Glasgow: 12-04-1925

Debut v Fulham (h): 17-01-1948

5’11” 12st (1949)

Chisholm, a former fighter pilot in the RAF, came desperately close to gaining full international honours for Scotland. His career took off with Queens Park, whom he joined on 4th February 1942 and with whom he won a Scottish Victory cap against Ireland in front of 53,000 at Windsor Park Belfast in a 3-2 win on 2nd February 1946. With the Spiders he scored thirteen goals in thirty-four League appearances and added another two goals in sixteen Scottish Cup games, before leaving for Partick Thistle on 22nd April 1946. During the War he guested for several English teams but only played one game for each. Manchester City, in 1943-44, while in 1945-46 he played with Chelsea, where he scored once, Leicester City, where he also netted and Portsmouth and Bradford Park Avenue. Having signed for Partick Thistle in the 1946 close season, he stayed with them until he signed for Leeds on 14th January 1948, after scoring thirteen times in thirty-four League games and twenty times in a total of forty-seven in all matches. Willis Edwards was replaced as Leeds Manager in May 1948. Chisholm found Major Frank Buckley had an abrasive side to his character and soon fell out with him. Chisholm, an assertive Scot, who had scored seventeen goals in forty League matches for Leeds, moved to Leicester City in an exchange deal that brought Ray Iggleden to Elland Road on 30th December 1948. Team mate Jimmy Dunn recalled. "Ken was a character, a good goal poacher who liked to go out with the lads for a drink. Buckley told him, ‘This city's not big enough for both of us and I'm not going’." He was in the Leicester City team which lost the 1949 F.A. Cup Final. While with Leicester City he scored seventeen goals in forty-two appearances before he moved to Coventry City in March 1950, where he got thirty-four goals in sixty-eight appearances. He was building a good reputation as being a bustling striker, capable of scoring on a regular basis, even though not blessed with pace or finesse. Cardiff City signed him in March 1952 for £12,000. He soon began repaying their investment as he was part of the Bluebird's team that went on to gain promotion to the First Division in 1951-52 for the first time since 1929. They needed to win the final game against Chisholm's former team Leeds United. On 3rd May 1952, 52,000 fans crammed into a rain-soaked Ninian Park to watch the vital game. It was an amazingly large crowd as it clashed with the FA Cup Final. So, while Newcastle United were beating Arsenal 1-0, Cardiff beat Leeds United 3-1 to win promotion back to the top flight for the first time since 1929. New signing Ken Chisholm netted twice, and leading scorer Wilf Grant hit the other. Chisholm found the net thirteen times in sixty-three games while at Ninian Park and was the club's joint leading goal-scorer with Wilf Grant in 1953-54 with twelve goals as Cardiff reached tenth place in the First Division League table. In December 1953 he was transferred to Sunderland for £15,000 as Trevor Ford made the move in the opposite direction for £30,000. Once more he lived up to his reputation, scoring thirty-four goals in seventy-eight League games, and a further four in eight F.A. Cup ties. He moved to Workington in June 1956 for £10,000, a club record, along with Sunderland striker Ted Purdon and he managed fifteen goals in thirty-nine games, before leaving in June 1958. Chisholm was one of the players involved in the Sunderland illegal payments scandal of the 1950's, which came to a head in January 1957. He was suspended sine die for refusing to answer the investigating committee’s questions. Subsequently he admitted receiving illegal payments and forfeited his benefit qualification terms. He ended his Football League career with one hundred and thirty goals in three hundred and thirty games and became Glentoran’s Player-Manager in January 1958. In September 1958 he joined Spennymoor United and later played for Los Angeles Kickers. He died at Chester-le-street on 30th April 1990.