Playing Pasts is delighted to present this podcast by Prof Dilwyn Porter from the Sporting Lives symposium hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute for Performance Research.  Subsequently the papers were published into a collection of the same name, for details see – bit.ly/2GPhdI3

 

Ordained clergymen have not made much of a mark in professional football. Of the 16,151 players listed as having appeared in English Football League matches between 1888 and 1939, only four were ministers of religion. The most famous of these was the Reverend Kenneth Reginald Gunnery Hunt (‘K.R.G.’) who played 61 league and cup matches for Wolverhampton Wanderers, mainly between 1906 and 1909, making his last appearance for the club at the age of 35 in 1919. Hunt, an uncompromising half-back who retained amateur status throughout his playing career, was capped twice by England at full international level, appearing against against Wales and Scotland in 1911. He also made at least twelve appearances for England in amateur international matches and was a member of the teams that represented Great Britain at the London Olympic Games in 1908 and at Antwerp in 1920…

Article © Dilwyn Porter 

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