Steve Bloomer (1874-1938) played inside-right for
Derby County, Middlesbrough and England from 1892-1914. His enigmatic
personality and prolific goalscoring feats put thousands on gates
wherever he played. Young girls wrote poems in his praise and
star-struck boys called at his home for tips on how to play. By 1905,
when he broke the England scoring and appearance reocrds he was a
national institution...football's first 'superstar'. In 1998 he was
elected to the FA's top 100 'Hall of Fame' legends.
Scored 394 League and Cup goals in 655 games
Derby County (1892-1906), Middlesbrough (1906-1910) and Derby County
again (1910-1914). His English League goals records of 352 was
finally beaten by Dixie Dean in 1936.
Boomer made his England debut in 1895 against
Ireland, aged 21, scoring twice. He Bowed out against Scotland in
1907, scoring once...from the halfway line. He scored in each of the
first ten internationals. So successful was he against the 'Auld
Enemy' the press dubbed him 'Hammer of the Scots'. His 28 goals in 23
appearances for England remained a record until beaten by nat
Lofthouse in 1956 but no professional has ever bettered Bloomer's
scoring 'rate'. In Bloomer's day England seldom played more than
three games a year...if he were playing now over the same time span
he would have won over 100 caps.
Bloomer and his 'greedy' fellow professionals were
despised by much of polite society...cricketers of the 'amateur'
breed were more highly respected. Yet cricket made W.G. Grace a
wealthy man; Steve Bloomer started at seven and sixpence (37.5p) a
week and his highest ever earnings for a season were £5 10
shillings a week. Whilst an International and a bachelor in the Owen
mould he lived at home with his father (his mother dies when he was a
teenager) in a terraced house close to Derby's 'Baseball Ground'. He
never lived in a detached house and always rented.
Married Sarah Walker in 1896. The local press
simply reported...'by the way, Steve Bloomer was married this
afternoon'. No velvet thrones or OK Magazine. Sarah was the daughter
of the Derby County cobbler...pretty but neither 'posh' nor 'spicy'.
Despite being a full-time pro and International, Steve filled in his
profession on the wedding certificate as 'Blacksmith'. The Bloomers
had 4 girls two died before their eighteenth birthdays...one was
given the name Pretoria in honour of a British victory in The Boer
War...Bloomer was ever the patriot.
Steve Bloomer was certainly as famous as W. G.
Grace, perhaps more so on a global basis, described by the press in
1905 as 'known throughout the world wherever football is played and
being developed', which embraced almost everywhere, including parts
of Europe in which Grace was little known...did that give Bloomer a
valid claim to the title of 'most famous sportsman in the world' at
that time? Something which Bobby Charlton and Stanley Matthews were
later to equal. Bloomer was 'King of English football' when 'English
football was King', an ambassadorial figurehead for our most enduring
export.
Bloomer's name largely died in the widest public
domain as the fans of that era passed away. The names of respectable
and well-connected cricketers lived on into subsequent generations
through a prolific literature, written for a tailor-made middle-class
public. What publisher would risk a biography of a mere working-class
football hero for an audience that didn't buy books? Bloomer and his
ilk faded from public consciousness until now. Opening of club and
national football museums is focussing new attention on the game's
early days and as football prepares to embark on a new Millennium and
its own third century, the players of the 'Golden Age' are again
attracting interest.
In July 1914, 3 weeks before war was declared, he
travelled to Berlin to coach Berlin Britannia Football Club, perhaps
the only time he ever 'mistimed' anything. He was captured and spent
3.5 years in Ruhleben civilian camp. The internees, among them a
number of footballers, created a remarkable camp society for
themselves in which organised sport figured prominently. Bloomer
captained his barracks to the League Championship, aged 43.
In 1923, after coaching at Derby since the end of
the war, Bloomer accepted the post of manager-coach to the Spanish
amateur club Real Irun, near Bilbao, in the Basque territory.
Delighted to get such a famous name, the Irun fans christened Bloomer
'Saint Steve' as he won them the 'Championship' at his first attempt.
The next season his 'Spanish Boys', as he called them, caused
sensation by beating Real Madrid 7-0 in the capital and seeing off
the touring Argentinian side Boca Juniors 4-0. The latter feat
advanced the cause of Spanish football considerably. By 1929 Spain
were ready to meet England in Madrid, winning 4-3 to become the first
foreign side ever to beat the English. Bloomer returned to England in
1925 and seldom spoke of his achievements in Spain.
Bloomer spent the last 13 years of his life as a
junior coach in Derby, also a prolific newspaper columnist and in his
late fifties a scout and general groundsman's assistant at the
Baseball ground. Seeing him in overalls forking the pitch, young
signings thought it was a wind-up when the senior pro's told them who
it was.
Suffering from severe bronchial troubles in late
1937 Derby County Football Club paid for the 'old 'un' to go on a
cruise to Austrailia and New Zealand. He was feted at all ports of
call. In April 1938, 3 weeks after his return, Bloomer suffered a
relapse and died on a Saturday. His funeral was the biggest Derby had
ever witnessed. "Steve Bloomer: The Story of Football's First
Superstar" by Peter Seddon, published by Breedon Books. 224
pages, hardback, illustrated £14.99
Available to buy from all good Ram's outlets
* Born in Cradley into a nailmaking clan - a Black
Country boy
* First 'spotted' by John Goodall, double winner with Preston in the
first ever League season 1888-89
* 5'8", pale complextion, close-cropped hair. Bloomer's stature and
goalscoring style had close parallels with Michael Owen.
* Bloomer was a star baseball player too. Described in 1897 by an
American expert as 'the best second baseman in England'. Bloomers
Derby side won the English Baseball Cup three times in the 1890's,
heyday of English baseball before its swift decline.
* Also and accomplished cricketer, scored a number of double
centuries in amateur games.
* His name regularly used to endorse products from 'Bloomer's Lucky
Strikers' football boots to 'Phosferine Tonic', the 'Remedy of Kings'
- C.B. Fry was a fellow tonic endorsee.
* Vittorio Pozzo, 'Father of Italian Football' as national team
manager in the 1930's, taught at a language school in Derby Before
World War I. Pozzo spoke at length with Bloomer a number of times,
later stating 'I formulated many of my ideas for Italian football by
talking to such English greats'.
* When the 'Queen Mary' made its maiden voyage in 1936, Bloomers
image was used in one of the murals which adorned the luxurious
public rooms, 22 years after he retired.
* Derby County's club anthem is entitled 'Steve Bloomer's Watching' -
the Rams emerge to the song every home game. It is sung by actor and
Broadway star Robert Lindsay, himself a lifelong Derby fan 'brought
up on the tales of Steve Bloomer'.
* In 1905 when he broke G.O. Smith's England appearances and scoring
records, Bloomer was presented with his portrait by the FA, the first
player to be so honoured.
* Bloomer was sent off only once and was so aggrieved he wrote a
four-page handwritten plea to the FA, he was still banned for two
weeks. He occasionally had run-ins with the Derby County authorities
for 'inattention to training' but his continued goalscoring ensured
that such misdemeanours were soon glossed over.
* He was nearly lost to the game prematurely in 1909 wihle with
Middlesbrough. He developed pneumonia and was listed as 'critical'
before making a full recovery.
* Bloomers's grave features on guided heritage walks in Derby and he
features on similar walks in the Black Country.