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Jimmy Conlin

By all accounts a more colourful character would be hard to find. Bradford City’s first England international and their first ever player to be sent off. His career was often clouded by controversy. However, he was supremely talented and was only the second player in the World to be transferred for over £1,000. Sadly, his career ended with drinking allegations at Airdrie.

He was born in Consett, County Durham on 6th July 1881 (a little over a year before Albion and Rovers united as a single entity), the son of Luke and Mary Ann Conlin. Jimmy began his career in Scotland with Captain Colt's Rovers. He went onto Cambuslang and Hibernian. He joined Falkirk in January 1900, however it was in March 1901 when his career began in earnest as a left winger with Albion Rovers. 

At Rovers Jimmy helped his side win the Scottish Combination Championship in 1901-02 and 1902-03. They reached the Lanarkshire Cup Final in March 1903, but lost 0-3 against Hamilton. Rovers joined the Scottish League Second Division in 1903. In their second League match – at Ayr Parkhouse in August 1903 – Jimmy scored four times as Rovers strolled to a 5-2 victory. In November of that year Rovers again reached a cup final – the Scottish Qualifying Cup – but once again fell at the last hurdle when Arbroath beat them 4-2 in front of 7,000 at Dens Park, Dundee.

Jimmy was a fast and tricky winger. Standing at only 5’ 5” and weighing in at 9 st. 11 lbs., his forte was supplying crosses for the centre forwards. However, as has already been noted, he certainly had an eye for goal. 

Jimmy could have signed for Bradford City in April 1904, however, Albion Rovers wanted £200 – an astronomical fee. There was some history between the Scottish club and City’s secretary-manager Robert Campbell. When with Sunderland Campbell had signed Peter Boyle from Rovers for £40, soon after he sold the player to Sheffield United for £170. 

City appealed to the Scottish League Committee and they set Conlin’s transfer fee at £60. Rovers responded by alleging that Bradford had approached Conlin without their consent. An international committee, made up of representatives from both sides of the border, met at Carlisle on 23rd September. Bradford were found guilty, but the transfer was allowed to proceed. City were fined £50 for their ‘illegal’ approach of the player. However, a £100 transfer fee was approved and Conlin was thus freed to appear in City’s victory over Port Vale at Valley Parade on 24th September 1904.

Jimmy became the first Bradford player ever to be sent off when he was dismissed during a 6-1 defeat at West Bromwich Albion in November 1905. In February 1906 he was at the centre of yet another controversy. Promotion chasing Manchester United came to Valley Parade, during the game United’s burly Bob Bonthron repeatedly clashed with Jimmy. The crowd, angered by Jimmy’s treatment, got out of hand. After the game the United players were pelted with missiles as they departed from the ground. The Football League held a commission of enquiry and duly closed Valley Parade for a fortnight between 1-14 March as punishment.

Jimmy then became Bradford’s first England international on 7 April 1906, when Scotland beat England 2-1 in Glasgow. The attendance of 102,741 was a World Record for an international match. A small party from Bradford travelled to Glasgow to see history being made. An injury to an England team-mate meant that Jimmy’s attacking opportunities were limited as substitutes hadn’t been invented by then! Jimmy had arranged to meet the Bradford party in Glasgow after the game but was instead spirited away to Coatbridge by his enthusiastic local admirers!

In all Jimmy made 67 appearances for Bradford City, scoring 10 goals. In 1906 Manchester City paid £1,000 to secure Jimmy’s services - it was only the second time in the games history that such a transfer fee had been paid and was quite a mark-up on the fee paid to Rovers. 

His debut, in September 1906, against Arsenal was bizarre in the extreme. The game was played in a heatwave. Jimmy tried to combat the conditions by playing with a knotted hankie around his head! Several Manchester City players retired due to heat exhaustion. Jimmy collapsed in the first half, he gamely returned in the second period, but couldn’t help his new side, at one point reduced to six men, go down 4-1. He helped his club to the Second Division Championship in 1909-10. After 175 appearances and 30 goals he left for Birmingham City in September 1911. His stay at St Andrews was plagued by injury; he made only 23 appearances for the Blues, scoring twice. 

In July 1912 Jimmy moved on again, this time to Airdrieonians for a fee of £150. The move wasn’t a success, in October he was fined £2 10s for failing to turn up for a game. A brief triumph followed with the lifting of the Lanarkshire Cup in December 1912 when Airdrieonians beat Dykehead 5-1. Sadly, Jimmy’s off field problems worsened when he failed to turn up for several training sessions. In February 1913, after Jimmy admitted having a drink problem, the board fined him again, ordered him to find work and told him to stop drinking. The warning had no effect and in April 1913 Jimmy was suspended sine die by the club and placed on the transfer list. The club still rated him as a footballer, as they were asking £200 for his services, as entitled to do long before Jean-Marc Bosman himself was even born. Perhaps not surprisingly there were few takers at that price and on 13th August 1913 the Coatbridge Express reported that Jimmy had joined Broxburn Athletic, but it was a move that was ‘not the will of the directors’. Presumably the £200 was not forthcoming! Jimmy had made 27 appearances for Airdrieonians, scoring 6 goals. His long and occasionally troubled career ended at Broxburn.

When war broke out in 1914 Jimmy was living at 495, Coatbank Street, Coatbridge. He was married to Elizabeth and they had a son, David. Jimmy enlisted at Coatbridge in the 15th battalion Highland Light Infantry as a private. The battalion was transferred to the Nieuport sector on the Belgium coast during June 1917, in readiness to support a British offensive at the third Battle of Ypres. Jimmy was killed on 23rd June 1917, aged 35. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Nieuport memorial.

 

Representative Matches in which Jimmy featured

England v Scotland (Glasgow) 07-04-06 L 1-2 Att: 102,741

Football League v Scottish League (Chelsea) 24-03-06 Att: 8,000

Football League v Irish League (Belfast) 08-10-10 W 6-2 (scored twice) Att: 10,000

Content used with kind permission of www.bantampast.co.uk (A history of Bradford City F.C.).

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