Players - Gordon Hodgson

Gordon Hodgson
Birthdate: 16 April 1904
Birthplace: Johannesburg, South Africa
Date of death: 14 June 1951
Nationality: England
Other clubs: Benoni (1919-21), Rustenburg (1921-22), Pretoria (1922-24), Transvaal (1924-25), Aston Villa (1936-37), Leeds United (1937-39); Hartlepools United, York City (wartime guest)
Signed from: Transvaal
Signed for LFC: 14.12.1925
International debut: 20.10.1930 - England vs. Ireland / 24.09.1924 South Africa vs. Ireland
International caps: England 3/1 - 28.03.1931 + South Africa 2/0
Liverpool debut: 27.02.1926
Last appearance: 28.12.1935
Debut goal: 10.03.1926
Last goal: 09.11.1935
Contract expiry: 08.01.1936
Win ratio: 38.99% W:147 D:92 L:138
Games/goals ratio: 1.56
Total games/goals opposite LFC: 5 / 3
League games / goals: 358 / 233
Total games / goals: 377 / 241

Player Profile

One of Liverpool's and indeed the Football League's greatest-ever goalscorers; only Roger Hunt has scored more League goals for Liverpool but all of Hodgson's 233 League strikes came in the First Division from 358 games, a fantastic goals-per-game ratio. Hodgson came to England as one of the youngest members of a South African touring side with players chosen from all over; Transvaal, the Western Province, Orange Free State and Natal. The amateurs arrived in Ireland, facing Bohemians in their first game on 30 August 1924, before playing a number of teams in London, usually winning convincingly with Green scoring the majority of the goals. On 1 October Hodgson caught the eye of Liverpool's board members as well as Echo's Bee in the team's 5-2 win over Liverpool: "The inside right, who took my eye from the first moment, is only nineteen, but plays like a seasoned professional,” he wrote in the local paper about Hodgson, who didn't though manage to get on the scoresheet. The South Africans played attractive football "passing along the ground from the backs to the forwards" and "there was no roaming and no dribbling across the field. Each player was bent solely on attack.” The tour took them to Wales and Scotland as well to Holland and Belgium and then back to England again, concluding their exhaustive schedule of 25 matches in three months in Liverpool, where they beat Everton 3-1, their fifteenth win. They returned to South Africa on 5 December 1924, but the tour changed the lives of two men in the party; two men that Liverpool fans would cherish for years to come.

Hodgson signed for Liverpool on 14 December 1925, having agreed to the move, while in South Africa, the month previous. He made his debut in February and featured in 12 matches in the 1925/26 season, scoring four times, just a taste of what was to come. The goalkeeper of the South African touring side, Arthur Riley, had already made his debut for Liverpool in October 1925. Hodgson, who is still Liverpool’s hat-trick king with 17 to his name, scored his first treble for Liverpool against Sheffield United on 11 September 1926 in his seventeenth game. The Liverpool Echo was impressed: “Based on this performance, I would suggest it will not be the last we see from this very talented South African... Chambers (Inside Left) had proven to Liverpool over many years now that 20-30 goals a season was well within his scope. Forshaw (Centre Forward) scored hat-tricks for fun and also weighed in with 20-30 goals a season. With the addition of the South African, Hodgson (Inside Right), I fail to see how any opposition will keep a clean sheet when all three play in the same side. A good striker is a necessity in the game. A brace of good strikers is very rare indeed. The Liverpool side now contains triplets of awesome power, that’s just downright greed. God help the first division when Liverpool come to town."

Over the next nine seasons, Hodgson missed very few games in the League and Cup and scored prolifically throughout that period. It was a shame that this golden run coincided with a barren period for the club because his contribution to the Liverpool cause was massive and he deserved to end up with more than the handful of England and Football League representative honours he received. Hodgson who played twice for the South African international team also qualified for England as both his parents were born in "Old Blighty". The 36 League goals Hodgson scored in the 1930/31 season beat Sam Raybould’s 1902/03 record total of 31. Hodgson's feat would not be beaten for over thirty years, until Hunt came onto the scene. Hodgson scored three hat-tricks that season at Anfield but perhaps it was the four goals he scored in an away match at Hillsborough that gave him most satisfaction of all? He was top-scorer in seven out of the nine whole seasons he played at Liverpool. Hodgson's popularity among the crowd prompted an ingenious biscuit seller to name his home-made ginger nuts, that he sold in a quantity of five for a penny on matchdays at Anfield, in his honour. "Hodgson’s Choice! Hodgson’s Choice!" he would call. The same shrewd character, mind you, was at Goodison the following week shouting, “Dixie’s Choice! Dixie’s Choice!” Rarely had Merseyside boasted such great goalscorers simultaneously as Gordon Hodgson and Dixie Dean.

Hodgson moved to Aston Villa in January 1936 at the age of 31. He got relegated to the Second Division with Villa and left the Midlands for Yorkshire where he joined struggling first division Leeds United in the second half of the 1936/37 season, scoring six goals in 13 games, helping the club to beat the drop. Leeds improved the following season in which Hodgson continued to impress, at 33 years of age, with 25 goals in 36 League games, three goals away from being top-scorer in the League. Hodgson remained admirably focused despite the loss of his 27-year-old wife on 8 March 1938 after she had been for a while in poor health. Hodgson was left a widower with two children. He was still as prolific as ever in the final season of his career, scoring five times when Leeds beat Leicester City 8-2 in October 1938. Hodgson scored 51 goals in 81 league games for Leeds in the First Division and could have undoubtedly added to his tally if World War II hadn't intervened.

Hodgson was an all-round sportsman, having played 56 first-class cricket matches as a fast bowler for Lancashire. But football was his first love and it was no surprise that he progressed from player to manager by taking charge of team affairs at Port Vale in October 1946. He was there for over four years and saw them move to their current stadium, Vale Park, in 1950. Port Vale legend, Roy Sproson, had Hodgson as his first boss: "Gordon Hodgson was a fair chap. He would give you a rollicking one minute and then it would be forgotten. Everybody liked him and his loss was so sad." Following George Kay’s resignation in January 1951 due to health reasons Hodgson was among the hopefuls who were interviewed for the manager's job at Liverpool. Don Welsh eventually was appointed while Hodgson was admitted to hospital a couple of months later but his “throat complaint” was deemed inoperable. He returned to his home in Burslem after a month in hospital and a few days later, with a promising managerial career still in its infancy, he died of cancer on 14 June 1951 at the early age of 47.
Appearances per season
Season League FA LC Europe Other Total
Totals 358 19 0 0 0 377
1925-1926 12 0 0 0 0 12
1926-1927 36 4 0 0 0 40
1927-1928 32 0 0 0 0 32
1928-1929 38 3 0 0 0 41
1929-1930 36 1 0 0 0 37
1930-1931 40 1 0 0 0 41
1931-1932 39 4 0 0 0 43
1932-1933 37 1 0 0 0 38
1933-1934 37 3 0 0 0 40
1934-1935 34 2 0 0 0 36
1935-1936 17 0 0 0 0 17
A more detailed look at the player's appearances
Apps Minutes Opponent
20 1800 Birmingham City
19 1710 Huddersfield Town
18 1650 Bolton Wanderers
18 1620 Sheffield Wednesday
18 1620 Derby
17 1530 Sunderland
17 1530 Aston Villa
17 1530 Blackburn Rovers
16 1440 Everton
16 1440 Leicester City
16 1440 Manchester City
15 1350 Arsenal
15 1350 Newcastle United
13 1170 WBA
12 1080 Portsmouth
12 1080 Leeds United
12 1080 Middlesbrough
11 990 Chelsea
11 990 West Ham United
10 900 Sheffield United
10 900 Grimsby Town
9 810 Manchester United
7 630 Cardiff City
7 630 Wolves
7 630 Burnley
7 630 Tottenham
6 540 Blackpool
6 540 Bury
4 360 Stoke City
3 270 Preston North End
2 180 Bournemouth
1 90 Tranmere Rovers
1 90 Chesterfield
1 90 Fulham
1 90 Bristol City
1 90 Southport
1 90 Yeovil Town
Total Venue
190 Away
187 Home
Total Competition
358 League
19 FA Cup
Total W D L Win % Manager
305 119 71 115 39% George Patterson (2nd term)
70 27 20 23 38.6% Matt McQueen
2 1 1 0 50% Caretaker Manager
Goals per season
Season League FA LC Europe Other Total
Totals 233 8 0 0 0 241
1925-1926 4 0 0 0 0 4
1926-1927 16 2 0 0 0 18
1927-1928 23 0 0 0 0 23
1928-1929 30 2 0 0 0 32
1929-1930 14 0 0 0 0 14
1930-1931 36 0 0 0 0 36
1931-1932 26 1 0 0 0 27
1932-1933 24 0 0 0 0 24
1933-1934 24 1 0 0 0 25
1934-1935 27 2 0 0 0 29
1935-1936 9 0 0 0 0 9
A more detailed look at the player's goalscoring
Milestone Appearances
# Date Against Stadium Competition
1 27.02.1926 Manchester City Maine Road League
50 23.04.1927 Birmingham St Andrews League
100 08.12.1928 Sunderland Roker Park League
150 15.02.1930 Birmingham St Andrews League
200 11.04.1931 Sunderland Anfield League
250 07.09.1932 Sheffield United Anfield League
300 25.11.1933 WBA Anfield League
350 09.02.1935 WBA The Hawthorns League
Milestone Goals
# Minute Date Against Stadium Competition
1 0 10.03.1926 Manchester United Old Trafford League
50 31 27.10.1928 Arsenal Highbury League
100 43 04.10.1930 Newcastle United St James' Park League
150 18 29.03.1932 Huddersfield Town Leeds Road League
200 85 14.04.1934 Arsenal Anfield League
Related Articles
The master bowler

Dundee Courier on 3 May 1935.

Gordon Hodgson for Leeds United

Evening Telegraph on 2 March 1937.

The art of shooting

When one of Liverpool's greatest goalscorers reveals "The Art of Shooting" you sit up and listen. Published in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette on 27 September 1930.

Liverpool need a good centre

The Daily Mail on 14 August 1929.

Liverpool's Berry Nieuwenhuys scrapbook - A one of a kind

LFChistory.net is opening a memorabilia corner where we want to feature rare items from Liverpool history. Send us images of them to [email protected] and we will feature them in a way they deserve.

Gordon Hodgson married

From Gloucester Citizen on 23 November 1928.

Roaring 20s by Wooltonian - part 4

Wooltonian looks at Liverpool matches from 1927-1929.

Roaring 20s by Wooltonian - part 3

Liverpool beat Everton and Sheffield United 5-1.

Related Quotes

Me and my mate went on the Kop one day. It was during the 1930s. Liverpool were playing Bolton. My pal, a little bloke he was, was dead keen fan of Gordon Hodgson. Loved him, he did, couldn't do wrong for him. Hodgson was playing that day with Sam English alongside him at centre-forward. This particular day, the Bolton defender must have said something to English because suddenly there they were, throwing punches at each other. So big Gordon Hodgson jumps in to seperate them and this Bolton defender starts having a go at Hodgson as well and pushing him around. My mate was furious. 'Hang on', he says to me, 'I'll be back in a minute.' I thought he was going off to the toilet or something. He said it quite casually. Well, off he goes, straight down the Kop, over the wall, on to the pitch and makes for Hodgson and the Bolton defender. It all happened so quickly. The next thing, my little mate's throwing punches at the big Bolton defender. Then a policeman comes diving on to the field, and my mate turns round and punches the policeman as well.

'Hang on a minute', he'd said. It was six months before I saw him again. He spent the night in the Bridewell and was in court first thing on the Monday morning. The magistrate gave him six months inside.

Billy O'Donnell Kopite

"There is more thought put into the game now then when I was playing. In my playing days we depended far more on individual skill than today's team-work. A player like Gordon Hodgson, for instance, had tremendous heading ability and we used to play to that."

Tom Bush on Gordon Hodgson in 1969

Scrapbook
Bok in the day - Liverpool match programme 1994
Bok in the day - Liverpool match programme 1994
Cigarette cards
Cigarette cards
Gordon Hodgson's death announced in the Echo in June 1951
Gordon Hodgson's death announced in the Echo in June 1951
Hodgson in new colours
Hodgson in new colours
I poached our record! says Roger Hunt - Football Monthly January 1969
I poached our record! says Roger Hunt - Football Monthly January 1969
Sketch from Liverpool Echo - 11 September 1926
Sketch from Liverpool Echo - 11 September 1926
Villa buy Hodgson
Villa buy Hodgson
Other Clubs
Club Season Club rank League apps League goals Total apps Total goals
Benoni 1919-1921 South Africa N/A N/A N/A N/A
Rustenburg 1921-1922 South Africa N/A N/A N/A N/A
Pretoria 1922-1924 South Africa N/A N/A N/A N/A
Transvaal 1924-1925 South Africa N/A N/A N/A N/A
Aston Villa 1935-1936 England First Division 15 4 15 4
Aston Villa 1936-1937 England Second Division 13 7 13 7
Leeds United 1936-1937 England First Division 13 6 13 6
Leeds United 1937-1938 England First Division 36 25 38 26
Leeds United 1938-1939 England First Division 32 20 34 21
Total 109 62 113 64