March 31, 1928: The Wembley Wizards

March 31, 1928: Every now and then, the English, who endlessly remind the Scots, the Germans, the Americans, and whoever else will listen that they invented "football" (soccer), and only they can truly play it, get a very rude reminder that this is not true. This was one of the earliest such reminders.

From 1884 to 1984, the British Home Championship was contested between the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland -- and then, after the 1921 Partition of Ireland, between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The tournament was stopped in 1984, due to the rising hooliganism in British soccer.

Scotland had failed to win either of their previous matches in the 1928 Home Championship, losing 1–0 to Ireland and Hampden Park in Glasgow, and drawing 2–2 with Wales at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham. (Wrexham? Damn near killed 'em.)

But England had been worse: They lost 2-0 to Ireland at Windsor Park in Belfast, and 2-1 to Wales at Turf Moor in Burnley. England had won only once against Scotland in the 1920s, a 2-1 win at Hampden in the 1927 Home Championship. Still, the belief held that England, as the sport's inventors and evangelists, were the be-all, the know-all, and the end-all of the sport.

Scotland decided to warm up for their Home Championship match with England at Wembley Stadium in London with a special match: "Anglos and Home Scots." In other words, one team of players who had left Scotland to play in England's Football League, and one team of players that had stayed home to play in the Scottish Football League. That game was played on March 13 at Hampden Park, and ended 1-1.

From this game, the 11 players who would play for Scotland against England were taken. But it seemed a mismatch. Of the 5 forwards selected, none was taller than 5-foot-7. Four English players were playing for the top team in the League at the time, Huddersfield Town. Another, William "Dixie" Dean, who played for Liverpool side Everton, was putting together the greatest individual season any player has ever had in the League: 60 goals. And Everton would catch Huddersfield and win the League title.

There were 11 trains hired to take fans from Glasgow to London the day before the game. When morning broke, it was pouring rain, which would leave the pitch soaked, exactly the kind of conditions that would favor the smaller Scots.

The rain kept the crowd down only slightly, as 80,868 people filed into the 100,000-seat Wembley. England wore white shirts with navy blue shorts, Scotland the reverse. Here's the Scotland lineup that would become known as "The Wembley Wizards," keeping in mind that uniform numbers were not yet worn:

* Goalkeeper: Jack Harkness, Queen's Park (Glasgow)

* Right Back: James Nelson, Cardiff City (Wales)

* Left Back: Tommy Law, Chelsea (West London)

* Right Half: Jimmy Gibson, Aston Villa (Birmingham)

* Center Half: Tom Bradshaw, Bury (Manchester area)

* Left Half: Jimmy McMullan, Manchester City, Captain

* Right Wing: Alex Jackson, Huddersfield Town

* Inside Right: James Dunn, Hibernian (a.k.a. Hibs, Edinburgh)

* Centre Forward: Hughie Gallacher, Newcastle United (North-East0

* Inside Left: Alex James, Preston North End (Lancashire)

* Left Wing: Alex Morton, Rangers (Glasgow)

That's right: Of the starting XI, only 3 were playing for teams in Scotland's league. The rest were playing in England's, including Nelson, as Cardiff City were, and remain, one of a few teams in Wales that compete in England's League.

The game kicked off at 12:30 PM, London time, and just 3 minutes in, one of the Huddersfield players scored -- but it was Scotland's Huddersfield player, Jackson, with a header off a cross from Alan Morton of Glasgow team Rangers. (Jackson had played the 1923-24 season in America, for one of the best U.S. sides of that era, Bethlehem Steel.)

Things settled down after that, but Scotland's wide play on the waterlogged grass wore the England players down. Just before halftime, James, the diminutive forward who would later star for North London team Arsenal, put the ball past England's goalkeeper, Ted Hufton of East London team West Ham United. It was 2-0 Scotland at the half.

In the 66th minute, there was a reprise of the 1st goal, as Morton put in a cross that Jackson headed in. In the 74th, Gallacher set James up for his 2nd goal. Jackson scored in the 8th, his 3rd, Scotland's 5th. Harkness had kept a clean sheet in goal for Scotland, until the very end, when Bob Kelly of Huddersfield scored a consolation goal.

Scotland 5, England 1. James said after the game, "We could have had 10." Jimmy McMullan of Manchester City, Scotland's Captain, said:

I want to emphasize that all our forwards are inherently clever... But I wish to say that the English tactics were wrong. The Saxon wing-halves paid more attention to the wingers than the inside forwards, therefore the latter were given a lot of space. It is a common thing in England to let wing halves, and not fullbacks, mark the wingers. It doesn’t pay, and I don’t know why they pursue it.

In a booklet published by the stadium owners in 1945, the story was told as follows: 

English football fans shudder when the year 1928 is mentioned. The traditional enemy, Scotland came to Wembley and gave the Sassenachs a first class lesson in the art of playing football. So much so that, to this day, that Scottish team is still spoken of as "The Wembley Wizards." 

All Scotland seemed to come to town for that match, and the fans actually brought their own scaling ladders to make sure of getting into the stadium. As a result of this, Wembley afterwards became a barbed wire fortress.

Sadly, some of the Scottish players met sad ends. Jackson survived serving in World War II, but hadn't yet been discharged in 1946, when he was killed in a traffic accident in Egypt. He was only 41. James died of cancer at only 52. And Gallacher was despondent over his domestic situation, and committed suicide in 1957, only 54.

*

March 31, 1928 was a Saturday. Hockey legend Gordie Howe and country music legend William "Lefty" Frizzell were both born on this day.

Baseball was in Spring Training. American football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins played to a 1-1 tie -- that was possible under the rules of the time -- at the then-relatively-new building that would later be known as the old Madison Square Garden. And the 2 Montreal teams, the Cnaadiens and the Maroons, played to a 2-2 tie at the Montreal Forum.