Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Thomas Cooper | ||
Date of birth | 9 April 1904 | ||
Place of birth | Stoke-on-Trent, England | ||
Date of death | 25 June 1940 | (aged 36)||
Place of death | Aldeburgh, England | ||
Playing position | Right-back | ||
Youth career | |||
Longton | |||
Trentham | |||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
1924–1926 | Port Vale | 32 | (0) |
1926–1934 | Derby County | 248 | (1) |
1934–1940 | Liverpool | 150 | (0) |
Total | 430 | (1) | |
National team | |||
1927–1934 | England | 15 | (0) |
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
Thomas "Tom" Cooper (9 April 1904 – 25 June 1940) was an England international footballer who played for Derby and Liverpool.
Contents |
Born in Stoke-on-Trent, Cooper played for Longton and then Trentham before being bought by Port Vale for £20 in August 1924. A regular in the side until September 1925, he regained his first team spot in December 1925, but was sold to George Jobey's Derby County for a £2,500 fee in March 1926 after impressing in an FA Cup tie between the two clubs.[1]
He settled straight into The Rams line-up and became an integral member of the team, so-much-so he was eventually made skipper in 1931. After 267 appearances for Derby, Liverpool manager George Patterson paid £7,500 in December 1934 for the 30 year old's services.[2]
He immediately made his debut on 8 December in an away fixture at Stamford Bridge; Chelsea spoilt the day for Cooper by humbling the Reds 4–1. Cooper failed to hit the target for his new club (after only scoring once for Derby)[2] although he was an excellent defender who was one of the toughest tacklers in the game. He wasn't just a stopper, his passing was of the highest order.
His Anfield career was pretty much the same as his Derby days, as he became a regular starter from day one, he missed just two of the remaining fixtures of the 1934–35 season and featured in 127 of the 168 games over the following four campaigns.[3]
Cooper had amassed 160 appearances up to the end of the 1939–40 before World War II interrupted his career. His last competitive game was a league game at Anfield, Chelsea were the visitors and the Reds won 1–0 with a goal from débutante Cyril Done. The league was then called to a halt because of the war, with regional leagues being set up around the country. Cooper's last match in a red shirt was at Gresty Road on 22 March 1940 in a 6–3 victory over Crewe in the Western Division. Cooper also played for Wrexham as a wartime guest.[2]
The Football Association saw his quality at Derby and selected him to represent England 15 times, his first cap came on 22 October 1927 in a British Home Championship match at Windsor Park Belfast, Northern Ireland were the hosts and won the game 2–0.[3]
Cooper was given the ultimate honour of captaining his country twice in his last two appearances for England; the first time was against Czechoslovakia on 16 May 1934, the Czechs won the game 2–1. He would surely have been selected to play even more representative matches if it hadn't been for injuries, including having both knee cartilages removed.[3]
Like so many of his peers Cooper enlisted in the armed forces joining the Royal Military Police.[2] In June 1940, Cooper was out on his despatch motorcycle when he collided with a lorry; he died in the accident.[3] An enquiry took place into his death with the outcome being an order that stated despatch riders were no longer allowed to ride their motorcycles without wearing a crash helmet.[2]
Thomas Cooper may refer to:
Tom Cooper (1874–1906) was an 1890s champion bicycle racer and early auto racing driver. He is best known for his rivalry with Major Taylor as well as his later work with Henry Ford and Barney Oldfield.
Tom Cooper began his cycling career in Detroit, where he was the star of the Detroit Athletic Club's bicycle racing team. His talent and athletic ability soon made him a national celebrity in the US as he climbed to the top of the sport. As a champion bicycle racer, Cooper was a contemporary of Barney Oldfield, Carl G. Fisher, Johnny Johnson, Arthur Gardiner, "Plugger Bill" Martin and Eddie Bald.
At the 1898 League of American Wheelmen championship race on the Newby Oval in Indianapolis, Cooper won the half-mile professional event. He went on to win the Bicycle Championship of America for the 1899 season. Cooper was instrumental in the formation of the American Racing Cyclists Union in 1898, a rival to the League of American Wheelmen.
Cooper, like many bicycle racers at the time such as Fisher and Oldfield, was drawn to the nascent automobile industry in the early 1900s. The gears and chains of bicycles were the heart of the powertrains of the earliest automobiles.
Tom Lexely William Cooper (born 26 November 1986) is an Australian-born Netherlands cricketer who also plays for South Australia. He is a right-handed middle order batsman and a right-arm off-spinner, has represented Australia Under-19s and is nicknamed Coops. He is the older brother of fellow Netherlands cricketer Ben Cooper.
Cooper first played for South Australia in a Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia at Adelaide Oval, scoring 10 in South Australia's only innings. He then made his one-day debut for South Australia against Western Australia in a Ford Ranger Cup match at Adelaide Oval, scoring 53 from 67 deliveries. In his fourth one day match he scored his first century against New South Wales for South Australia which he made 101 from only 108 deliveries.
Cooper qualified to play for the Netherlands as his mother was born in Dutch New Guinea. After playing for the Netherlands during their 2010 Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign in England, he made his One Day International debut for the Netherlands in a match against Scotland, in which he scored an unbeaten 80 to help his side to a six-wicket victory in Rotterdam.