Early Life and Playing Career
Charles Clegg was the son of Mary and William Johnson Clegg, who would go on to have a total of 6 children. His father was a trainee solicitor at the time of Charles' birth. Two years later he became a highway rate collector but re-entered the profession after the Great Sheffield Flood in 1864. He prepared claims against the water company responsible. This would lead to him to become a fully qualified solicitor and found his own firm, which became known as Clegg & Sons. He would also go on to be mayor of Sheffield three times.
Charles joined his father's law firm after leaving school and would eventually become a solicitor in 1872. In the same year he married Mary Sykes with whom he would have 3 children. Both Charles and his brother were noted athletes with a flair for football. Charles was also an outstanding runner winning prizes at the 100 yards sprint and the quarter mile. Locally he played for Sheffield F.C., Perseverance and Broomhill but his favoured club became Sheffield Wednesday.
He and his brother represented the Sheffield Association the first inter-association match against the FA at Bramall Lane on 2 December 1871, won 3-1 by Sheffield, and would become a regular feature in inter-association matches.
The highlight of his career came when he represented England in the first international played on 30 November 1872. However he did not enjoy the experience later stating that his team mates were 'snobs from the south who had no use for a lawyer from Sheffield'. This would prove to be the only cap that he would earn. He and William would go on to become the first brothers to win English caps when his brother earned his first cap the next year.
In the Football Annual of 1875 by Charles Alcock, he was described as "very fast with the ball, passing it with great judgment and, when within sight of the enemy's goal-posts, an unerring kick."
Towards the end of his career he earned one last distinction. When it was decided to experiment with the first floodlit match he and his brother were chosen to captain the two sides involved. On the night of 15 October 1878 a crowd of 20,000 turned up at Bramall Lane to see the Reds (captained by Charles) beaten by the Blues 2-0. The game was declared a huge success.
Read more about this topic: John Charles Clegg
Famous quotes containing the words early, life, playing and/or career:
“We have been told over and over about the importance of bonding to our children. Rarely do we hear about the skill of letting go, or, as one parent said, that we raise our children to leave us. Early childhood, as our kids gain skills and eagerly want some distance from us, is a time to build a kind of adult-child balance which permits both of us room.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion (20th century)
“But that beginning was wiped out in fear
The day I swung suspended with the grapes,
And was come after like Eurydice
And brought down safely from the upper regions;
And the life I live nows an extra life
I can waste as I please on whom I please.”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“Im fed up! Fed up playing Greek chorus to your rehearsed nightmare!”
—Samuel Fuller (b. 1911)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows whats good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)