Archibald "Archie" Hunter (23 September 1859, Joppa, nr. Ayr, Scotland – 29 November 1894, Aston, Birmingham, England), was the first captain of Aston Villa to lift the FA Cup, in 1887. He was one of Victorian football's first household names.
Hunter played at Third Lanark, Ayr Thistle, and Aston Villa (August 1878). His Aston Villa career began 10 years before the commencement of the first Football League season. In his league career (1888–1891) he played 73 matches scoring 42 goals.
Despite being one of the greats of the 19th century game, Hunter never fulfilled his dream of playing for Scotland against England. This is because at the time the Scottish Football Association had a policy of not picking 'Anglo-Scots' (i.e. Scots who played in the English League).
Legend has it that Hunter originally came to Birmingham planning to sign for Calthorpe FC, but after failing to locate them was persuaded to sign for Villa instead by George Ramsay.
He became the first player to score in every round of the FA Cup in Villa's victorious 1887 campaign.
During a Football League match against Everton in 1890 Hunter suffered a heart attack and collapsed. He never played again, and died at the age of 35. It is said that, on his death-bed, he asked to be lifted up one last time to see the crowd going to Perry Barr (then Villa's home).
His brother Andy also played for Villa, and scored their first ever FA Cup goal.
In 1998, Archie Hunter was inducted into the English Football League's list of 100 legends.
The headstone on his grave reads:
| “ | This monument is erected in loving memory of Archie Hunter, the famous captain of Aston Villa, by his football comrades and the club as a lasting tribute to his ability on the field and his sterling worth as a man. | ” |
Famous quotes containing the word hunter:
“There was the murdered corpse, in covert laid,
And violent death in thousand shapes displayed;
The city to the soldier’s rage resigned;
Successless wars, and poverty behind;
Ships burnt in fight, or forced on rocky shores,
And the rash hunter strangled by the boars;
The newborn babe by nurses overlaid;
And the cook caught within the raging fire he made.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)