Hallam Jack Image 1 Birmingham City 1895

Description

Oswestry, Shropshire born outside right Jack Hallam began his football career with Oswestry Town in 1885 and had a season at Oswestry Crescent in 1887 before returning to Oswestry Town in 1888. While with Oswestry Town he won international honours for Wales, playing in a 4-1 defeat to England at The Victoria Ground, Stoke on 23rd February 1889. A report of the match said that Hallam “showed great speed but was evidently nervous and hesitated too much”.

In 1890, he moved to Small Heath (the club which later became Birmingham/Birmingham City), then playing in the Football Alliance, and made more than 150 appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring more than 50 goals for the club. Two years later when Small Heath joined the Football League, he played in their inaugural League match in the Second Division, scoring in a 5-1 win over Burslem Port Vale in September 1892.

The strength of Hallam’s game lay in his speed, and he formed fine partnerships on the right side with both Charlie Short and Billy Walton. In Small Heath’s first League season, they won the inaugural Second Division Championship; Hallam contributed 17 goals, including a hat-trick in a 6-2 win over Bootle in February 1893, and was only outscored by future England international Fred Wheldon, although they missed out on promotion in the Test Match series. He also helped them to runners-up spot and promotion to the First Division the following year, scoring in their Test Match win over Darwen, and he played a further 18 months in the top flight, scoring 36 goals in 91 League and FA Cup appearances during their League era.

He then moved to Southern League Swindon Town in 1896, where he played single season scoring 5 goals in 16 appearances, followed by a season with Trowbridge Town in the Western League, before returning to Swindon for a final season in their Western League team, scoring once in 2 appearances in 1898-99 before his retirement.