McQuillan Jack Image 3 Hull City 1912

Description

Boldon Colliery, Northumberland born left back Jack McQuillan started his football career with Jarrow Town and joined First Division Everton in 1905, spending a season at Goodison Park but never making the first team. He moved to Second Division  club Hull City in October 1906 and made his Football League debut at Lincoln City the next month, soon establishing himself as a consistent performer and near ever present. It was said that he “was a model of consistency and reliability. Making his debut whilst still a teenager, the left-back position became virtually his second home and his nimble footed displays earned the respect of both his team mates and opponents.”

He was a stalwart of the City team for eight years as they manfully, but fruitlessly, pursued their ambition of promotion to the First Division, only once failing to finish in the top half of the table. Hull came within a whisker of achieving their goal in 1910; a sequence of five wins and one draw saw them head the Division Two table in the autumn. A defeat at home to eventual champions Manchester City preceded a dip in form, but they maintained their promotion chase, building on a defence that was rated one of the best in the division, with McQuillan a mainstay. City went into the final game of the season in second place, needing a win at Oldham to guarantee promotion. The Latics were two points behind Hull, but with a better goal average, while Derby sat between the two clubs.

The Tigers went into the match on the back of a 12-game unbeaten run, but the influential McQuillan was missing just his second match of the campaign, and Oldham gave City a battering. The home side took the lead after eighteen minutes and added a second goal seven minutes later; the scorer was former Hull man Alf Toward, who had been allowed to leave Anlaby Road earlier in the campaign because of the embarrassment of forward riches at City’s disposal. Oldham made it 3-0 with ten minutes of the game remaining to wrap up the points and secure promotion by dint of a superior goal average. The Tigers finished third, a status they failed to match for the 98 desperate years that were to follow.

He remained at Anlaby Road for almost eight seasons, an ever present in 1912-13, scoring three times in 257 appearances. He lost his place in The Tigers’ line up in October 1913 and joined Second Division Leeds City in July 1914 for £100. His stay at Elland Road was cut short by the the onset of the First World War which forced the suspension of peacetime football in May 1915, and he made just twenty League appearances for The Peacocks. He guested with Fulham and Hull City in wartime football and retired from playing before Football League fixtures recommenced. He remained associated with Hull City and scouted for them until the 1930’s.