The moment Port Vale’s greatest goalscorer called it a day
At 32 years of age, Wilf Kirkham still had a couple of years to add to his incredible goal tally for the club – but on August 2nd 1933 he decided to call it a day. We reveal the reason why…
The locally born forward had netted 164 Vale goals but in his latter years the striker had to eventually make a decision between playing and teaching and decided that it would be teaching that would take preference.
This article is from the August 2nd 1933 edition of the Birmingham Mail. Thanks to Kev Walshaw for sending it to us.
All about Wilf Kirkham
Unique video from our OVF YouTube channel showing Kirkham in action
- Born on the 26th November 1901 in Cobridge
- Made his Port Vale debut on 27 October 1923
- Split his time between playing and teaching
- Top-scorer for five consecutive seasons
- Two spells with the club and another with Stoke City
- Overall, he was top scorer in six seasons
- Holds four goalscoring records for the club
- Holds record of most goals in a season (41 in 1926-27)
- Scored 13 competitive hat-tricks
- His overall record was 164 goals (153 in the League)
Rob James
7th December 2020 @ 9:14 am
So proud to see this. His daughter is still alive and I’m his grandson. I still have his England medal