Fulham player at the 1900 Paris Olympics? – Confirmed

[upfc]

I am seeking a Fulham football historian who would kindly volunteer to help in some research for a forthcoming book on British Olympic Champions.  

The book is being written by sports author, Ian Morrison, and I am assisting him with information on the 1900 British Football team.  Accompanying the book is a website:
http://gbolympics.co.uk/contents.html

We need someone with access to the Fulham Complete Record to look up and scan some information for us.

We have good reason to believe that Fred Spackman, a Fulham player from 1899 to 1904, was the same FG Spackman who appeared for Great Britain in the 1900 Paris Olympics.  Great Britain was represented by Upton Park Football Club, a famous amateur club of those times (no association with West Ham United FC).

The Upton Park team beat the French team 4-0 in Paris in September 1900.  The game was later recognised by the International Olympic Committee as being the gold medal event – though no medal was ever actually awarded.  The Upton Park team was on a tour at the time that took in the West Country, the Channels Islands, and France.  Some of their players were guest players who only appeared on the tour games.  It is believed that Fred Spackman was one of these players.

If anyone with access to the Fulham Complete Record would like to help out, please pm me for details.  

I am sure the author will acknowledge the help in his book and I look forward to hearing from you.

UPFC

[LBNo11]

...Fulham Facts and Figures 1879 - 1998 (Dennis Turner and Alex White ISBN 1-900711-08-7) shows that F.G. (Frederick George) Spackman was born in Sharncliffe, Kent July 1878 and was signed from QPR in November 1899. He left the club in 1904 and not as a transfer to another club. In addition to this in Alex White's book 'Fulham FC 1879-1979 (ISBN 978-0-7524-4450-5 see page 11 top photo) during Fred Spackman's Fulham career, in 1901-02 he was in a team photograph with Harry Spackman who look like they must be brothers rather than there being a coincidence, this may help your research if they were in fact brothers.

I will have a look at other records and see if I can find anything else...

[upfc]

Thanks for that LBNo11 - you have mail.

Yes, Fred and Harry Spackman were brothers and I read from the foundation history pages that they joined Fulham at the same time.  It would be good if we could get a copy image of the team photo you mentioned.

Thanks again for the info.

upfc

[upfc]

Just to conclude this thread we can confirm that the Fulham player Fred Spackman did play for Upton Park at the 1900 Paris Olympics.

After a couple of weeks of gathering good evidence we have uncovered an obituary in the Times (1st June 1942) which confirmed that Fred Spackman played football for Upton Park, and also for Fulham in the old Southern League.

In September 1900 Spackman joined the Upton Park club for it's tour of the Channel Islands and France.  Amongst other appearances, he played in the Paris game on 20 September, making his mark in football history. 

After finishing the tour, he was back playing for Fulham in the Southern League on 6 October.

My special thanks to Alex White and also to LBNo11 and Dennis Turner for their assistance with this project.

Cheers

UPFC
   

[ron]

Shucks, I had my money on a certain G. Karagounis.

But I was getting mixed up....he was the bloke who outpaced Pheidippides on the run from marathon a few years earlier... :022: