Frank Taylor (footballer, born 1916)

Frank Taylor

Personal information
Full name	Frank Taylor[1]
Date of birth	30 April 1916[1]
Place of birth	Hemsworth, England[1]
Date of death	January 1970[1]
Playing position	Full-back
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1936–1944	Wolverhampton Wanderers	48	(0)
Teams managed
1948–1950	Scarborough
1952–1960	Stoke City
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Frank Taylor (30 April 1916 – 1970) was an English footballer and manager who played in the Football League for Wolverhampton Wanderers and managed Scarborough and Stoke City.^[1]

Playing career

Taylor was a full-back who started his playing career with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1936. He made his senior debut on 13 March 1937 in a 1–0 win at Chelsea. He played in the same team as his older brother Jack a handful of times, but it was only after his sibling left the club in Summer 1938 that Frank became a first team regular.

He missed just one game of the 1938–39 season that saw Wolves reach the 1939 FA Cup Final, where they lost 4–1 to Portsmouth at Wembley. The suspension of league football in September 1939 due to the outbreak of World War II effectively ended Taylor's playing career. Although he turned out in some wartime fixtures for Wolves, he left the club and playing football in 1944.^[1]

Management career

In June 1948 he was appointed manager of Scarborough, and then became Frank Buckley's assistant at Hull City, also doing a similar role at Leeds United before becoming Stoke City manager in 1952.^[1]

Taylor had the tough task of taking over from the long serving Bob McGrory who had been at Stoke for 31 years as a player and manager.^[1] The first act Taylor did was to erect a sign above the players dressing room which read: Are you 90 minutes fit? It's the last 20 minutes that count – train for it.^[1] In his first season Stoke were relegated from the First Division after losing their final match of the season.^[1] Taylor's main task now was to gain a return to the top tier but narrowly missed out in 1954–55, 1956–57 and 1958–59 finishing 5th three times. But after an awful 1959–60 campaign which saw Stoke finish in 17th position and could have been relegated to the third tier, chairman Albert Henshall decided that Stoke were going backwards and not forwards and so Taylor was sacked.^[1] This came as a big shock to Taylor who vowed never to become involved with football again.^[1]

Career statistics

As a player

• Sourced from Frank Taylor profile at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Wolverhampton Wanderers	1936–37	First Division	5	0	0	0	5	0
	1937–38	First Division	2	0	0	0	2	0
	1938–39	First Division	41	0	6	0	47	0
Career Total			48	0	6	0	54	0

As a manager

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %
Stoke City[1]	June 1952	June 1960	362	146	79	137	40.33

Honours

Wolverhampton Wanderers

• FA Cup runner-up: 1939

References

1. Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.