Fred Hopkin
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Fred Hopkin (23 September 1895 - March, 1970), was a football player for Darlington, Man United and Liverpool.
[edit] Life and playing career
Hopkin was born in Dewsbury Yorkshire, England. The left-winger played for Darlington and bitter rivals Man United before he was signed for £2,800 by Liverpool manager David Ashworth in May 1921, he made his debut on the 27th August 1921 at Roker Park, unfortunately it wasn't the debut he would have envisaged as Sunderland beat Liverpool 3-0. Hopkin had to wait until the 3rd March 1923 for his debut goal, it came in the 49th minute of the game against Bolton at Anfield, a game that the Reds won 3-0. The goal will always be remembered in Anfield folklore as it was followed by a fire in the Kemlyn Road stand, thankfully no-one was injured but to say the event was 'weird' is an understatement.
Less than a year after he had joined, Fred and the rest of Liverpool were celebrating a League Championship win as they won the title with 57 points 6 more than second placed Spurs, 3 wins in the old 2 point system. He was, again, celebrating at the end of the following campaign (1922/23) as they clinched the title once more to claim back-to-back titles, this time they acquired 60 points beating Sunderland into second by the same 6 point margin..
With the likes of Harry Chambers and Dick Forshaw to aim for it didn't matter too much that Fred wasn't the most prolific in front of goal, but without the craft of players such as Hopkin both Chambers and Forshaw would have not have scored as many goals as they did and the Reds wouldn't have won the Championships they did.
Hopkin remained a regular starter for the club and quickly put together 360 appearances for Liverpool, it helped his cause that he stayed relatively injury free during his time at Anfield, in-fact he was an ever present during the first title winning season and missed just 2 of the 42 league matches in the second.
Another 'unusual' event occurred in Hopkin's career during his time at Old Trafford, United were given a fine of £350, their crime was the scandal of paying Fred more than the maximum wage and for promising to give Fred a percentage of his transfer fee which was illegal, this showed how much United thought of Hopkin. How times have changed today Hopkin would probably be amongst the high earners, have a cut of any signing on fees and doing it legally.
Hopkin, although held in high esteem by both Man United and Liverpool, never gained international recognition, unusual considering the amount of goals he created in Liverpool's two championship winning seasons..
Fred was allowed to leave Liverpool in 1931, he rejoined Darlington for a second spell, this after playing 359 times for the Reds scoring just 11 goals.
[edit] Career details
- Manchester United F.C. (? - 1921) ? appearances ? goals
- Liverpool F.C. (1921 - 1931) 359 appearances, 11 goals - Two Football League First Division (Level 1) championship winners medals (1922 and 1923)
