JOHN CAMERON

Who is he? 

John Cameron was born in Glasgow on April 13th 1872. He played football for Ayr Parkhouse (see below)* and then was taken in by Queen's Park. He became one of the Scottish immigrants to invade the North-west of England when he joined Everton and played 42 games for the Toffees before moving south to Spurs.

He played 111 times for Tottenham and scored 43 goals as well as playing for Scotland.

In 1899 he was made player-manager at Tottenham taking the Spurs to a Southern League title in 1900 (remember Spurs were not a Football League at this time) and the famous FA Cup win over Sheffield United in 1901.

As a non F.L. Club this was a first, having held the fully established "Blades" to a 2-2 draw, his team winning 3-1 in the replay.

Cameron scored the winner when Spurs met Sunderland in the earlier Cup round and this made Spurs the first club from a lower division to come from behind and beat top flight opposition. In the final he scored the opening goal in their 3-1 victory. Spurs were well under Cameron's mangership by now and they went on to be runners in the Southern League in 1902 and 1904. 

In 1902 he led Spurs to victory over the Corinthians in the Sheriff of London's Shield a cup competition run for charity, one of the prestigious tournaments at the time. Spurs won 5-2, some feat in those days. He resigned from his Spurs' post in March 1907.

By now he had become secretary of the Association Footballers' Union, a fore-runner of the PFA. He then went to Germany to coach at Dresden SC but was caught up in the First World War when he was imprisoned at Ruhleben Camp. He organised football in the camp and with Steve bloomer, John Breerley also of Spurs and a few other pros, he sorted out a Rest of the World v England match to raise morale. This was held on May 2nd 1915. 

After the war Cameron found himself back in Scotland acting as player manager at Ayr United before he went into journalism in 1919.

*Ayr Parkhouse was formed in 1886 and took its name from the Parkhouse farmhouse where the club's players trained. William Frew, a centre-forward for Parkhouse, was actually the son of the farmer who owned it. They initially played their home games at Ballantine Drive, before moving to the Ayr Racecourse ground, now known as the Old Racecourse, turning professional in 1905. They were admitted to membership of the SFL in 1897. 

Ayr Parkhouse's ambitions were beginning to outgrow their local successes and the club's early "amateurness" that fuelled hostility to membership of the professional, Scottish Football League, was waning. In 1901, they unsuccessfully applied for membership, but, after finishing second in the Scottish Amateur Football League, they managed to get elected to full league status in 1903, just ahead of St Johnstone. Their initial season in the League was a disaster. They finished bottom of Division Two and therefore had to reapply for membership, but they declined to do so. Aberdeen were elected instead.

After two seasons out of the League, playing instead in the Scottish Football Combination, Ayr Parkhouse were accepted back into the Second Division. This was in 1906. The club performed without much distinction in the following four seasons. At the end of the 1909-10 season. Ayr and Ayr Parkhouse merged to form Ayr United.

He died in Glasgow on April 20th 1935.