William "Bill" Eckersley (16 July 1925 – 25 October 1982) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

. He played as a fullback, spending his entire playing career at Blackburn Rovers

Blackburn Rovers F.C.

Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The team currently competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football....

.

Football career

Eckersley was born at Southport

Southport

Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...

 and after finishing school worked as a lorry driver. He was playing amateur football for High Park when he was spotted by a scout from Blackburn Rovers in November 1947. Although he retained his driving job, he signed as an amateur for Rovers later that month. He initially played in Rovers' reserves where his form was sufficiently good for him to be offered professional terms in March 1948.

He made his Football League debut in the final match of the 1947–48 season, with Blackburn already doomed to relegation. Although Blackburn were to spend the next ten seasons in the Second Division, Eckersley's consistent performances led to him being considered one of the best full-backs in the country, and despite not having made an international appearance he was taken with the England squad to the 1950 World Cup

1950 FIFA World Cup

The 1950 FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July, was the fourth FIFA World Cup. It was the first World Cup since 1938, the planned 1942 and 1946 competitions having been canceled owing to World War II...

 finals in Brazil, collecting his first cap in the final match against Spain

Spain national football team

The Spain national football team represents Spain in international association football and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Spain. The current head coach is Vicente del Bosque...

. Having lost to America, England needed to win this match to stay in the World Cup. Spain took the lead through centre-forward Telmo Zarra in the forty-seventh minute and then dropped back into deep defence. Even with Stanley Matthews

Stanley Matthews

Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE was an English footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the English game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers'...

 and Tom Finney

Tom Finney

Sir Thomas Finney, OBE is a former English footballer, famous for his loyalty to his league club, Preston North End, and for his performances in the English national side....

 operating, England could not make the breakthrough and their World Cup challenge was over. This was however the start of an international full-back pairing with Alf Ramsey

Alf Ramsey

Sir Alfred Ernest "Alf" Ramsey was an English footballer and manager of the English national football team from 1963 to 1974. His greatest achievement was winning the 1966 World Cup with England on 30 July 1966...

, with the pair making fifteen appearances together.

As Blackburn continued in their attempts to return to the First Division, Eckersley continued to give good service to both club and country, collecting a total of 17 caps, as well as three "B" caps and representing the Football League on six occasions. His final England appearance came on 25 November 1953

England v Hungary (1953)

England v Hungary was an international football game played on November 25, 1953. The game was played between Hungary - then the world's number one ranked team, the Olympic champions and on a run of 24 unbeaten games - and England, then the world's number three ranked team, the inventors of the...

 in a friendly against Hungary

Hungary national football team

The Hungary national football team represents Hungary in international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation....

. England lost the match 6–3, with Ferenc Puskás

Ferenc Puskás

Ferenc Puskás was a Hungarian footballer and manager. He scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary, and 514 goals in 529 matches in the Hungarian and Spanish leagues. He became Olympic champion in 1952 and was a World Cup finalist in 1954...

 scoring twice and Nándor Hidegkuti

Nándor Hidegkuti

Nándor Hidegkuti was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played as a forward or attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career at MTK Hungária FC. During the 1950s he was also a member of the Hungarian National Team team known as the Golden Team...

 converting a hat trick

Hat Trick

Hat trick, hat-trick or hattrick may refer to:* hat-trick — in various sports, achieving three goals, wickets, etc. in a single match* Hattrick — online football management game** Hattrick Limited — producers of this game...

. This was England's first defeat by foreign opponents on home territory, and the match changed the face of English football. As well as Eckersley, several other England players were never to represent their country, including Ramsey and Stan Mortensen

Stan Mortensen

Stanley Harding "Stan" Mortensen was an English professional footballer, most famous for his part in the 1953 FA Cup Final , in which he became the only player ever to score a hat-trick in a Wembley FA Cup Final...

.

Eckersley had the ability to dribble all the way up to the opposition penalty area. With superb ball control, he was able to let a player pass him; he would then extend his left leg behind the opponent and nick the ball away without fouling the opposing player, thus earning him the "telescopic leg" tag.

Blackburn finally returned to the First Division in 1958, enabling Eckersley to play one complete season in the top flight, although his better days were behind him. Although the club reached the final of the FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

 in 1960, Eckersley was not selected for the final, with Dave Whelan being preferred.

The following season, his career was ended by injury after over 430 first-team appearances for Blackburn, with 21 goals (of which 18 came from the penalty spot).

Later career

Following his retirement, a testimonial match

Testimonial match

A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, notably football and especially in the United Kingdom, where a club puts on a match in honour of a player for service to the club....

 was held at Ewood Park

Ewood Park

Ewood Park is a football stadium in the English town of Blackburn, Lancashire, and is the home of Blackburn Rovers Football Club — one of the founder members of the Football League and Premier League. Rovers have played there since they moved from Leamington Street in the summer of 1890. The...

 on 24 April 1961 which was attended by a crowd of 21,000.

He later ran a confectionery

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

 business and after this failed he worked as a taxi driver before returning to his first career as a lorry driver.

He died in October 1982 aged 57 and his ashes were scatttered around the pitch of Ewood Park by his sons prior to a match.

International appearances

Eckersley made 17 appearances for England in official international matches, as follows:

Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Goals	Competition
2 July 1950	Estádio do Maracanã Estádio do Maracanã The Estádio do Maracanã , officially Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, is an open-air stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Owned by the Rio de Janeiro State Government, it is named after the Maracanã neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro. It was opened in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup, and in the final... , Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...		0–1	0	1950 World Cup: Group 2
22 November 1950	Arsenal Stadium Arsenal Stadium Arsenal Stadium was a football stadium in Highbury, North London, which was the home ground of Arsenal Football Club between 6 September 1913 and 7 May 2006... , London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...		2–2	0	Friendly
14 April 1951	Wembley Stadium, London		2–3	0	British Home Championship 1951 British Home Championship The 1951 British Home Championship football tournament was the Home Nations follow-up to England's disastrous appearance at their first World Cup, the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. There the much vaunted English had been beaten by the USA and Spain. The Scots had refused to go, and the Welsh and...
9 May 1951	Wembley Stadium, London		2–1	0	Friendly
19 May 1951	Goodison Park Goodison Park Goodison Park is a football stadium located in Walton, Liverpool, England. The stadium has been home to Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892 and is one of the world's first purpose-built football grounds... , Liverpool Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...		5–2	0	Friendly
28 November 1951	Wembley Stadium, London		2–2	0	Friendly
25 May 1952	Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna Vienna Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...		3–2	0	Friendly
28 May 1952	Hardturm Hardturm The Hardturm was a football stadium located in Zurich's Kreis 5. Opened in 1929, it was the home of the Grasshopper-Club Zürich. It was a host stadium for the 1954 FIFA World Cup.... , Zürich Zürich Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...		3–0	0	Friendly
4 October 1952	Windsor Park Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland and the home ground of Linfield F.C. and the Northern Ireland national football team. It is also where the Irish Cup and Irish League Cup finals are played.-History:... , Belfast Belfast Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...		2–2	0	British Home Championship 1953 British Home Championship The 1953 British Home Championship was a football tournament played between the British Home Nations throughout the 1952–53 football season. The tournament saw a last minute goal by Lawrie Reilly in the final game at Wembley which salvaged a draw and thus a share in the trophy for Scotland...
17 May 1953	El Monumental, Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...		0–0	0	Friendly
24 May 1953	Estadio Nacional de Chile Estadio Nacional de Chile The Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos is the national stadium of Chile, and is located in the Ñuñoa district of Santiago). It is the largest stadium in Chile with an official capacity of 47,000, and is part of a 62 ha sporting complex which also features tennis courts, an aquatics center, a... , Santiago Santiago, Chile Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...		2–1	0	Friendly
31 May 1953	Estadio Centenario Estadio Centenario Estadio Centenario is a stadium in Parque Batlle, Montevideo, Uruguay, used primarily for football. The stadium was built between 1929 and 1930 to host the 1930 FIFA World Cup, as well as to commemorate the centennial of Uruguay's first constitution... , Montevideo Montevideo Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...		1–2	0	Friendly
8 June 1953	Polo Grounds Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963... , New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...		6–3	0	Friendly
10 October 1953	Ninian Park Ninian Park Ninian Park was a football stadium in Leckwith, Cardiff, Wales. Until 2009, it was the home ground of Cardiff City F.C., who compete in the English Football League Championship... , Cardiff Cardiff Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...		4–1	0	British Home Championship 1954 British Home Championship The 1954 British Home Championship was an international football tournament played between the British Home Nations during the 1953–54 season which also provided the home nations qualifying tournament for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Both England and Scotland qualified as first and second placed... 1954 World Cup qualifier
21 October 1953	Wembley Stadium, London	Rest of the World FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...	4–4	0	Friendly
11 November 1953	Goodison Park, Liverpool		3–1	0	British Home Championship 1954 World Cup qualifier
25 November 1953 England v Hungary (1953) England v Hungary was an international football game played on November 25, 1953. The game was played between Hungary - then the world's number one ranked team, the Olympic champions and on a run of 24 unbeaten games - and England, then the world's number three ranked team, the inventors of the...	Wembley Stadium, London		3–6	0	Friendly