Jacobs FC
Like most football clubs that were founded back at
the start of the 1900s, this one that we are about to tell the story of started
off as a factory team. Unlike nowadays, football was just a hobby for men, a
means of escaping the reality of real life, ninety minutes of being someone
other than a labourer or an ordinary man who struggled to put food on the table
for his family. Football was something special for those who were deemed good
enough to play it at the highest level back in the day. This club, although not
as successful as others, still has its piece of history in the League of
Ireland, as it is one of the founding members of the league. One of eight
clubs, all Dublin based, it will always have that claim and contribution to the
history of football on this island. But the name is something that you would
never associate with football and more associated with a lunch box rather than
the eighteen yard box. The club was simply named after the company its players
worked for, like St James Gate and Fordsons, but unlike those two clubs it
failed to win any silverware while taking part in the League of Ireland. But
that is the case with a lot of these early clubs, as the league was dominated
by the ‘Big Three’ for so many years, Shamrock Rovers, Bohemians FC and
Shelbourne FC, and like most, this club also didn’t pass the test of time. Out
of the eight founding members of the League of Ireland only two remain,
Bohemians and Shelbourne, so it’s no surprise this club isn’t playing in our
league today. In fact, this club no longer exists at all in any shape or form.
So, pour yourself a cup of tea and grab a packet of biscuits, because this is
the story of Jacobs FC. It’s a cracker.
Based in Crumlin, Co Dublin, Jacobs FC was formed in 1914 and competed in the
Leinster Junior League. The club played their games at Rutland Avenue and
gained the nickname ‘The Rednecks’ due to the fact their players would support
red necks from carrying bags of flour around their necks all day whilst in work
in the factory. The club failed to set the world alight, with limited success,
notably making it to the IFA Junior Cup final in the 1916-17 season, only to
lose to the Royal Irish Rifles in the final. But it wasn’t the story of what
the club did on the pitch that gained them publicity. During the 1919-1920
season, while the Irish War of Independence was going on, Jacobs FC had there
own battles going on with another Dublin club, Olympia.
The political aspect of this rivalry probably warrants a whole blog post of its
own, and so we will just concentrate on the football part here. With tensions
high around the country, it seemed to boil over on the football pitch between
the two sides. Olympia players had allegedly taunted the Jacobs players about
their connections with the British Army.
The Jacobs players did not take this well and after the game some of the
Jacobs players decided to invade the dressing room of their opponents and
attack them. Despite all the troubles going on in the country at the time, this
was not acceptable behaviour and certainly didn’t belong within football. After
a meeting and a hearing was held by the leagues committee, bans were issued out
to players on both sides and lengthy bans they were.
Jacobs player Stephen Boyne and Olympia’s Mick Chadwick both received six month
bans, while Jacobs E. Boyne received a three month ban. Both clubs were issued
warnings about their future conduct, especially when playing each other, but it
was clear that Irelands first football rivalry had been born.
That incident, however, didn’t hamper the clubs chances of being one of eight
clubs to found the League of Ireland and in 1922, they alongside fellow Dublin
clubs, Bohemians, Shelbourne, St James Gate, Frankfort, YMCA, Dublin United and
rivals Olympia, they began their League of Ireland story. In 1921-22 the club
once again reached a cup final, the Leinster Senior Cup final, but once again
they lost out, this time to St James Gate FC, 1-0. St James Gate of course went
on to win the treble, winning the first League of Ireland title and FAI Cup.
In the first season the club finished a respectable 5th place, although
bitter rivals Olympia finished one place and two points above in 4th. They did
however get the better of their rivals when playing them, recording a 2-1 home
win and drawing the away game 2-2. The club had won four, drawn four and lost
six. For one individual in the Jacobs squad it was a very good season. Patrick
Smith finished second top goal scorer In the league with ten goals in total,
only one behind top goal scorer, St James Gate's, Jack Kelly with eleven.
The second season saw the league expand to twelve teams, and Jacobs FC
finished 7th place, winning six, drawing eight and losing eight. The highlight
of the season for the Rednecks came when they beat Midland Athletic 8-1.
The club spent ten years in the League of Ireland,
with their best finish coming in the 1923-24 season when they finished 3rd,
behind first time champions, Bohemians FC and Shelbourne FC, beating the latter
2-1 at home. The club that season won eleven drew two and lost five. And again
their biggest win of the season came against Midland Athletic, thrashing them
this time, 7-1.
The fourth season, 1924-1925, saw the club finish 5th, winning eight,
drawing 1 and losing nine. The club’s results were varied to say the least.
While they recorded big wins against Brooklyn (6-2) and Pioneers (6-1), they
also suffered a heavy defeat to Bohemians (5-0) and lost the away fixture to
Brooklyn FC (3-1).
The 1925-26 season saw much of the same. The club
finished 5th, winning seven, drawing four and losing seven. The club suffered
an embarrassing 8-0 defeat to eventual champions Shelbourne, although Shels had
also put eight past Pioneers without reply that season as well, so Jacobs
shouldn’t have felt too badly.
The sixth season, 1926-27, saw the club finish 7th, winning five, drawing three
and losing ten. Once again Jacobs were thrashed by their Dublin rivals,
Shelbourne, 6-2 away and 4-0 in the home game, but it was Shamrock Rovers who
collected their 3rd title that year.
Things got worse for Jacobs the next season, 1927-28, when the club finished
8th, only winning two of their 18 games, drawing five and losing eleven. And
again, the club suffered the biggest away defeat of the season and yes, you
have guessed it, it was handed out by Shelbourne, (7-0). They also lost to
Shels 5-0 in the home game.
The 1928-29 season saw the club finish 9th, winning only two games again,
drawing six and losing ten. The club then hit rock bottom a season later,
1929-30, when they finished last in the ten team league, winning no games that
season, drawing three and losing fifth teen, shipping a whopping 76 goals in 18
games and only scoring 23.
It didn’t get any better the next season, 1930-31 when they finished
last of twelve, winning only once all season, drawing two and losing nineteen.
Again, their defence leaked a serious amount of goals, 72 and their strikers
could only muster up 21 goals in the 22 games.
The next season proved to be third time unlucky as
they finished bottom again for the third consecutive season, winning only once,
drawing three and losing eighteen. And if you thought the defence had been bad
the previous two seasons they were not as bad as what turned out to be the
clubs final season in the League of Ireland, conceding a whopping 90 league
goals in 22 games, only scoring 15 in reply. It had been clear that the club
would not be re-elected for the next season and so ended their ten year stay in
the League of Ireland.
The club continued to play in the lower leagues,
the LSL and junior leagues up until the 1950s or early 1960s. It was then
Jacobs FC completly disappeared from the footballing world.
It has to be said, that while Jacobs FC hardly
pulled up trees while playing in the League of Ireland, they certainly played
their part in entertaining whoever watched them play back in the 1920s with
high scoring games. And they were also not short of a few talented players with
former internationals Frank Collins, Tommy Dunne and Shamrock Rovers legend
Shay Keogh all representing the Rednecks at one point. Not to mention the clubs
record league goal scorer, Paddy Smith, who scored 55 goals for the club in
seven seasons playing with the club.
Obviously, with the club being so old, getting an
interview with a fan was impossible but I would imagine what they would have
said supporting a club like Jacob’s would be like. ‘We won nothing, but the
football was entertaining at least’, sounding like a modern-day Newcastle
United fan. I for one, would love to see Jacobs FC back in our league, just to
see those big scoring games again and I’m sure Shelbourne fans wouldn’t mind
seeing them back either.