Bill Julian

Infobox Football biography
playername = Bill Julian


fullname = John William Julian
dateofbirth = July 10 1867
cityofbirth = Boston, Lincolnshire
countryofbirth = England
dateofdeath = March 14 1957
cityofdeath = Enfield, London
countryofdeath = England
position = Wing half
years = 1885-89 1889-92 1892-94 1894-95 1895-96
clubs = Boston Town Woolwich Arsenal Luton Town Tottenham Hotspur Dartford
caps(goals) =
manageryears = 1921-22
managerclubs = HBS Den Haag Feyenoord Rotterdam

John William "Bill" Julian (July 10 1867 – March 14 1957) was an English football player and coach.

Born in Boston, Lincolnshire, he first played for his local side Boston Town before moving to Royal Arsenal in 1889, following a match between the two on Good Friday of that year. He played in Arsenal's very first FA Cup tie, against Lyndhurst on October 5 1889, and soon earned a reputation as a determined and tough-tackling wing-half. He became club captain in 1890, and was still captain when Arsenal turned professional in 1891.

However, he was replaced as Arsenal captain in October 1891 by new arrival Sandy Robertson (who had previously played for Preston North End's 1888-89 Double-winning side), and although assured of a place in the first team, he decided to step down to the reserves. In the summer of 1892, he moved to Luton Town, to become the club's captain and coach. He played 4 FA Cup ties and 71 other senior matches for Woolwich Arsenal.

After two years at Luton, he joined Tottenham Hotspur (thus making him the first person to play for both Spurs and Arsenal, albeit long before the latter moved to north London in 1913), and played in Spurs' very first FA Cup tie, a first qualifying match against West Hertfordshire, on October 13 1894; Spurs won 3-2. [cite web

url=http://www.mehstg.com/oct_13th.htm
title=October 13th
work=MEHSTG.com
accessdate=2007-04-07

] He left Tottenham in 1895, and finished his career at Dartford; however he remained local to Woolwich Arsenal and later opened a sports shop in Plumstead.

Julian retained his footballing ties after retiring from playing, and some time after 1906 moved to the Netherlands to coach there, with his sons Joseph and Harry, both Harry and Joseph also coached a number of teams in Holland. Among the clubs he coached for were MVV Maastricht, VVV-Venlo, PSV Eindhoven and HFC Haarlem, and he was head coach at first HBS Den Haag and then Feyenoord Rotterdam between 1921 and 1922; he left Feyenoord after the club were unable to pay his wages. He eventually returned to England to live in Enfield, London.

He was one of the longest-surviving members of Arsenal's first professional side, along with Gavin Crawford and Jack McBean. The three were reunited at an Arsenal game against Chelsea on March 20 1948 (by which time Arsenal were one of the leading sides in English football), an event recorded in the "The Official Illustrated History of Arsenal". [cite book
author=Soar, Phil & Tyler, Martin
title=The Official Illustrated History of Arsenal
publisher=Hamlyn | year=2005
id=ISBN 0-600-61344-5
pages=27 ] He lived until the age of 89, dying in Enfield in 1957, outliving both Crawford and McBean to make him the last surviving member of Arsenal's first professional team.

Footnotes

References

*cite book
author=Harris, Jeff & Hogg, Tony (ed.)
title=Arsenal Who's Who
publisher=Independent UK Sports
year=1995
id=ISBN 1-899429-03-4
*cite book
author=Roper, Alan
title=The Real Arsenal Story: In the Days of Gog
publisher=Wherry | year=2004
id=ISBN 0-9546259-1-9