Jack Parkinson
Forward (1902 - 1914)
Date of Birth: 09/1883
Birthplace: Bootle
Debut : 03.10.1903
1st team games: 222
1st team goals: 128
Other clubs: Bury
National Team: England 2 caps/0 goals
He was only the second Liverpool player and the last before Roger Hunt more than half a century later, to head the top-flight League scoring chart, with 30 goals in 31 appearances in 1909-10 when the Anfield club finished runners-up. Bootle-born Parkinson arrived at Liverpool from local junior football as a teenage amateur, making a daunting debut as such in a derby game against Everton in September 1899.
But it was to be another four years, by which time he had turned professional, that Parkinson tasted first team football again. He scored six goals in 18 outings in 1903-04 before the return from injury of Sam Raybould forced him out of the team as Liverpool suffered relegation. Raybould had been Liverpool's only previous leading First Division marksman with 31 goals in 1902-03.
But Parkinson, a fast fearless forward, formed a lethal attacking trio with Raybould and Robert Robinson to take Liverpool straight back to the top flight as Second Division champions in 1904-05, all three of them scoring 20 goals or more.
Injury cost Parkinson a League title medal the next year but he later won two England caps and Football League recognition. He scored 128 goals in 222 Liverpool appearances before retiring during World War One after a brief spell at Bury. He became a newsagent on Merseyside and died in 1942.
Honours with Liverpool: Second Division Championship 1904/05
Jack Parkinson