When outside-right Jock Rutherford played his final match for us against Manchester City at Highbury a century ago on March 20, 1926, he set a club record that is unlikely ever to be beaten.
Rutherford became our oldest-ever first-team player, aged 41 years and 159 days, having enjoyed a career littered with bizarre twists and turns.
When he signed for Woolwich Arsenal in November 1913, the ‘Newcastle Flyer,’ as he was known, had already spent 10 seasons at St James’ Park, winning three First Division medals and an FA Cup in a hugely successful spell in the north-east which also saw him earn 11 England caps.
Woolwich Arsenal had just been relegated to the Second Division, and Rutherford made an instant impression on the 25,000 supporters present at the newly built Highbury Stadium by scoring twice on his debut in a 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest.
That season saw us miss out on promotion on goal average, and when football ceased due to World War I at the end of the 1914/15 season, Rutherford’s future prospects, like many men of his age, were unclear. However, after guesting for the club in wartime internationals, the now 35-year-old was present and correct when first-class football resumed in 1919, and he played regularly for an Arsenal team promoted back to the First Division for another four seasons.
Then his story took an unusual turn. After joining Stoke City as player-manager at the tail end of the 1922/23 campaign, Rutherford was unable to save them from relegation to the Second Division. That summer, he attended his ‘retirement’ party with his former Gunners teammates, where he was presented with a silver tea set. Presumably, rather than providing closure on his Arsenal career, the party made Rutherford realise just how much he missed his former teammates.
A car crash then left him unable to return to Stoke-on-Trent for the start of the 1923/24 season, and shortly afterwards, he stood down as Potters boss and re-signed for Arsenal in September as a player. The 39-year-old played over 20 matches in each of the next two seasons, before apparently retiring for good in the summer of 1925 to run his newsagents in Gillespie Road – a stone’s throw from Highbury – and an off-licence.
By this time, his son John was on our books and made his solitary first-team appearance against Bury in November 1925, yet his father still had a yearning to play. After new manager Herbert Chapman signed fellow veteran Charlie Buchan, Rutherford asked Chapman if he would re-sign him, who duly obliged.
Jock returned to the first team in January 1926, in a thrilling 3-2 home win over Manchester United, but only played another three matches in his third spell at the club, one of which was the milestone match against Manchester City, which finished in a goalless draw. That would be his 232nd and final appearance spanning nearly 13 years, during which time he scored 27 goals.
In one final twist, Rutherford, the grandfather of the 2012 Olympic triple jump champion Greg, spent the following season at Clapton Orient before hanging up his boots one last time aged 43. He later ran an off-licence at 19 Calabria Road in Islington, which is now a cafe named La Maison Highbury. No doubt this remarkable Arsenal man would heartily approve.
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