Football’s Pioneers: Clem Stephenson
As captain of Huddersfield Town during the 1920s, Clem Stephenson (1890-1961) led the first truly dominant team in English football. It is well known that The Terriers were the first club to win three consecutive First Division titles – between 1923/24 and 1925/26 – but it tends to be forgotten that they were third the season before this and runners-up the two seasons afterwards.
In all, Huddersfield lost a total of just 17 First Division matches over these six seasons and were only defeated five times in the course of their three championship triumphs. At a time when honours were much more evenly shared, this was an extraordinary achievement, especially from a club in an area where rugby league had previously held sway.
Herbert Chapman, the first great modern manager, may have been the architect of this success. But it would have been impossible without Stephenson, Chapman’s ‘general’ on the field. An inside-forward, Stephenson was an accomplished player and a key component of the Huddersfield attacking line. But he was also instrumental in helping to build resilience and confidence among the players, and in moulding a team spirit that was to be crucial to their later success.
Born in Seaton Delaval in Northumberland, Stephenson was scouted for Aston Villa in 1910. He quickly made an impression, helping the Birmingham club defeat then League champions Sunderland in the 1913 FA Cup final in front of 120,000 fans at Crystal Palace. Before the match, Stephenson had told Sunderland’s Charlie Buchan that Villa would win because he had dreamt so the night before. ‘And Tom Barber’s going to score’, he told Buchan; which he duly did.
During the First World War Stephenson served in the Royal Navy and guested for Leeds City, managed at the time by Chapman. He won his second FA Cup with Villa in 1920, beating Huddersfield in the final. By then, however, the Villa directors considered him past his best. A dispute over his continued residency in Newcastle had soured relations and in March 1921 Chapman signed Stephenson for £4,000. He arrived touted as ‘the Harold Wagstaffe of association football’ – a reference to the famous rugby league star.
Chapman had in mind a particular role for Stephenson. "I don’t want you to run," he told him. "I want you to walk around that field and distribute the ball as it should be distributed." So Stephenson became Huddersfield’s playmaker, with a quality and consistency of passing that few could match. As one reporter noted, ‘he had that rare and great gift of being able to make others play’.
Despite his undisputed talent and his achievements in domestic football – which included a third FA Cup winners’ medal when Huddersfield beat Preston in 1922 – Stephenson was only picked once for his country. Journalist Ivan Sharpe considered this ‘the greatest failure ever’ by England’s selectors.
Stephenson retired in 1928 and was appointed Huddersfield manager shortly afterwards. He led them to two FA Cup finals (in 1930 and 1938) before finally stepping down in 1942, a Huddersfield hero to the end.