Leicester City In 100 Players: Adam Black

Adam Black played at full-back for Leicester City from 1920 until 1935. He played 557 games for the Club and holds the Club record for the most league appearances (528). Over the years, two of Adam’s grandsons, season ticket holders Allister and Andrew Black, have helped us to bring Adam’s story to life. 

Born in Denny near Stirling in 1898, Adam joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders as a 16-year-old and served for four years on the Western Front during the First World War. In 1918, he was in the 51st Division Cup-winning team in France and on 21 March, 1918 he won the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry in battle. 

After being honoured for his wartime service by his home area of Denny and Dunipace, which presented him with an engraved gold watch, he won a Scottish Qualifying Cup medal in January 1920 playing for the Scottish Central League club, Bathgate. 

A few days later, Leicester City’s Scottish manager Peter Hodge signed Adam for Second Division side Leicester City and he became a fixture in the side for the next 16 seasons. 

He was a key member of the Leicester City title-winning side which was promoted to the old First Division in 1925. His medal is on display in reception at King Power Stadium. He was then, virtually, an ever-present in the sides which finished third in the top flight in 1928 and runners-up in 1929.

This was the Club’s highest league position until the Premier League title win in 2016. He was Club captain in the early 1930s. In 1935, two days after his final contract, worth £7 per week, expired Adam paid £800 for a newsagent and tobacconists shop in Wilberforce Road on the corner of Gaul Street, which he ran for over 30 years. 

He became a huge opera fan and amassed a large collection of opera records on the old 78 rpm vinyl discs. Sadly, Adam was killed in August 1981 when he was struck by a train. However, the recollections of Allister and Andrew, together with memorabilia in the Club’s collection relating to Adam, have done much to keep his memory alive.

The memorabilia includes family photographs, scans and images relating to his First World War service, his football medals, his contracts, a pair of his boots, trade cards, cartoons, and newspaper reports.