This week, we look at Jack Froggatt, an ex-England international who, after signing for Leicester City in 1954, went on to make an enormous contribution to the team as an outstanding and versatile player and captain.
Jack Froggatt was such a big name in post-war football, that when manager Norman Bullock signed him for Second Division Leicester City, it came as something of a shock, comparable to Bullock’s signing of Johnny Morris, another post-war great, two years earlier.
Froggatt came with a huge reputation.
He had alarming speed and excellent ball control. He was strong in the air, was robust and had a powerful shot. He was also incredibly versatile, able to play as centre-back, half-back and on the left-wing. He was a superb distributor of the ball too.
As a Portsmouth player, he won the league title in 1949 and in 1950, missing only four games in those two seasons, during which he scored a total of 30 league goals.
Between 1949 and 1953, he also won 13 caps for England, either as a centre-back or as a left-winger.
When he arrived at Filbert Street as a 31-year-old in March 1954, City were top of the Second Division. He played in seven of the last 10 games and helped Bullock’s side clinch the title.
The following season (1954/55), Leicester City were relegated again, but Jack only missed one game and showed his versatility by playing at centre-back, half-back and on the wing.
He was an ever-present again the following season when the team finished fifth. The season after that, playing as a centre-back, he again starred in every game, captaining his side to the Second Division title, with several Club records being broken in the process.
Back in the top flight for the 1957/58 season, Jack, approaching his 35th birthday, started the season in the side but, with the arrival of John Newman from Birmingham City and the emergence of the young Ian King, who was to become one of the stars of Leicester in the 1960s, Jack left Filbert Street in November 1957 to sign for Southern League champions Kettering Town. He became player-coach soon afterwards. He continued playing for the Poppies until he was 40 years old.
City were blessed with a number of great players in the 1950s, such as Arthur Rowley, Johnny Morris, Derek Hines and Derek Hogg. Froggatt was another outstanding player. His enormous contribution to Leicester was made even more remarkable by the fact that most of his achievements at Filbert Street were made when he was at an age when most players of his era had retired.