Dick Pym

Who was Dick Pym?

Richard Henry Pym was a football player best known for being the Bolton Wanderers goalkeeper at the first ever FA Cup final to be played at Wembley Stadium in 1923.

The game, known as the White Horse Final because of the presence of a mounted white police horse at the helm of the crowd control, ended in a 2-0 win for Bolton. Pym had joined them from Exeter City two years earlier for a world record five thousand pounds. Pym, nicknamed Pincher Pym, won further FA Cup winners medals with Bolton in 1926 and 1929 and earned three England caps.

Dick Pym, born into a fishing family played for a local club in his hometown Topsham, initially as a centre-forward before moving to Exeter City in 1911. There he played his first game in the reserves in December and on 23 March 1912 he debuted in the first team, replacing the regular goalkeeper. He subsequently appeared in 186 consecutive matches in the Southern League for Exeter.

In 1914 he toured with Exeter under manager Arthur Chadwick Argentina and Brazil, playing in Rio de Janeiro the Brazilian national football team in its historic first official match.