Vic Woodley

Football, Football player

1910 – 1978

29

Who was Vic Woodley?

Victor Robert Woodley was an English football goalkeeper who played for both Chelsea and the England national side between the wars.

Woodley was spotted by a Chelsea scout whilst playing for Windsor and Eton and signed for the club in 1931, making his debut the same year. Woodley was a member of the glamorous Chelsea side of the 1930s, playing alongside the likes of Hughie Gallacher, Alex Jackson and Alec Cheyne. Known for his reliability and his impressive sense of anticipation, Woodley's performances were often key to preserving Chelsea's First Division status with his high-profile team mates invariably failing to live up to expectations. So reliable was he that he kept John Jackson, Scotland's first choice goalkeeper, out of the Chelsea side.

Woodley won nineteen caps for England - all consecutive, a record at the time - and in an era when there was stiff competition for the England goakeeping jersey from Harry Hibbs, George Tweedy and Frank Swift. Woodley was a member of the England side which toured Nazi Germany in 1938, performing the Hitler salute before the match at the Olympiastadion. His international career was ended prematurely by the outbreak of the Second World War.

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Born
Feb 26, 1910
Slough
Nationality
  • England
Lived in
  • Slough
Died
Oct 23, 1978

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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