FRED BUCK

Full Name: Frederick Richard Buck

Born: 02 November 1879

Came from: Liverpool   Went to: West Bromwich Albion

First game: 23 March 1904   Last game: 21 April 1906

Appearances: 99 (99/0)   Goals: 40

Born in 1879 in Audley, Staffordshire, and an inside-forward (who occasionally also played centre-half) Buck started his career with local club Newcastle Town (an earlier incarnation of the present team of the same name) in Newcastle-under-Lyme. He then joined Stafford Wesleyans in August 1895, before signing for Stafford Rangers in July 1897.

Having spent almost three years with Rangers, during which he was prolific, Football League clubs had taken note and he moved to join West Bromwich Albion in 1900. In what was to be his first spell at the club, between 1900-1903, he played 22 times and scored six goals.

In May 1903 he then signed for Liverpool, but his stay there was a short spell during the 1903-1904 season, playing 13 times and scoring once, in a Boxing Day defeat to Blackburn Rovers at Anfield, in December 1903.

He joined Argyle towards the end of the club's first season as a professional club, as a Frank Brettell signing, but later playing under Robert Jack. Buck was virtually ever-present for Argyle over the next two years, playing primarily at inside-right, and was renowned as a 'hard worker with the best shot in the team'. He played one game shy of a century of Southern League games for the club, netting an impressive 40 goals. He scored on his debut in a 2-0 home win over Norwich City in Sep 1905 and scored in his last game, a 1-0 away win against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in April 1906.

He then re-joined West Bromwich Albion in April 1906 for a long and prolific spell. He was Albion's top scorer in the 1907-08 season, with 18 goals, and again in 1909-10 with 16 goals. The following season, 1910-11 he helped the club to win the Football League Second Division title. In total he spent a further eight years at The Hawthorns, making a further 287 appearances and scoring a further 90 goals for the club. Whilst with the Baggies, he played in the 1912 FA Cup Final at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane, although he had to be content with a runner-up medal, losing, heartbreakingly, to a last minute extra-time goal, to Barnsley. Buck however had posted what would have probably been classed in modern parlance as a 'man of the match' performance.

He finished his career with a three-year spell at Swansea Town (the earlier name for the club that later became Swansea City) during the war-effected years and was registered with the club from 1914-1917, playing eight times, scoring once. He also played as a war-time guest for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

During the war he served in the Army Service Corps (ASC) where he gained the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He was Private during the war and was deployed to France. He saw active service on the Western Front, and as part of the ASC, his duties would have involved the logistics and transportation of food, equipment, and ammunition to the front lines.

After the war ended, he retired from professional football and became a publican in Rugby, Warwickshire at the Victoria Inn, which remains to this day and is on CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. He then returned to his native Staffordshire and between 1945 and 1952 was a clerk in the Grinding Wheel Works back in Stafford.

Fred Buck died in Stafford in June 1952 aged 72 years old.