THE DEATH OF SAMUEL WYNNE - MAY 1927 

I was researching another article for the site when I came across the following report which appeared in The Times on May 6th 1927 under the title 

BURY FOOTBALL PLAYER'S DEATH 

"It was stated at an inquest at Sheffield yesterday (5th May 1927) on the body of SAMUEL WYNNE aged 30, the Bury football player who collapsed and died at the Bramall-lane football ground, Sheffield while playing against Sheffield United on Saturday, that he had been suffering from pneumonia. His death was caused by pneumonia and a verdict was recorded accordingly. Wynne's father-in-law said that when he saw him before the match he looked as though there was another ten years play in him. The referee said the game was an exceptionally clean one in every respect. He blew his whistle for an infringement of the off-side rule by the Sheffield centre forward and Wynne had placed the ball in position to take the kick when, straightening his back, he made a spiral turn and sank to the ground. The game was afterwards abandoned. The doctor said it was another case of a person having pneumonia without knowing it. Wynne also had an "athlete's heart" and playing football was the worst thing he could have done in the condition he was, but the trainer would be unable to detect anything wrong with him"

There have been other fatalities on the football field but I believe that Sam's was the only one to have occurred at Bramall Lane. Needless to say there is very little information available on the incident in particular and Sam's life in general. A check on the statistics revealed that Sam Wynne was playing only his nineteenth game for Bury. He was signed in December 1926 for a club record fee of £2,500 from neighboring Oldham Athletic. And he made his home debut for Bury in their 2 - 0 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day 1926. Since that game Sam had been ever present in the side and had actually scored from the penalty spot in one of the games. The game against Sheffield United was not going Bury's way at the time of the incident. They were losing 1 - 0 and the United centre forward had been blown up for an infringement of the off-side rule. Sam had gone to retrieve the ball and had placed the ball on the ground to take the resultant free kick. It was at this point he collapsed. Players of both sides rushed to his aid and he was stretchred off the field and play recommenced. The players walked off at half time and the band struck up. It was then that a message was passed to the conductor and the music stopped. It was announced that Sam had died in the dressing room and the match was immediately abandoned. A shocked 22,000 crowd walked somberly out of Bramall Lane.

According to the official Bury website, Sam died of a cerebral hemorrhage but the inquest makes no mention of this. However the site does say that the directors of both Sheffield United and Bury decided soon after the game that , with Football League permission, they would donate the gate receipts for the re-arranged match to Sam's widow and young child. On 5th May, a crowd of 15,000 attended the re-arranged game and raised £680 for Sam's family. This amount was more or less doubled by other donations etc. and so the dependents, in total, received a fund of around £1,400.   

As a footnote Sam does have a another place in the history of the game. Whilst playing for Oldham Athletic in 1923 against Manchester United he scored twice for each side. Sam scored a free-kick and a penalty for Oldham and two own goals for Manchester United. Oldham eventually won 3-2. This record stood until March 1976 when Chris Nichol, the Aston Villa centre half scored all four goals in the 2 - 2 draw with Leicester City. All his goals were in open play.