Sunderland Greats: George Holley

George Holley was born at Seaham Harbour in 1885 — a time when the club he would later play for in Sunderland AFC was only six years old and the Football League was yet to exist. In an era where the future of many of his school friends would encompass a lifetime in the pits of County Durham, Holley’s path was to be football. Playing for local Seaham teams in non-league football, he was spotted by Sunderland’s scouts and signed in 1904 as an eighteen-year-old.

He soon made his debut away to Sheffield Wednesday in December 1904, scoring in a 1-1 draw, and followed that up by scoring the opening goal on his home debut during a 3-2 win over Preston North End just a few days later. Holley was off and running, and in a glimpse of what was to come, he scored ten goals in just sixteen appearances for a Sunderland side that finished in fifth place in the First Division. That haul of goals in his debut season left him as the club’s leading scorer for 1904/1905.

Then-Sunderland manager Alex Mackie had brought the First Division title back to Wearside in 1902 and handed Holley his debut, but by the time his debut season had come to an end, Mackie resigned. This opened the door for the manager who was to become synonymous with Holley’s career from that point — the legendary Bob Kyle. Sunderland had consistently been one of the top teams in the country under Mackie, yet struggled for the first few seasons of Kyle’s reign.

However, this didn’t prevent Holley from developing his goalscoring skills though. By 1908 he was the club’s leading scorer, with twenty goals in all competitions, and until 1913/1914, he was our leading scorer for five out of seven seasons. Holley was a prolific inside forward who hit twenty goals in a season on four occasions, which included eleven hat-tricks and 159 goals in total.