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Nationality: British?
Position: Goalkeeper
D.O.B: 12th April 1874, Dawley, Shropshire
Time Spent With Chelsea: 1905-1906
Other Clubs: Blackwell Colliery, Sheffield United
Signed From: Sheffield United
Cost: £20
Debut: 1st September 1905 - Stockport (A)
Last Game: 16th April 1906 - Glossop North End (H)
Number of Appearances: 35
Departed Chelsea: April 1906
To: Bradford City
Cost: ?
International Record: 1 Eng V Wales in 1897
Where are they now?: Died 1st May 1916
Willie “Fatty” Foulkes was Chelsea’s first goalkeeper and first captain. Willie was perhaps the most famous player of the very first Chelsea squad. Willie was 6ft 3in, and weighed in at over 22 stone!
Stamford Bridge was the first ground to employ ball boys – these were mainly employed in order to help out Willie. The first Chelsea manager, John Tait Robertson (who also happened to play for Chelsea), always maintained that a couple of skinny, under-nourished ball boys would make Willie look even more gargantuan. To emphasize his bulk even more, the club’s smallest player, a tiny winger called Moran, would trot behind the great man.
Willie was born in Shropshire and was nearly 30 when he joined Chelsea from Sheffield United, where had won two Cup medals (if you check out their web-site Willie is listed with great affection). He had played for England against Wales and had also played cricket for Derbyshire.
He could also have played for England if they had fielded an eating team. One of the many stories that about him concerned an early away trip to Burton. At the team’s hotel, Willie decided to go down for dinner early. The away crowds that bait any plump Chelsea fan with the now legendary “Who ate all the pies?” chant would have been in hooligan heaven, because that is literally what the goalkeeper did. When the rest of the team came down they found that all eleven plates had been cleared. It’s just as well that there were no subs then.
Mr Foulkes redeemed himself the next day, though, by stopping two penalties. That begat another apocryphal story. The Burton manager raged at the poor forward who had missed two penalties, screaming that both kicks were straight at Foulkes. “Yeah, but where else could I place the kicks? There was nowhere else to aim,” replied the forward.
Such was Foulkes’ size that we was often the recipient of team mate “banter” but Foulkes would punish any player who tried to tease him in training by sitting upon him until he apologised.
Football has never seen a goalkeeper like Foulkes, before or after. When he came for the ball with his arms out, distracted opposing forwards said it was like the sun going out.
Unfortunately Foulkes' story did not end happily and like so many involving our heroes in Blue, it was tinged with sadness and ended in tears. Willie was essentially a vaudeville act; he only stayed a season and ended up at Bradford City, where he wound down his incredible career. When he left football he fell on hard times and was reduced to working a sideshow near the donkey rides on Blackpool beach. It was the old “beat the goalie routine” and the Big Man ended up diving on the sands, shot-stopping to keep him in burgers.
In 1916 Willie Foulkes, Chelsea’s first superstar, died at the age of 40 after catching a cold that turned into pneumonia.
Extract mostly taken from “Chelsea – Football Under the Blue Flag” (Brian Mears and Ian Macleay) ISBN: 1-84018-432-9