Ernie Simms
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ernest Simms | ||
| Date of birth | 23 July 1891 | ||
| Place of birth | Easington, England | ||
| Date of death | 11 October 1971 (aged 80) | ||
| Place of death | Biggleswade, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| South Shields Adelaide | ? | (?) | |
| Murton Colliery Welfare | ? | (?) | |
| 1912–1913 | Barnsley | 0 | (0) |
| 1913–1915 | Luton Town | 0 | (0) |
| 1916–1922 | Luton Town | 160 | (109) |
| 1922–1924 | South Shields | 51 | (17) |
| 1924–1926 | 66 | (20) | |
| 1926–1928 | Scunthorpe & Lindsey United | ? | (?) |
| 1928 | York City | 6 | (2) |
| National team | |||
| 1921 | England | 1 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. | |||
Ernest "Ernie" Simms (23 July 1891 – 11 October 1971) was an English footballer, who was best known as a Luton Town centre forward. He was the first forward to play for England while playing for a Third Division club.
Simms was born in Easington, County Durham, and after playing for local clubs, South Shields Adelaide and Murton Colliery Welfare, he joined Barnsley in 1912, before moving south to join Luton Town in the summer of 1913.
Simms joined the British Army at the outbreak of the First World War, joining the Football Battalion, a unit made up of professional footballers which was attached to the Middlesex Regiment. He was discharged in 1915 and re-enlisted with the Royal Field Artillery. During the war he suffered a savage disabling leg wound which left him with serious muscle damage and a permanent limp. Simms was discharged less than a month before the armistice.
Despite the noticeable limp and ungainly running style, which always attracted the attention of passers-by whatever the weather, each and every night Simms returned to Luton's Kenilworth Road ground in a despairing effort to regain fitness and play once again. For the duration of the war the ground was closed, but Simms gained entry to the ground each night by climbing up a drain pipe with the "agility and ease of a practised cat-burglar". He then stripped down to his vest and underpants and raced up and down the terraces and completed lap after lap of the cinder track surrounding the pitch. This went on for months, until one morning the wartime caretaker arrived at the ground and noticed footprints in the deep snow. Fearing there was a burglar at large the police laid a trap and pounced on him the following evening, leaving Simms no choice but to confess everything.
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