Wilfred (Wilf) Copping was born in Middlecliffe, near Barnsley, on 17th August 1909. He played Yorkshire junior football with Dearn Valley, Middlecliffe and Dartfield Rovers but after a trial with Barnsley F.C. in 1929 was rejected as someone not good enough for the Football League.
Copping did not give up and in 1930 was signed by Leeds United. Over the next three years, this hard-tackling left-half, played 159 games for the club.
A Leeds United historian has provided a good description of the player: "Wilf Copping was the original hard man of English football, paving the way for the likes of Norman Hunter, Ron Harris, Peter Storey, Tommy Smith and Graeme Souness in later decades. However, it is highly debatable whether any of them looked and played the part as well as Copping, with his boxer's nose and build, his unshaven appearance on match days and the bone shaking charges and tackles which were his trademark. Copping, at left half, was liable to unnerve the opposition with just one fixed stare from his craggy face. The harder the going, the more Copping liked it."
Copping's form was so good that he won his first international cap playing for England against Italy on 13th May 1933. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. Copping followed this with appearances against Switzerland (4-0 ), Northern Ireland (3-0), Wales (1-2), France (4-1) and Scotland (3-0).
In June 1934, George Allison, the manager of Arsenal, paid £8,000 for Copping. He joined a team that included players such as Alex James, David Jack, Cliff Bastin, Ted Drake, Joe Hulme, Eddie Hapgood, Ray Bowden, Frank Moss, Ray John, George Male and Jack Crayston. In November, 1934, Copping played for England that beat the world champions, Italy, 4-1. Also in the England team that day was six other Arsenal players: Hapgood, Moss, Bowden, Drake, Bastin and Male.
Tom Whittaker pointed out in his autobiography, The Arsenal Story, that Copping became close friends with Jack Crayston "Although very dissimilar on and off the field, Crayston and Copping were inseparable. They trained together - that was another idea handed on by Chapman; he always insisted that a fast runner should train together with a slower mover, so as to help him increase his pace - and on all journeys were to be seen together, inevitably playing a peculiar form of Chinese whist."
In the 1934-35 season Copping was virtually ever present up until March 1935 when he hurst his knee in a match against Everton. That season Arsenal won the league championship by beating the runners-up, Sunderland, by four points.
The 1935-36 season was not so good for Arsenal, finishing in 6th place behind Sunderland. However, Copping did play in the team that won the 1936 FA Cup Final against Sheffield United.
Alex James holds the FA Cup won at Wembley in 1936.
Copping was a member of the Arsenal team that won the championship in the 1937-38 season. He also retained his place in the England team playing against Norway (6-0), Sweden (4-0), Finland (8-0), Northern Ireland (5-1), Wales (2-1) and Czechoslovakia (5-4).
Copping also played in the game against Scotland on 9th April, 1938. In his autobiography, Bill Shankly, complained about one of Copping's tackles during the game. "Wilf Copping played for England that day, and he was a well-known hard man. The grass was short, the ground was quick, and I was playing the ball. The next thing I knew, Copping had done me down the front of my right leg. He had burst my stocking - the shin-pad was out - and cut my leg. That was after about ten minutes, and it was my first impression of Copping."
Bill Shankly, who played for Preston North End, was involved in another incident with Copping the following season. This time Copping injured Shankly's ankle. As Shankly later pointed out: "For years afterwards I played with my ankle bandaged and wore a gaiter over my right boot for extra support, and to this day my right ankle is bigger than my left because of what Copping did. My one regret is that he retired from the game before I had a chance to get my own back."
It is true that Wilf Copping had a reputation for hard-tackling and acquired the nickname "The Ironman". Copping once said: "The first man in a tackle never gets hurt." Bill Shankly claimed that Copping was a player who "played the man rather than the ball".
Tommy Lawton also complained about Copping. While playing for Everton in 1938 Lawton constantly beat the Arsenal defenders in the air and Copping warned him that he was "jumping too high" and that he would have to be "brought down to my level". As Lawton later recalled: "Sure enough the next time we both went for a cross, I end up on the ground with blood streaming from my nose. Wilf was looking down at me and he said 'Ah told thee, Tom. Tha's jumping too high!' My nose was broken. When Arsenal came to Everton, Copping broke my nose again! He was hard, Wilf. You always had something to remember him by when you played against him."
Jeff Harris argues in his book, Arsenal Who's Who (1995) that Copping "had the legendary reputation of being more than forceful in the tackle... and that he was the first to admit that he was temperamental and fiery his bone-jarring tackles were mainly timed to perfection and fair". Harris adds that proof that Copping was a clean player is the fact that he played in 340 league games and was never cautioned or sent-off during his career.
In March 1939, Copping asked Arsenal for a transfer. He told the manager that he felt "a war is coming and I want to get my wife and kids back up North before I join the army." Copping was allowed to rejoin Leeds United and during the Second World War he served in North Africa.
After the war Copping worked as a football coach for the Belgium national team, before spells with Southend, Bristol City and Coventry City (1956-59).
Wilf Copping died in Southend-on-Sea in June 1980.
(1) Bill Shankly, Shankley (1977)
I was a hard player, but I played the ball, and if you play the ball you'll win the ball and you'll have the man too. But if you play the man, that's wrong. Wilf Copping played for England that day, and he was a well-known hard man. The grass was short, the ground was quick, and I was playing the ball. The next thing I knew, Copping had done me down the front of my right leg. He had burst my stocking - the shin-pad was out - and cut my leg. That was after about ten minutes, and it was my first impression of Copping. He was at left half and we came into contact in the middle of the field. I think the pitch was more responsible for what happened than anything, but I was surprised that he would do what he did to me in an international match. He was older than me and had a reputation. He didn't need to be playing at home to kick you -he would have kicked you in your own backyard or in your own chair. He had no fear at all. But while we were fighting for Scotland that day, we didn't go round trying to cripple people.
What Copping did stung me, but I didn't complain about him. I said to him, "Oh, you're making the game a little more important." Frank O'Donnell, who could look after himself, was annoyed at Copping and told him what he thought about it.
Copping had been after me and had caught me and I never contacted him again during the match. But he also hurt me when I played against him for Preston at Highbury on a Christmas Day. One of our players pulled out of a tackle for the ball and I had to go in to fight for it, and Copping caught me on my right ankle.
I was due to play another match the following day, but my ankle had blown up to an awful size. We went from London up to Fleetwood and Bill Scott said, "We'll have a try-out in the morning."
"What do you mean, a try-out?" I asked him, and I soon found out. Next morning my ankle was still badly swollen, and Bill got me a bigger boot to wear on my right foot. My normal size was six and a half, but I put on a size seven and a half or eight that day.
For years afterwards I played with my ankle bandaged and wore a gaiter over my right boot for extra support, and to this day my right ankle is bigger than my left because of what Copping did. My one regret is that he retired from the game before I had a chance to get my own back.
(2) Jeff Harris, Arsenal Who's Who (1995)
Although never cautioned or sent-off during his ten year career he (Wilf Copping) had the legendary reputation of being more than forceful in the tackle, this gave him the nickname of "The Ironman". Although Wilf was the first to admit that he was temperamental and fiery his bone-jarring tackles were mainly timed to perfection and fair. His famous quote was "The first man in a tackle never gets hurt". What added to his misconceived manner on the field was that he never shaved on match days, which gave him a mean blue stubble and more than a fearsome appearance.
(3) Tom Whittaker, The Arsenal Story (1957)
Mr. Allison followed the signing of Drake by securing Jack Crayston, that elegant gentleman of the football field, and the tough, blue-chinned Wilf Copping. Although very dissimilar on and off the field, Crayston and Copping were inseparable. They trained together - that was another idea handed on by Chapman; he always insisted that a fast runner should train together with a slower mover, so as to help him increase his pace - and on all journeys were to be seen together, inevitably playing a peculiar form of Chinese whist. These three players were to win two First Division championship medals and a Cup winners' medal in the few years left before the war stopped competitive football.
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