If you were to ask the question “who is Britain’s greatest sportsperson of all time”, then you’d be met with a plethora of answers. Stars from a variety of sports such as George Best, Andy Murray, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Lennox Lewis, Sir Chris Hoy, Lewis Hamilton, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mo Farrah, Jonny Wilkinson, or even Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor might be your answer, but perhaps not Max Woosnam. One of my favourite gotcha jokes is name a player who’s scored a century in cricket for England, a goal in football for Wales, and a try for Ireland in rugby. You can then come out with something like Kevin Pietersen, Craig Bellamy, and Brian O’Driscoll for example because they never said it had to be the same player (haha very funny), but Woosnam’s list of sporting feats runs quite close to that.

Born in Liverpool in 1892, Woosnam would go on to have the most ludicrous sporting career imaginable. If you could come up with an impressive sporting feat, then Max had done it. He was the son of a clergyman, also called Maxwell Woosnam (and the archdeacon of Macclesfield from 1893-1904) and was educated at Winchester College where his sporting career began. Whilst at Winchester, he captained the golf and squash teams and represented the college in football and tennis. He made an appearance for a public school cricket team at Lords Cricket Ground, scoring 144 runs in one innings and 33 not out in the other. In 1911 he went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he would continue to excel at sport representing the University’s football, lawn tennis, real tennis, cricket, and golf teams. He won the prestigious full blue four times, and in 1913 signed for the football team Corinthian FC. He went on a club tour of Brazil in the summer of 1913 where he impressed with his appearances. During this time, he also made a handful of appearances for Chelsea. He was set to tour again in the summer of 1914, however upon his arrival to Rio de Janeiro war had been declared in Europe and the squad were sent straight back. Woosnam enlisted with the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry before transferring to the Royal Welch Fusiliers. During his time in the conflict, Woosnam would serve on the Western Front and the Gallipoli campaign alongside wartime poet Siegfried Sassoon.

Once the war was over, Woosnam returned to football and was signed by Manchester City in 1919 where he would go on to captain the club. He was called up for England, playing one game against Wales at Anfield. England won the game 1-0 where Woosnam captained the team. Despite being an incredibly talented footballer, Woosnam also excelled in tennis during this era. Woosnam was a part of the British tennis team that went to the 1920 Antwerp Olympics winning a gold medal in the doubles, and a silver in mixed doubles. A year later, Woosnam would go on to win the Wimbledon crown in the doubles event alongside Randolph Lycett and was the runner-up in the mixed doubles. In the same year, he captained the British Davis Cup team. If this wasn’t enough, Woosnam was said to be an incredibly talented solo sports player also. He was a keen golfer and a fantastic snooker player having managed to achieve a perfect 147 break, one of the most difficult things to do in sport. There is also a claim that Woosnam was a pioneer of table tennis, having allegedly beaten actor Charlie Chaplain in a game where he used a butter knife for a racket.

To bring all of his feats into one, Woosnam achieved the following: he won the blue at Cambridge University four times, captained Manchester City and England in the 1920s, scored a century at Lords, won a gold and silver medal in the 1920 Olympics in doubles and mixed doubles tennis, won the doubles title at Wimbledon in 1921, scored a 147 break in snooker, and was an incredible golfer. Never has someone managed to excel and achieve so much across a number of different sports, and it’s likely we’ll never see someone achieve a sporting career like this again. And in case you were interested like me in finding out as to whether Max is at all related to golf Masters winner Ian Woosnam and former Wales international footballer and later commissioner of the NASL Phillip Woosnam, then the answer is… maybe? I couldn’t find anything concrete either way. His Wikipedia claims that he was Phil’s uncle, but according to the book All Round Genius: The Unknown Story of Britain’s Greatest Sportsman he had no relation to Ian. Someone knows the answer, but unfortunately, I don’t.

Woosnam retired from football in 1926 following a leg break and other commitments, of which he had plenty. It is worth remembering that Woosnam completed these achievements in an era where making a career out of sport wasn’t really a thing, certainly not to the level that it is today. He had the opportunity to become a professional sportsman, but turned it down as he believed the concept to be ‘vulgar’. According to author Mick Collins, Woosnam talked very little about his sporting accolades. He considered it to be incredibly bad manners and the height of vanity to talk about himself, which is why he chose to stay playing sport as an amateur. After his retirement from sport Woosnam went on to work for Imperial Chemical Industries where he was a board member until his death in 1965.

Perhaps Woosnam’s humility is the reason why so little know about his incredible story, but it’s certainly one that needs to be told. If he had been born 60 years later then he would be talked about as one of the greatest sporting heroes to ever come from Britain. He achieved more across a number of sports than most of the greats achieve in one, and he did it all not for money but just his love of the game(s). It is one of the incredible tales from sporting and British history, and he should be remembered as a hero.