Morton welcome the family of Dave Edwards to Cappielow
On Monday morning, the club were delighted to welcome the family of 1922 Scottish Cup winner and Hall of Fame inductee, Dave Edwards, to Cappielow Park supported by Dalrada Technology.
We were also pleased to welcome the family as guests at Saturday’s match against Inverness C.T which saw Morton in the Community celebrate their 10th birthday!
Dave’s granddaughter (Louise), great-granddaughter (Sally) and great-great-grandchildren (Holly and Rory) all came along to the ground for a tour of the stadium and also met with Club Historian, Niall McGilp, to find out more about Dave’s life and football career.
Thank you to Louise, Sally, Holly and Rory for coming along!
Dave Edwards Bio by Niall McGilp
Morton signed Edwards as 19 year old in 1919 from junior club Rutherglen Glencairn, where he had just won the Scottish Junior Cup v St. Anthony’s, after a replay, in his first season. These were big games, played at Hampden with 40,000 at the first game and 35,000 at the replay.
He was an ever present in his first season at Cappielow, with 49 appearances and 15 clean sheets, immediately becoming one of the young stars of the team, which finished 6th in the 22 team top Division. During that campaign Morton also reached the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden; after taking an early two goal lead through George French and Jimmy Gourlay, opponents and eventual cup winners Kilmarnock fought back to win 3-2.
The following season there was a 9th place league placing, but a 2-0 defeat in the first round of the Cup to Rangers at Ibrox in front of a 67,000 crowd. Edwards had a further 12 clean sheets in 39 appearances that season.
Despite an indifferent first half of 1921/22, Morton improved dramatically after New Year with only 3 defeats in 24 games . This of course included the momentous cup run, culminating in the Final v Rangers on 15th April 1922. Edwards was again virtually an ever present with 10 shut-outs in 45 appearances, the most important of which was obviously at Hampden where a crowd of 73,681 saw Morton beat the Glasgow side to win the cup for the only time in the club’s history. Dave Edwards was widely regarded as the Man of the Match, saving bravely and brilliantly at times.
He was an ever present in each of the following 2 seasons, but the cup-winning team quickly broke up. Injuries and a dispute with the club blighted his final two seasons where he made only 2 appearances in 1924/25 and 6 in 1925/26. He left for the USA after that and joined Bethlehem Steel in Pennsylvania. Along with ex Morton Cup Final captain Bob McGregor, he won the American Soccer League in 1927.
Dave returned to Scotland, and Morton, in 1930 and played a final 13 games for the Greenock club before moving to Cowdenbeath for 2 seasons, followed by a season each at Dundee and Arbroath.
Dave Edwards’ overall Morton record is 232 appearances with 61 clean sheets. He has the joint 4th most appearances in goal for Morton, alongside Erik Sorensen, with only David Wylie (556), Roy Baines (355) and Jock Bradford (287) exceeding his total; and he achieved the 6th most clean sheets in the club’s history.
He passed away in 1946, just 4 days after his 46th birthday. The Morton cup winning side was inducted into the inaugural Morton Hall of Fame in 2014; he is also a member of the Cowdenbeath Hall of Fame.
