We welcome Hughie Ferguson as the first 2023 Hall of Fame inductee.
A name familiar to many in the Motherwell fanbase, Hughie Ferguson was born on the 2 March 1895 in Motherwell. His footballing life began right here in ML1, playing with local youth sides including the Dalziel School team, where he featured as a half-back.
He began to move further up the pitch the older he became, turning out for the Motherwell branch of the Boys’ Brigade and Motherwell Hearts as an outside forward.
The time would come in 1914 for Hughie to move further afield, when he joined Glasgow-based Parkhead which is where he began to apply his trade as a centre forward. He would impress everyone whilst playing for Parkhead with media outlets labelling him as ‘in a class of his own.’
Goals would begin to be an ever prevalent part of Hughie’s game and the first move of his career was on the cards as he began contract talks with Manchester City. A move down South would be put on hold however, due to the outbreak of World War One.
With his move to Manchester off the cards, Scottish football would continue during the war and Hughie opened talks with John Hunter ahead of the 1915-16 season. Despite these discussion, he would remain at Parkhead where we would notch more than 30 goals in the first four months of the campaign.
As a result, many clubs began to take note of Hughie’s ability and sheer consistency of finding the back of the net. A move to Motherwell looked likely for the second time however, the move fell through.
By the end of the 1915-16 season, Hughie had scored more than 70 goals, as many of the Parkhead team went on to sign for professional clubs.
With the start of the 1916-17 season looming, the time eventually arrived for Hughie to join his hometown club and pull on the claret and amber. In his own words ‘if the Manchester City deal was off, then Motherwell was the only club I would think about.’
With a prolific goalscoring record at junior and amateur level, Hughie made his professional debut in a 2-2 draw against Raith Rovers in 1916. Unsurprisingly, he scored both goals. It would only take him two weeks to score his first professional hat trick.
In his first season at Fir Park, his game time would be somewhat limited through injury. As a result, he would only go on to net 25 goals- which was fourth highest in the league and he was responsible for over half of Motherwell’s goals. Not a bad start his Motherwell career.
His second season at Motherwell would also be laden with goals and success stories. Scoring 34 goals, he was the highest scoring Scottish player come the end of the league season and helped his team finish fifth in the table, a record at the time.
Motherwell would see a dip in form but Hughie would record 19 goals in the 1918-19 season, albeit was his lowest scoring tally for the club.
He would go on to net 11 goals in six matches in the 1919-20 season and scored in every game he featured up until 6 October. The goals would continue to flow for the entirety of the campaign as Motherwell finished a record breaking third in the league with Ferguson claiming 33 goals.
Despite clubs taking note of Hughie, his focus remained at Motherwell and he would go on to have a record breaking season at Fir Park in 1920-21 where he would score 42 goals in the league, a new record in Scotland for goals scored in a single season.
The bids began to fly in for Hughie with the likes of Manchester City, Everton, Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic all interested but his heart remained in Lanarkshire as the forward turned down all offers.
Hughie would stay on the books at Motherwell until the November 1925 when he moved to Cardiff City to help raise funds for the club.
A fee of £5,000 was agreed between the two clubs, as the local steelworks closed for half-an-hour to allow the workers to wave their hero for many years away for the final time. Something like this was never seen before.
Large crowds gathered at the train station also to see him on his way and thank him for his tremendous service to the club.
The goals would continue in Blue for Hughie as he netted the winner in the 1927 FA Cup Final against Arsenal. He would continue to break record after record, including scoring 32 goals in a season and becoming the highest scoring player in English and Scottish football on 352 goals.
He would pick up the Charity Shield and Welsh Cup in his time in Wales before making the journey back home to Scotland to play for Dundee in 1929.
Despite vocalising his desire to return to Motherwell, Ferguson would remain at Dens Park where goals would be difficult to come by due to injury.
On the 8 January 1930, Hughie Ferguson tragically died aged 34 at Dens Park following a training session. He would later be buried in Airbles Cemetery.
Making over 346 appearances for Motherwell and scoring a remarkable 284 goals, Hughie Ferguson will forever be remembered for his remarkable goalscoring record but he was much more than just that.
He broke records and engrained himself into the Motherwell history books for the rest of time but he also forged a path for Motherwell to reach heights never seen before, he was a true pioneer for this football club and for that, we welcome him into the Motherwell FC Hall of Fame.
We will never forget those who have forged the path to where the club sits at present day. Some with us and some sadly not, we want to come together to celebrate the proud history we have at Motherwell Football Club.
This year, the event will take place at Dalziel Park Hotel on Friday 17 November, with host Tam Cowan inducting five new names.
If you would like to attend our night of celebration, tickets cost £66 for adults and £30 for children under the age of 12 are on sale now.
You can buy tickets for the dinner online or contact the commercial department on 01698 338011.
Please note than some of the colourful language on the night may not be appropriate for young children or those easily offended.
