Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Charles Nicklas[1] | ||
Date of birth | [1] | 26 April 1930||
Place of birth | Sunderland, England | ||
Date of death | 26 July 2018[2] | (aged 88)||
Place of death | Sunderland, England | ||
Height | 5 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1.74 m)[3] | ||
Position(s) | Centre forward | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1950 | Silksworth Colliery Welfare | ||
1950–1953 | Hull City | 6 | (1) |
1953–1954 | Darlington | 17 | (6) |
1954–1955 | Headington United | 13 | (4) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Charles Nicklas (26 April 1930 – 26 July 2018) was an English footballer who played as a centre forward in the Football League for Hull City and Darlington. Before joining Hull, Nicklas played non-league football for Silksworth Colliery Welfare, and after leaving Darlington he played in the Southern League for Headington United.[1][4]
Nicklas was born in 1930 in Sunderland, which was then in County Durham.[1] He played as a wing half before what the Sunderland Echo described as a promising career was interrupted by National Service in the Royal Air Force.[3] He began playing for Wearside League club Silksworth Colliery Welfare at the start of the 1950–51 season,[5] but soon went on trial with Football League Second Division club Hull City, and turned professional with that club in December 1950.[6]
He made his first-team debut a year later, on 27 October 1951, playing in the unaccustomed position of centre forward; although he had played a few reserve matches in that position, the Yorkshire Post doubted that "a home match against a team playing as strongly as Rotherham United are just now is the ideal occasion" for a youngster's debut.[7] Rotherham took a three-goal lead, but Hull came back to draw, and Nicklas scored their opener: he "had his faults, but dash, speed and courage were not among them. He harassed [the goalkeeper] into a goal offering and accepted it with glee".[8] He was known for his pace, having competed in professional sprint races.[3] Nicklas played five more matches for Hull, the last of which was on 22 March 1952.[9]
Nicklas stayed with the club until the end of the following season, when he moved on to Darlington of the Third Division North.[1] He scored six goals from seventeen league matches for Darlington,[1] and spent the 1954–55 season with Headington United in the Southern League, scoring four goals from fourteen matches in all competitions.[10]
Nicklas, a nephew of Sunderland and Fulham player Barney Travers,[3] died in his native Sunderland in 2018 at the age of 88.[2]