Fergus Suter

Fergie Suter was a likeable man by all accounts, a keen sportsman he was a member of the Partick Glasgow team that played friendly games in Lancashire during 1877. Along with teammate Jimmy Love he settled in Darwen and they both signed with Darwen FC. Jimmy Love as well as playing for the club also worked at the Orchard mill, wereas Fergie who was a stonemason by trade was never seen doing any, so giving rise to the rumours he was being paid by Darwen for playing, this would have made him the first professional footballer, but it was never proven, Darwen always denied paying for his services, but as Furgus later put it " I would interview the tresurer as occasion arose".
He played for Darwen against the Old Etonians in the three match quarter final FA cup tie in 1879, and the semi-final match of 1881 against the Old Carthusians both of which Darwen lost. He caused an outcry in 1881 when he signed for local rivals Blackburn Rovers, he played with the Rovers in four FA Cup finals in all, winning three winners medals 1883/4/5, and a losers medal in 1882. By the time Rovers reached the final again in 1890 Fergie had retired from the game. Although one of the best players of his generation Fergie never got to represent Scotland mainly because of the stigma that was attached to him being a professional, and by the time the Football League was formed in 1888 Fergie could not command a place in the Rovers first team -- the only League game he ever played was in 1889 as a stand-in goalkeeper for the Rovers . After hanging up his boots he became a prominent man in Darwen in the years leading upto the Great war, being licencee of the Millstone and White Lion hotels for many years, around 1918 he retired and moved to Blackpool where he died in the late 1920's, his friend Jimmy Love had joined the Royal Navy in 1880 and was killed in the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. In August 2000 Fergie's gold winners medal from the 1885 final was auctioned at Sotherbys London, it fetched the sum of £6,500 bought by a anonymous collector.