Nat Lofthouse (1946–1960, Bolton Wanderers and England)

Born in Bolton in 1925, Nat Lofthouse joined his hometown club as a teenager in 1939 and made his wartime debut in 1941 at the age of 15, scoring twice. Conscripted as a Bevin Boy to work in a colliery during the war, he combined shifts down the pit with playing. His official league debut came in August 1946, when he again scored twice, and he went on to spend his entire career with Bolton Wanderers, one of the most celebrated one-club men in English football.

A powerful, fearless centre-forward, Lofthouse became the club’s record goalscorer and one of the most feared strikers of the 1950s. He was named the FWA Footballer of the Year for 1952-53 and finished as the First Division’s leading scorer in 1955-56. He scored in every round on the way to the 1953 FA Cup final, only to end on the losing side, but five years later he captained Bolton to victory in the 1958 FA Cup final, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win, the second a controversial effort that bundled the goalkeeper and the ball over the line.

For England he scored 30 goals in just 33 games between 1950 and 1958, one of the finest scoring ratios in the national team’s history, and his 30th made him his country’s record goalscorer at the time. He earned the nickname Lion of Vienna in 1952 after scoring the winner in a 3-2 victory over Austria, charging clear to finish despite being battered in the challenge. He retired in 1960 following an ankle injury, having stayed loyal to Bolton throughout, and was an inaugural inductee into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

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Nat Lofthouse – Rookie Cards and Significant Issues

Lofthouse’s playing career came before the sticker era, so his cards belong to the trade, confectionery and bubblegum sets that British manufacturers produced through the 1950s. The issues collectors look for run from the Barratt Famous Footballers cards of the early 1950s to the gum and trade cards that followed, picturing him in his prime as Bolton’s number 9.

His key catalogued issues, in order, are:

• Barratt Famous Footballers A.1 (1953) #15
• Barratt Famous Footballers A.2 (1954) #10
• Barratt Famous Footballers A.4 (1956) #51
• 1957-58 Kane International Football Stars #7
• Chix Famous Footballers (1961) #38

See the 2002 Hall of Fame Inductees or browse the full list.