By Will Foster

Perhaps no game better sums up the brilliant promotion winning side of the 1936/37 season than the visit of Cardiff City on the 2nd of January. The visitors, who were sitting in mid-table and certainly no pushovers, found themselves hammered 8-1 by a Luton side displaying some of the best forward play Kenilworth Road had even seen.

Two players helped themselves to a hat-trick. Joe Payne, perhaps inevitably, was one. The other was another of the great goalscoring wingers that Luton have been fortunate enough to have over the years. His name was George Stephenson.

Stephenson was born in County Durham in 1910 into a family of coal miners. Indeed he worked as coal miner himself while playing amateur football in the area for Stillington St John's and Durham City. Then, after a failed trial at Huddersfield in 1929, where Clem Stephenson was manager, he ended up signing for Aston Villa two years later, where Clem’s brother, also George, had been a popular figure in the previous decade.

Having a famous namesake at Villa Park perhaps did George no favours. Given both were northern lads who played in the forward line comparisons were inevitable, and it took a few months to break into the first team. When he finally did he was thrown into the deep end – an FA Cup 3rd Round tie against West Bromwich Albion in-front of a near 50,000 crowd at the Hawthorns. Such was the importance of the game British Pathe produced a video reel.

“It was an ordeal for a newcomer to make his bow on such an occasion…the atmosphere was enough to create wholly disturbing currents, especially as he was on the left wing and in one sense isolated but on the other too near to a roaring crowd,” noted the local press.

He’d make only three more appearances for Villa all of which came in the weeks following the West Brom game. Then, unable to dislodge Villa great Eric Houghton from the side, he found himself relegated to the reserves for the next two and half seasons before interest materialised from ambitious Luton in the summer of 1934.

It was first reported that the transfer was agreed at Trent Bridge while England faced Australia in an Ashes Test Match. In reality the negotiations took place in a hotel a couple of miles away from the ground, but either way Luton had secured themselves a new left outside-left and one who would quickly become a favourite at Kenilworth Road.

A stocky, robust player, the crowds loved his surging play on the wings. Indeed, given he also shared a name with the man known at the ‘Father of the Railways’, it was perhaps no surprise that he ran up the pitch like a steam train. Supporters roared as he’d run clear of a defence or beat his man, and like all wingers the chance to ply his trade closer to the fans likely created an even stronger connection.

Though noted as mercurial he was also remarkably consistent. In his first two seasons he played 45 and then 44 times, scoring 14 goals in each. He was a great provider too, laying on goals for a forward line that dripped with talent and skill – be it Joe Payne, Fred Roberts, Jack Ball or others.

His high point at Kenilworth Road came in that 1936/37 season where, including his hat-trick against Cardiff, he notched 20 goals in 43 games as Luton finally secured a long awaited promotion to the 2nd tier. The step up in level caused him little problem and he was a regular right up to the outbreak of World War Two, playing in all three games of the 1939/1940 season which was abandoned with the Hatters sitting atop of Division 2 (now the Championship).

He didn’t return to football after the war. His time at Kenilworth Road had totalled 215 appearances and an impressive 69 goals, becoming Luton’s 7th top scorer at the time of his retirement behind only Syd Reid, Joe Payne, Jimmy Yardley, Herbert Moody, Ernie Simms and Andy Rennie.

He returned to his native North East later in life and became steward of the Conservative Club in the Portrack area of Stockton-on-Tees. He retained a strong interest in Luton and remained good friends with Payne, Fred Roberts and Tom Mackey in particular. Sadly he died suddenly in 1964 at the age of just 54, his funeral attended by a large crowd of 200.

His final visit to Kenilworth Road had come the previous year when Town took on Middlesbrough. In a remarkable game, perhaps now best known for Harry Walden being taken off on a pallet after the stretcher was accidentally locked in a cupboard, Luton raced into a three-nil lead before being pegged back and needing a late winner from Gordon Turner. It was the kind of exciting game that George himself would no doubt have enjoyed playing in.

Below: A proud memoment as Stephenson faces his old club Aston Villa in Town's first game back in the 2nd Division at Kenilworth Road.