He remains the only British professional footballer to have been murdered.
Quote from: "dave.woodhall" He remains the only British professional footballer to have been murdered.After some of the things professionals have gotten up to since, that remains an astounding fact.
Is that chicken story true?My lot are from Perry Barr and tell a very different tale of why his neighbour shot him. Mind you they've never been ones to let the truth get in the way of a good story ;-)
My grandad used to take me down to see the grave and tell me the story of Tommy Ball.It always looked in ok state to me. This was in about 1974, mind.
Thomas Ball lived in Brick Kiln Lane, Perry Barr, with his wife Beatrice. They were on unfriendly terms with their neighbour, George Stagg. It was believed that the main cause of friction was the Ball's pet dog (or chickens), which regularly got into Stagg's garden. On the night of 12th November 1924, the Balls returned from the Church Tavern to find Stagg waiting for them. An argument broke out and Stagg, a First World War veteran, shot Ball, who died almost immediately. He remains the only British professional footballer to have been murdered. Stagg was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released from prison in 1945 and died in the mid-sixties.