Jess Sproson

The first of the Sproson footballing dynasty, Jess was the older brother of Roy, and father of Phil Sproson.

Jess was born in Fenton on 17th April 1918, and came through the ranks of Vale's juniors to sign as a professional in January 1940, making his debut away to local rivals Crewe Alexandra on 10th February that year.

The lack of league football during the war meant that photo's of Jess are rare - the picture shown here is taken from a derby line-up v. Stoke City on November 18th 1944, and is thought by many (including his family) to be the only one ever taken.

Although there is little documentation of Jess's career, there is no doubt that he played an important role in the shaping of Vale's future. As Stoke dallied over offering Roy terms upon his National service demob, it was Jess who took him to meet then Vale manager Gordon Hodgson, who impressed Roy so much that he signed on the spot! Jess also intervened as Stoke again showed an interest - this time in Phil - steering him in the direction of Vale Park to continue in the family trade. So despite never having played at league level for the club, Jess had a far greater impact on Potteries football than he could probably have ever imagined.

It would be interesting to wonder how many games the Sproson family would have totalled while wearing Vale colours had it not been for the war, and had Jess not received his unfortunate career-ending injury in January 1946, finally retiring in January of 1947 at the age of 28.

Jess Sproson

Appearances: 38

Goals: 1