Jennings: Thomas Hamilton Oliver (Tom)

1925-1931 (Player Details)

Centre Forward

Born: Strathaven, Lanarkshire: 08-03-1902

Debut: v Sheffield United (h): 14-03-1925

5’8” 12st (1925)

#65 in 100 Greatest LUFC Players Ever

Jennings played for Strathaven Academy, won a Scottish Juvenile Cup-Winners’ medal with Cadzow St Anne and was rejected by Spurs after trials in 1919. He joined Raith Rovers in January 1921 and was a member of the team shipwrecked en route to the Canary Islands. He soon established a reputation in their free-scoring attack, which also included Alex James and Jimmy McClelland, who netted all five Middlesbrough goals against Leeds in the FA Cup in 1926. Jennings joined Leeds in March 1925. In the 1925-26 season he was ever-present and the following season scored thirty-five goals, including three successive hat-tricks, a feat equaled only by Gilbert Allsopp in 1939 and Liverpool’s Jack Balmer in 1947. Despite Jennings’ deadly marksmanship, United were relegated that season. He continued to score at a tremendous rate and would have increased this total but for bouts of blood-poisoning which sidelined him. After one hundred and twelve goals in one hundred and sixty-seven League games he went to Chester City in June 1931. Before John Charles, Jennings held Leeds’ records for aggregate League goals, one hundred and twelve, and the seasonal best of thirty-five. With Chester City he scored thirty-one times in his first season. Jennings officially scored Chester's first ever Football League goal in a 1–1 draw with Wrexham on 2nd September 1931. Although Chester had beaten Wigan Borough 4-0 four days earlier (with Jennings scoring the third goal), the result was deleted after Wigan resigned from the Football League in October 1931.Later in the season he scored Chester's first Football League hat-trick, when he scored all the club's goals in a 5–1 win over Walsall in January 1932. His tally of five goals in one game has only been matched once (by Barry Jepson in 1958) and never bettered by a Chester player in a Football League fixture. Jennings also scored four times in a 7–2 win over Rochdale in April 1932 and comfortably ended the season as Chester's top scorer, with 30 League goals to his name. But he only played nine more League games for the club after this and moved on. In League games he scored thirty-three times in forty-eight games. He later managed Bangor City, who he joined in 1933, and Third Lanark. Despite his record, Jennings was never capped by Scotland, although he played in a trial, scoring for the Anglo-Scots in a 1-1 draw with the Home-Scots in March 1928. He died in Johnstone on 2nd July 1973, aged seventy-one. His brother, Charlie, was also on Raith’s books.