Sam Chedgzoy
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Sam Chedgzoy (27 January 1890 - 7 January 1967) was an English football player who changed the laws of the game, and played for Everton F.C. from 1910 to 1926.
Prior to 1924 a goal could only be scored from a corner kick if another player made contact with the ball. In that year, the Football Association (FA) changed the laws of football so that a goal could be scored directly from a corner kick (without another player touching the ball). However, the wording of the new law was vague.
A Liverpool Echo sports journalist, Ernest Edwards, informed the Everton side of the lack of precision in the new rules. During a game against Tottenham Hotspur, Everton gained a corner kick that Chedgzoy took. Instead of crossing the ball in, he dribbled the ball into the penalty area and scored while the other players and referee looked on in shock - and then he successfully persuaded the referee that the rules permitted this way of scoring a goal.
After deliberation by the FA, it was decided that the goal was legal, and the law was amended making it clear that the player taking the corner could only strike the ball once before another player must make contact. This ensures that corner kicks cannot become corner dribbles, but also permits a goal to be scored direct from a corner.
Born in Ellesmere Port, Chedgzoy specialised as a right winger. Everton were runners up in the then top division, Division 1, in the 1911/12 season — and won Division 1 outright in 1914/15. In total, Chedgzoy made 300 appearances for Everton and scored 36 goals. He also won 8 caps playing for the England team.
After his time at Everton, in 1926 he emigrated to the United States where he continued his playing career with the New Bedford Whalers. In 1930 he moved to the Montreal Carsteel as player-coach, where he remained for ten years. He made his final appearance for Carsteel in the Canadian Club Final in 1939 at the age of fifty. He remained in Montreal until his death.
