Echoes From Abroad
Although spending his second season in British Isles soccer, local fans have not yet forgotten the brilliancy of Alex Jackson when he sported the colors of Bethlehem on the Steel Workers' front line and can readily understand why critics marvel at his skill and hail him as the greatest overseas soccer find of the past several seasons. Among the publications that reach this desk, one comes from abroad, the Sports Post, paying tribute to young Jackson with the following:
There are eleven players in the Huddersfield Town eleven, and every man almost has a personality arresting enough to be included in this series of pen-pictures of great players. This is mentioned because choice falls upon the latest addition to the Town ranks, Alexander Jackson, who is also the youngest man the side possesses, and such distinction must be somewhat flattering under the circumstances. But this Scot's lad, whose entry into English football in his 21st year has created such a furor, is a player with such a remarkable career in front of him that other better known players will forgive his selection. Alexander Jackson saw the light of day at Renton in 1904,when such players as Bobby M'Call, W. C. Hamilton, Bobby Walker, Barney Battles, Jock Drummond, Andy Aitken, Alec Ralsbeck, Jack Robertson, Johnny Campbell and Alec Smith were making the world talk about their prowess. He seemed to have been born with a genius for the game and he has a brother, older then himself, with this same conspicuous ability. Already, young Alex has managed to play football in Norway when his first club, Dunbarton, went tour; to shine in U. S. A., when he and his brother tired their luck with the Bethlehem club in the American League, and in Denmark and Sweden last summer shortly after his transfer to Huddersfield Town.
"There can be no doubt that Jackson's early travels broadened his ideas and his ability. Experience is the hardest taskmaster of all, so that it was no surprise that when he returned from America in 1925 that he should be snapped up by Aberdeen and that he should play for his native country in all three International matches last season -- his first real effort in Scottish League football. Nor is it surprising that Herbert Chapman, regarded him as a player who, at 20 years, was worth any money for a team like Huddersfield Town. The writer has never heard the exact amount Huddersfield Town paid for Jackson, but it is known that another club offered Aberdeen 4,500 pounds for him -- an offer which was refused. It need not, of course, be inferred that Huddersfield necessarily paid more than, or even as much as, that amount.
"What is this youthful prodigy like? Well, he's tall, straight as a cane; but with the resiliency of a young willow tree; when football breezes blow his way, Jackson bends to the work that is brought for him to do. One moment he is tall, straight, subdued; the next he is a thing of grace, of action, of fire, of -- he's just alive with every mortal picture which shows activity. He's light, too, as a player he lacks poundage. He doesn't turn a beam at much over ten stone, and he's slender. But he is like a kitten on his toes.
"His judgment of position play is immense. He makes up his mind in a moment, and he acts almost as quickly as he thinks. But, no doubt, if you were to ask this clean-limbed youngster, he would admit that he has put in many hours of long, plodding practice -- the ball practice which has made him the player he is today. And if you think the picture has been over-drawn -- well let his career down the next decade be the referee."