Johnny Fullam

John Rowan "Johnny" Fullam (22 March 1940 – 10 June 2015) was an Irish association footballer.

Johnny Fullam
Personal information
Full name John Rowan Fullam
Date of birth (1940-03-22)22 March 1940
Place of birth Dublin, Ireland
Date of death 10 June 2015(2015-06-10) (aged 75)
Place of death Dublin, Ireland
Position(s) Wing-half
Youth career
1956–1958 Home Farm
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1958–1961 Preston North End 49 (6)
1961–1969 Shamrock Rovers 148 (21)
1967 → Boston Rovers (loan) ? (0)
1969–1976 Bohemians 174 (13)
1976–1979 Shamrock Rovers 80 (3)
1979–1980 Athlone Town 30 (1)
Total ? (44)
National team
1960—1969 Republic of Ireland 11 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

Born in Dublin, Fullam began his career at Home Farm before signing for Preston North End in 1958. He scored 6 goals in 49 league appearances for Preston.[1]

In 1961 he was asked to guest on Shamrock Rovers tour of America on the understanding that he would sign for the club. He scored his first goal in a competitive match from the penalty spot against Transport in a League of Ireland Shield game on 20 August 1961. He suffered a serious knee injury in February 1962 and missed Rovers FAI Cup win that season.

He made his European debut in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup against PFC Botev Plovdiv and won his first Shield medal in 1962/63. Johnny was a regular member of Rovers' all-conquering side of 1963/64 when the Hoops almost made a clean sweep of the domestic trophies. He was one of five Rovers' players who were on the League of Ireland XI side that beat the English Football League side 2–1 at Dalymount Park on 2 October 1963. Just over a week later he played against Valencia CF and the Rovers drew 2–2.

Johnny won the first of his six FAI Cup medals with Rovers in 1964 and in the replayed final the following year he scored the winner. He scored against Real Zaragoza in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1965.[2] The following year he scored again in Europe in the 4–1 win over Spora Luxembourg and had two great games against FC Bayern Munich where Rovers were seven minutes from putting the eventual winners of the competition.

He was on the mark in Europe again in 1968 against Randers FC but a knee injury he received in March 1969 kept him out of Rovers' record making six-in-a-row FAI Cup Final win. He signed for Bohemians shortly after and won yet another FAI Cup in his first season at Dalymount Park. In 1975, he won the League with Bohs and picked up another FAI Cup in 1976. He made 8 appearances in European competition for Bohs. He signed back for Rovers in the 1976 close season and captained the Milltown club to his eighth FAI Cup win in 1978. He was given a free transfer by Johnny Giles at the end of the 1978/79 season.[3]

Fullam finished his League of Ireland career at Athlone Town, signing for them with Mick Smyth in August 1979.[4] His last League of Ireland game was the final game of the 1979–80 League of Ireland season at St Mel's Park when Limerick United won the league.

He played well over 400 League of Ireland games. He had played for Rovers for eleven seasons in two spells and he was a worthy recipient of the Shamrock Rovers Hall of Fame award in 1991. He earned 11 caps playing for Republic of Ireland national football team,[1] 10 while with Rovers. He holds the Rovers record for the most European appearances with 19 scoring the aforementioned 3 goals.

Honours

References
  1. Johnny Fullam profile, neilbrown.newcastlefans.com; accessed 18 January 2016.
  2. Shamrock Rovers v Real Zaragoza Archived 17 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, shamrockrovers.ie; accessed 29 November 2015.
  3. Profile, Irish Times, 11 May 1979.
  4. Profile, Irish Times, 2 August 1979.
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