Bruce Bannister
English footballer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bruce Ian Bannister (born 14 April 1947) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a striker, and is also a businessperson in sports shoe and apparel sales and distribution.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Bruce Ian Bannister[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 14 April 1947 | ||
| Place of birth | Bradford, England | ||
| Position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Leeds United | |||
| 1963–1965 | Bradford City | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1965–1971 | Bradford City | 208 | (60) |
| 1971–1976 | Bristol Rovers | 206 | (80) |
| 1976–1977 | Plymouth Argyle | 24 | (7) |
| 1977–1980 | Hull City | 85 | (20) |
| 1980–1982 | USL Dunkerque | ||
| Total | 523 | (167) | |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Football career
Born in Bradford, Bannister played for Leeds United, Bradford City, Bristol Rovers, Plymouth Argyle, Hull City and USL Dunkerque.[1][2][3][4]
At Bradford City, he was known for scoring a "wonder goal" in 1968, an overhead kick.[5]
While at Bristol Rovers, Bannister and teammate Alan Warboys developed the 'Smash and Grab' method of football.[6]
Business career
Bannister founded Sportsshoes in 1982. In 1985, Sportsshoes launched its mail order service, and later became one of the first retailers to launch an e-commerce website.[7] The business was later taken over by Bannister's son Brett, and became an exclusively online and mail order operation.[8]