Born in Blackburn, a 15 year old Chadwick began his football career at Little Dots FC. He took the leap to professional football with Blackburn Olympic in 1886. After a single season at the club, he joined Blackburn Rovers in 1887. His stay at Rovers only lasted for a season as well.

We will now look back at Chadwick's time at Everton, as England saw the rise of one of its earliest superstars.

Debut season at Everton

Chadwick was believed to be 5 ft 6 in height, who excelled when it came to dribbling with the ball. It was on 1st July 1888 that he signed for Everton. The forward's debut came 2 months later on September 8th. An interesting fact is that Everton's home at the time was Anfield, which is widely known as Liverpool's legendary stadium.

The match was against Accrington, which ended in a 2-1 win for Everton. Chadwick's debut came at the age of 19 years and 86 days, which made him Everton's youngest player at the time. Just a week later on September 15th, Chadwick scored his debut goal in Everton's 2-1 victory over Notts County.

As the 1888-89 season concluded, Chadwick took part in all the 22 League matches played by Everton. The Englishman was also the only player to have taken part in 22 games that campaign. His 6 league goals also made him that season's club top scorer.

The legendary run

The Englishman was a vital part in Everton's first two years as a Football League team. Everton managed to finish the 1889-90 season as runners-up, with Chadwick managing to score 9 goals that season.

It was in the following 1890-91 season that Everton and Chadwick made history, as they won the League Championship. Chadwick was a major driving force behind the success, scoring 10 and also providing several assists to  forwards Fred Geary and Alf Milward ( who scored 20 and 12 goals respectively). Everton were going through an attacking rampage at the time, with the Merseyside club scoring 63 goals from 22 games.

It was in the year of 1891 that Chadwick's heroics for Everton led to a call up by the England team. Alongside teammate Alf Milward, Chadwick made his international debut in the British Home Championship match against Wales on 7th March 1891. England won the match 4-1, with both Chadwick and Milward scoring a goal each.

Chadwick's signature trick at the time was to run with the ball parallel to the goal line, drawing the goalkeeper in the direction of the post, before hooking the ball into the opposite corner of the net. This led to the player being nicknamed as  "Hooky".

Continued dominance

Everton and Chadwick managed to reach the FA Cup finals in 1893, but ended up losing 1-0 to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite this setback, the club established itself as a dominant force in the seasons that followed.

They managed to finish as league runners up in the 1894–95 campaign, which was followed by yet another FA Cup final appearance in 1897. However, they suffered defeat once again with a 3-2 loss to Aston Villa.

Chadwick spent two further seasons at Everton, before joining Burnley in May 1899.

Legacy

During his wonderful 11 year journey with the club, Chadwick made 270 league appearances for Everton and scored 97 goals. Another 13 goals came in his 30 FA Cup games as well.

His goal scoring record ranks him eighth in the all-time list of Everton goal-scorers, and he did it at a time when the game was in its early phase of evolution.

The Englishman is one of the earliest legends in Everton history, and will forever remain as an influential part of the club.