fullname years death_date death_place clubs birth_place caps goals position birth_date article_title name
joseph morris bates ? 1886-1890 6 september 1905 woolwich , london , england nottingham forest royal arsenal nottingham , england 0 0 0 0 full-back may 22 , 1864 morris bates
 morris bates
morris bates

joseph morris bates -lrb- 1864 -- september 6 , 1905 -rrb- , usually known as morris bates , was an english footballer .
bates first played as an amateur for nottingham forest , before moving south to london to take up work at the royal arsenal in woolwich -lrb- along with former team-mate fred beardsley -rrb- .
there , he met several other keen football fans , including jack humble and david danskin , and together they formed dial square football club in 1886 ; the club were soon renamed royal arsenal , and are today known simply as arsenal .
bates continued to officiate as an umpire at some of forest 's games ; with fred beardsley , he was responsible for obtaining a set of red kit from their old club forest , giving arsenal the colours they still wear .
bates played 73 first-team matches for royal arsenal , mainly as a full-back , in the fa cup -lrb- including the gunners ' very first fa cup tie , against lyndhurst on october 5 , 1889 -rrb- and various regional competitions .
bates went on to become arsenal 's captain and earned the nickname `` the iron man '' , with a reputation for his powerful heading of the ball , in an era when footballs were far heavier and more dangerous to head than they are now .
he skippered arsenal to their first trophy wins -- the kent senior cup and london charity cup in 1890 .
bates was 36 by the time of the cup wins and decided he was getting too old for the game ; he quit playing for the royal arsenal first team in the summer of 1890 .
unlike beardsley or danskin , he did not maintain his association with the club after retiring , as no mention of him is made in subsequent records .
he continued to work at the royal arsenal , specialising in maxim guns , until his death from tuberculosis at 41 .
