Background
Surtees was born in Willington Quay, Wallsend, Northumberland and played football for Percy Main Amateurs in the Northern Football Alliance before as a 20-year-old he was signed by Division One side Middlesbrough.
Surtees was born in Willington Quay, Wallsend, Northumberland and played football for Percy Main Amateurs in the Northern Football Alliance before as a 20-year-old he was signed by Division One side Middlesbrough.
He played for Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest. Surtees was an inside forward who made 156 League appearances plus 15 in the Field Artillery Cup, scoring 36 goals. Early days
He only made one appearance in the 1931-1932 season before he moved to Portsmouth for the following season.
Once again Surtees only made one appearance for the south coast club before moving to Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic of the Third Division South in an exchange deal involving Surtees and John Friar going to Bournemouth and Len Williams moving in the opposite direction.
He established himself in a struggling Bournemouth team playing 21 times in the 1933-1934 season, at the end of which the club had to apply for re-election. Surtees changed teams once again for the 1934-1935 season, joining Northampton Town in May 1934 but he had an unhappy time at the County Ground failing to make a first team appearance.
So discontented was Surtees with his football career at this point that he agreed a release from his contract with Northampton and arranged to emigrate to North America. Sheffield Wednesday
Surtees arrived at Hillsborough in November 1934 and contrary to his earlier career, his fine form was an eye-opener, so much so that he was given a first team chance on Christmas Day 1934 in a 2–0 home victory against Birmingham City when Ronnie Starling was rested.
Surtees retained his place, even though Starling returned to the side with Harry Burgess losing his position in the team after a fall out with the manager.
Surtees lost his place in the Wednesday side in early 1936 with the emergence of a young Jackie Robinson and was transferred to Nottingham Forest in October 1936 for a fee of £2,500. Later career
Surtees stayed with Forest until the outbreak of World World War II playing regularly in a side which were struggling at the wrong end of the Second Division playing 96 games in all competitions. During the war he played occasionally for Forest and also as a guest for York City until he was appointed manager of Darlington in May 1942 for a brief period.
In November 1948 he returned to Sheffield Wednesday in a scouting capacity, a position he held until 1960.
Jack Surtees died on 16 July 1992, aged 81.