During Jock Hutton's days at Pittodrie another player arrived on the scene to capture the imagination of the Scottish selectors. Alex Jackson had started his senior career with Dumbarton at the tender age of 17 years old before heading stateside with brother Walter to turn out for Bethlehem FC in Pennsylvania. After
only a year in the USA the brothers became unsettled and prompted by another US exile, former Don Jock Hume, Aberdeen moved in to sign the pair for less than £1,000 in 1924.
Alex proved to be the more talented of the two and almost immediately it became clear that here was a player of exceptional talent. Jackson possessed all the qualities that make a truly great player; speed, balance, close control and quickness of thought and he really looked the part with his tall, graceful movements. In what
proved to be his one and only season at Pittodrie, Alex Jackson was capped, still only 19 years old, in all three 1925 home internationals, although curiously, he never lined up for Scotland with Jock Hutton while both were Dons.
At the end of the 1924-25 season, Aberdeen fans had to swallow the bitter pill of seeing this true great of Scottish football take the road south to Huddersfield for a club record fee of £5,000. At Leeds Road Alex fulfilled his potential and went on to ensure immortality by scoring a hat-trick at Wembley in the famous "Wembley Wizards" international of 1928. In 1930 he moved to Chelsea for £8,500, before ending his career with a spell overseas with French side Nice. Alex Jackson died on November 15, 1946, as a result of a road accident while serving with the army in Egypt.
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