Cuthbert Ottaway Cuthbert Ottaway Cuthbert John Ottaway (19 July 1850 – 2 April 1878), was an English footballer. He was the first captain of the England football team and led his side in the first official international football match. Representing his university at five different sports – a record that remains unmatched – Ottaway was also a noted cricketer until his retirement shortly before his early death at the age of only 27. Cuthbert Ottaway was born in Dover, the only child of James Ottaway, a surgeon and former mayor of the town. He was educated at Eton (where he was a
Cuthbert Ottaway King's Scholar) and at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he displayed a versatility as a sportsman matched only by his near-contemporary Alfred Lyttelton. Representing his school in the annual cricket match against Harrow, twice victor in the Public Schools' Rackets Doubles Championship, and winning Blues for representing his university at football (1874), cricket (1870–73), racquets (1870–73), athletics (1873) and real tennis (1870–72), Ottaway was – an Oxford newspaper remembered after his death – "a great cricketer... the best amateur racquet player of his time, a capital football player and a fair sprint runner. It has fallen to the lot of few