Player #117 for Aston Villa, James Whitehouse, known as Jimmy Whitehouse, and nicknamed Ripper played as a goalkeeper for the club.

Jimmy represented Villa in 1896-97 and 1897-98.

Jimmy was born in Birmingham, just 3 miles from Villa Park, on the 9th April 1873 and made his debut as a 23 year old on 5th September 1896.

Villa had signed Jimmy from Grimsby Town for £200 and he went on to represent the club 43 times.

The fee was a record fee for a goalkeeper at the time. In his time with the Villa Jimmy won 2 major trophies - the league and FA Cup double in 1896-97.

Jimmy was the eighteenth custodian of the Villa goal in League and Cup football.

In his 43 games for Villa, Jimmy conceded 59 goals at a ratio of 1.37 goals per game, and kept 12 clean sheets at the time this represented the best performance by a Villa keeper over a run of 10 games or more.

Jimmy played in 22 of 30 of Villa’s games in the 1896-97 Championship winning season keeping 9 clean sheets.

Whilst Jimmy only played twice in the 1896-97 FA Cup campaign one of those was the final, held at Crystal Palace, London in front of 65,891 people, as Villa recovered from a 2-1 deficit to beat Everton, 3-2.

By a twist of fate, as rival teams for the league title were involved in league matches on the afternoon of the 1896-97 FA Cup Final, results meant that Villa’s lead at the top of the table became unassailable.

Therefore, Villa became the only club to have won the League and FA Cup on the same day.

Jimmy’s final game for Villa came on the 30th April 1898 aged 25 after which he moved to Bedminster FC.

Jimmy played under the George Ramsay led Management Committee.

Jimmy passed away in Birmingham on the 7th February 1924 aged 50.