John Tasker was originally a boot and shoemaker, who turned his skills to engineering and telephony and founded the company, John Tasker Engineering Ltd, originally based on Division Street, Sheffield. The site is now the location of one of Sheffield city centre’s most popular pubs, the award-winning Frog & Parrot.
On the 14th of October 1878, John Tasker enabled the very first football match played under floodlights anywhere in the world using his electrical engineering expertise. We take watching football at night for granted now but it was Tasker who pioneered and made real the idea that we didn’t need to play football matches only before the sun set. Many top matches are now played at night. Internationals, the Champions League Final, ordinary league matches etc…
The match in October 1878 was played at Bramall Lane & between two elite Sheffield teams called ‘Reds’ and ‘Blues’. The crowd was reported as almost 20,000, many of whom turned up just to see the novelty of the floodlights which were far were more exciting than the match itself, which ended in a dull 0-0 draw. The four floodlights, powered by generators, sat on 30 foot high wooden stages and the publicity for the match proclaimed; “The Electric Light to be used for the illumination of the ground will be equal to 8,000 candles and will be supplied by Messrs Tasker & Co, of Sheffield”.
Thanks to John tasker, the world’s first floodlit football match goes down in history as yet another Sheffield world association football first.
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