Newcastle were a dominant force at the time with Rutherford picking up three First Division medals, and played in five FA Cup finals.
[3][4][5] At the start of the 1913–14 season, Rutherford fell out with the Newcastle management over his wages, and he was promptly sold to Woolwich Arsenal, who had just been relegated to the Second Division.
Despite being 35 when first-class football resumed in 1919, he continued to play regularly for Arsenal who had been promoted back to the First Division for another four seasons.
[2] There were testing times for Stoke who after being promoted to the First Division the year before were now four points adrift at the bottom of the table with one win in 11.
Then the saga took a bizarre twist: as Stoke were still waiting him to return to the club, Rutherford instead quit and re-signed as a player for Arsenal.
[6][7] Rutherford left Arsenal for the final time in the summer of 1926; in all, he played 232 matches and scored 27 goals for the club.
He was married twice: first to Edith Olive McQueen in May 1908 – with whom he had a son, John, who was on Arsenal's books at the same time as his father, but only ever played one League match for the club – and then to Blodwen Jones in 1944.