[6] When Hosking was very young he dislocated his left elbow, leading his father James, out of an abundance of caution, to rule that his son should never play football.

[1] To circumvent his father's ruling and ire, when Hosking played junior football with the Marist Brothers, and later the Semaphore Centrals, he did so under a false name.

[11] Hosking was part of the Semaphore Centrals team that lost the Adelaide and Suburban Football Association Grand Final to the Norwood Seconds in 1906.

[13][14] Around this time Hosking was working alongside Tom Leahy who was already a league footballer and was trying to convince his younger co-worker to join him at his then club, West Adelaide.

[1] Whenever he played football Hosking preferred to wear a long-sleeved guernsey to hide his permanently taped left shoulder from opponents.

[11] In his first season of league football Hosking played in the 1907 SAFL Grand Final against Port Adelaide's traditional rival Norwood.

[16] That match was attended by a then-record crowd for football in South Australia with 25,000 spectators present at Adelaide Oval to witness Norwood win by 28 points.

[1] It was during this season that Hosking won his first Magarey Medal,[1] and his first South Australian league premiership as a player when Port Adelaide defeated Sturt (who were playing in their first championship match) by 19 points in the 1910 SAFL Grand Final.

[23] Hosking took part in an eventful post season with Port Adelaide in 1910 during which his club defeated Collingwood for the 1910 Championship of Australia title,[24] and Western Australian Football League (WAFL) premiers East Fremantle in an exhibition match.

[35] As a result, Hosking is one of only three players to win multiple Magarey Medals for Port Adelaide with the others being Bob Quinn and Russell Ebert.

[37] After playing a dominant game in Port Adelaide's 1916 SAPFL Grand Final victory, the South Australian Register noted that Hosking was "entitled to be recognised as the best player of the season in the association".

[5] Bob McLean described Hosking in his book 100 Years with the Magpies as possessing "brilliance as a ball handler, his lightening speed and all-round skill...A centreline player, he played mainly in the centre or on the wing.

[60] It proved to be a difficult year for Hosking who immediately had to deal with the retirement of South Adelaide legend Dan Moriarty along with the defection of Charles Daly who was poached by Norwood.

[64] The following season Hosking guided the club to victory in the 1928 SANFL Grand Final, Port Adelaide's first premiership since his departure at the end of 1921.

[65] In 1929 Drozena Eden, a local of Mauritian descent, was invited after partaking in Port Adelaide's pre-season to remain with club's senior team.

[67] At the start of 1930 Fred Ward, a club official, stated that "the success of Port Adelaide during the last two years was due almost entirely to the coaching of Hosking".

[69] This decision may have been made on financial grounds with a long running internal debate, led by R. Lowe, within the club's administration regarding whether the cost associated with a paid coach, as opposed to just using the captain, was justifiable.

[72] In Hosking's first full year as coach of West Torrens he successfully guided that club to the 1933 SANFL Grand Final where they beat Norwood by 23 points.

[73] After the Grand Final Magarey Medallist Jim Handby was full of praise when it came to Hosking's coaching writing in the Adelaide Advertiser that "this blending of skill, vigor and football intelligence has placed Torrens in its present very satisfactory position.

"[73] In 1934 Hosking was simultaneously made the coach of both West Torrens junior and league teams meaning he was required at Thebarton Oval four nights a week.

[78] On 1 January 1936 it was revealed by The News that West Torrens had secured Len Ashby as its coach for the upcoming season thereby creating a void at Alberton leading to speculation that Hosking might return to Port Adelaide for a third time.

[80] The speculation proved correct with Hosking returning to Port Adelaide as coach in 1936 where he immediately had to deal with the retirement of club captain Bob Johnson.

[91] West Torrens ended up finishing the 1940 SANFL season second last winning just one game under coach Mal Drury that year.

[92] During World War II the SANFL administrators reduced the number of sides in its competition from eight to four with clubs temporarily merging with their nearest neighbour.

Early in the year Hosking's freshly assembled Port–Torrens side beat a team representing the Air Force by 11 points on Alberton Oval featuring Frank Curcio (Fitzroy), Vin Doherty (Collingwood), Law (Western Australia), Jack Brittain (North Adelaide), Mervyn Waite (Glenelg) and Norm Hillard (Fitzroy).

After the Grand Final Port–Torrens played a combined side made up of the remaining SANFL players, referred to as "The Rest", on Adelaide Oval on 26 September 1942.

This was Hosking's last game as an SANFL league coach as he announced his retirement at the start of 1944, handing over his Port–Torrens responsibilities to Mal Drury.

[97] Hosking invested time into players that other coaches typically considered lost causes, such as Bill Martin, with whom Sampson ran up and down the length of Adelaide Oval whilst practicing passing the ball between one another.

[35] In the 1974 Port Adelaide Annual Report and Balance Sheet an obituary recognised Sampson Hosking noting that he had died "after a long illness".

[113] In 1970 Hosking, along with other veteran players from before World War I, was honoured with a motorcade around Alberton Oval to celebrate the Port Adelaide Football Club's 100th anniversary.