Of all the songs at English soccer grounds, none is more universal than "Who ate all the pies?"

Over the years it has been leveled at some of the best players that have ever graced a pitch. Paul Gascoigne, Diego Maradona, the real ­Ronaldo and Micky Quinn are notable examples. The ­latter once ate a pie that was flung onto the field of play during a game between his Newcastle side and Grimsby Town in the early 1990s.

The song is said to have been around for ­almost as long as the beautiful game has been professional. Some sources state that it was first sung in 1894 by Sheffield United fans. Fair enough, you might think, but they were signing at their own goalkeeper.

That goalkeeper was William Henry Foulke but even now he is best known as he was then, Fatty Foulke. To say Foulke filled the goal was an understatement. He was said to be 1.93 meters tall and weighed anything up to 152 kilograms. A daunting prospect in this day and age, but truly frightening in Victorian England where the average man's height at the start of Foulke's ­career was under 170 centimeters. Safe to say that if Foulke was playing nowadays his nickname might be Hodor.

The goalkeeper was no mere lump. He was an accomplished sportsman and played first-class cricket for Derbyshire. In his soccer career, he won the first division in 1898 and the FA Cup in 1899 and 1902. He also won runner-up ­medals for both and a solitary England cap during a ­career spent at Sheffield United, Chelsea and Bradford City.

Foulke was perhaps the first goalkeeper to exhibit the madness that has defined the position. He was known to storm off the pitch if he thought that his defenders were not putting in the effort that he demanded. He was also known to hurl opposition strikers into his net and once was so upset with a decision that he sought out the referee after the game. The only thing was Foulke was stark naked at the time.

In his single season at Chelsea, the London club showed an early flourish of their trademark glamour and stationed young boys behind the goal to highlight the enormity of their goalkeeper. Just like that, Fatty was inadvertently responsible for the modern ball boy.

A true giant of the game, Foulke died less than a decade after his final outing for Bradford. ­Almost a century later his memory lives on every weekend.

The author is a Beijing-based freelance writer. jmawhite@gmail.com