Thomas Wade had a storied football career. According to his obituary in the Queensland Times on 29 June 1954, Ward had played professionally for Wolverhampton in England, before moving to Australia. When he arrived in Sydney, he was judged not good enough for local clubs. Wade instead moved to Ipswich, Queensland where he played for St Helens and Dinmore Bush Rats, predominantly as a centre forward. He twice won the Hetherington Cup, once with St Helens in 1912, then with Bush Rats in 1914.
Wade was selected for the 1913 Queensland tour of New South Wales, where he played all four games. He scored as Queensland beat NSW 3-2 at Epping. The result saw the Sydney Sportsman call Wade “splendid” but lamented that Wade “once desired to play soccer in Sydney, but failed to get into even a third grade team.” Wade also scored a hattrick as Queensland beat Combined Hospitals, a squad selected from two health worker clubs which played in the NSW leagues. He was not selected for Queensland in 1914 but did appear for the Ipswich and West Moreton team in 1914 which beat the touring New South Wales side 4–1.
Wade returned to the Queensland team in 1915, scoring in the 3-2 away loss against NSW. Despite NSW winning, the Sydney Sportsman of 30 June 1915 claimed Wade had been the best of the four wingers on display, and again implied that New South Wales had let him slip through their fingers several years earlier.
Wade enlisted on 11 March 1916 aged 31. He was assigned to the 2nd Tunnelling Company, having worked as a miner before the war. He arrived in France in time for the 2nd Tunnellers to build underground shelters during the Battle of Messines in mid-1917. He was accidentally injured in the buttock in August while on fatigue leave, an injury which necessitated two months recovery. It was determined Wade was not at fault. The next year he was evacuated twice, first for a tumour in the neck, then in August 1918 with influenza. Wade did not return to France until three weeks before the armistice.
After the war, Wade was selected for the AIF team in Brisbane to play the visiting ship Renown. He also converted to goalkeeper after a knee injury, where he played for Bush Rats and Bundamba Rangers in the early 1920s. In 1921 he again got one over NSW, playing between the sticks as Ipswich beat the tourists 2-1.
In later life Wade took up bowls with many of the older soccer players in the region. In 1954 he died after being hit by a car in Dinmore on his way home from bowls. Wade’s obituary in the Queensland Times included a tribute from his Queensland captain Alec Gibb.