Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 21:13, 6 September 2007

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (September 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Charlie Hurley" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Charles John Hurley (born 4 October 1936) was a centre back. He began his career at Millwall, where his term at The Den was disrupted by injury which certainly delayed his debut on the international stage. Hurley is best remembered from his time at Sunderland, where he was named the Black Cats' "Player of the Century" by their fans on the occasion of the club's centenary in 1979. Nicknamed 'The King', Hurley was a classy defender for both Sunderland and the Republic of Ireland. He ended his playing career at Bolton Wanderers and was later manager of Reading.

Hurley was born in Cork, Ireland, but his family moved to Rainham, Essex, England when Charlie was seven months old.

Career at Sunderland

On 26 September 1957, Charlie Hurley strode into Roker Park to begin a career that would span 12 seasons and 402 appearances. It is a little known fact that when originally asked by Millwall whether he would like a move, he initially turned Sunderland down. The £18,000 transfer was sealed due to the apparent persuasivness of then Sunderland manager Alan Brown, who had been alerted to his potential by the former Millwall manager Charlie Hewitt.

Hurley's Sunderland career had a disastrous start; a 7-0 rout by Blackpool, coupled with him scoring an own goal on his debut, which was quickly followed by a 6-0 thrashing from Burnley. Charlie had been unfortunate enough to have competed against centre forwards to would later go on to represent England. In Ray Charnley and Ray Pointer, Blackpool and Burnley had strikers of the highest quality. It was a baptism of fire.

Things of course would get better, and eventually promotion would be achieved in the 1963/64 season after two heartbreaking campaigns which had seen Sunderland miss out on top flight football due to consecutive day last failures against Swansea Town and Chelsea.

Curiously, for a man who was indelibly linked with powerful headed goals, it took 124 league and cup appearances for Sunderland before he broke his scoring duck. A 1-1 Boxing Day draw in 1960 against Sheffield United was the catalyst for 42 more.

The crowd would of course hold its breath when Sunderland were awarded a corner, and the chants of "Charlie, Charlie" echoed around Roker Park as began his journey from his centre half position to the opponents penalty box. Quite what opposition centre forwards and full backs made of him is a moot point.

Whilst the 1963/64 season was special for Sunderland AFC, resulting in promotion, it was also personally highly satisfactory for Hurley. Only Bobby Moore prevented Hurley from becoming Football Writers Player of the Year; the runners up placing truly testifying that at his peak there was no finer centre half in English football.

In the first game following the 1963/64 promotion season, a now managerless Sunderland started the campaign with a 3-3 draw at Leicester City. Derek Forster became the youngest player in Football League history to play, when an injury to Jimmy Montgomery thrust the young keeper into the fray at the tender age of 15 years and 185 days old. Hurley's experience that day must have been invaluable.

Alan Brown's departure from Roker Park, to take over at Sheffield Wednesday saw first George Hardwick and then Scotsman Ian McColl take over. During one match at Old Trafford in November 1966, first Hurley, and then Northern Ireland defender John Parke went in goal, as Montgomery had to leave the game because of an injury sustained in the first half.

Hurley's last goal for Sunderland came against Arsenal in April 1968, typically a header. His last appearance in a red and white shirt was at Turf Moor, Burnley in April 1969.

Hurley's greatest match was arguably the FA Cup 5th round victory at Carrow Road in February 1961, when he scored the only goal to dump Norwich city out of the competition. Sunderland would then go on to succumb to a Danny Blanchflower-inspired Spurs side, who became double winners for the first time in the 20th century.

On 2 June 1969, Charlie moved to Bolton Wanderers on a free transfer. Little did he know what he meant to the folk of Wearside. He was, is and always will be the ultimate hero to the supporters of Sunderland AFC.

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from September 2007
• Articles lacking sources from September 2007
• 1936 births
• Living people
• Republic of Ireland footballers
• Republic of Ireland international footballers
• Republic of Ireland football managers
• Republic of Ireland national football team managers
• Reading F.C. managers
• Millwall F.C. players
• Sunderland A.F.C. players
• Bolton Wanderers F.C. players