please log in to view this image It's 25 years ago this week since Billy Whitehurst called time on a legendary association with Hull City. Philip Buckingham met him to reflect on his Boothferry Park career. A QUARTER of a century on from Billy Whitehurst making his 271st and final appearance for Hull City, leading the line in a 2-1 victory at West Ham, there is still an appeal that endures and refuses to fade. So, what causes a former bricklayer from Thurnscoe, South Yorkshire to stand so tall in City's history? "I never came off the pitch where I hadn't given everything I had," replied Whitehurst. "I came off knackered, like I couldn't have given another yard. A manager would get that when he picked me and the fans knew it too." But supporters learned to expect something else from Whitehurst, too, something that elevated his reputation above the average grafter. "I could look after myself," he added, without a hint of exaggeration. "If the centre-half gave me one in the kidneys, somewhere along the line he was going to get one back. That was part of my game, pure and simple." One final thing to complete the package? "By the end of my time with Hull City I wasn't a bad footballer, either." And there you have it: the anatomy of a cult hero. During two spells with the Tigers, spanning a total of 10 years, Whitehurst was the towering hero for a jilted generation inside Boothferry Park. Scoring 69 goals from 271 games in black and amber, he restored pride to a club at its lowest ebb. Promotions came in both 1982-83 and 1984-85 as a revived club galloped back to the second tier. Statistics and medals only tell half the story, though. Whitehurst is considered to be among the last of football's hard men and, as such, represents an era lost and mourned. "In this day and age I wouldn't last two minutes on the pitch," he says. "When you watch modern football it's not what it was 25 years ago. I enjoy it but it's a non-contact sport now, isn't it? "Things have changed and I'd like to think I would have adapted my game, but the older generations enjoyed the physical side. "I know a lot of old guys who would go to Boothferry Park to watch the confrontation between the centre-half and the centre-forward. It would be good entertainment just watching that. Referees let it go. They'd say it was six of one, half a dozen of the other. "Put me in a time machine and onto the pitch now and I'd probably get 12 years down the line." One game stands out for Whitehurst, when at Reading in between times at City, in 1987-88. "Three Bournemouth players knocked out at the same time," he said, illustrating his capacity to become a human wrecking ball. "Harry Redknapp was manager of Bournemouth and he said in the papers that Mike Tyson wouldn't have lasted two minutes. I didn't even get booked." It is two decades since Whitehurst last kicked a ball in anger, a period that has witnessed football's sanitisation, but he remains a formidable presence. Hands like shovels and a nose famously stapled midway through a fixture reveal the wounds of a thousand battles. An interview with Whitehurst is impossible without exploring the infamous tales of brutality embellished by old team-mates and foes, but he has a different take on a ferocious reputation. "I always thought that when I played I was quite fair," he said. "If you were a centre-half and I was playing against you, if you played the game you'd get no hassle from me. "If you came and gave me one, you're going to get it back. I wouldn't necessarily smash you without you doing something to me. In that sense I was fair. "You've got to remember there were a lot of hard players around back then. In that generation, the 80s and the early 90s, there were some very tough players. "It was no good going out there and getting kicked to hell without looking after yourself." And Whitehurst could certainly manage that. Arriving in professional football at the age of 21, signed from Mexborough Town for £2,000 in 1980, he left behind a life of manual labour and semi-pro football when joining City. Those lessons already banked stood him in good stead. Whitehurst is honest enough to admit his early failings but he had persistence to make the grade. "When I first went into Hull City I was diabolical. I was **** to be fair," he said. In a side relegated to Division Four under Mike Smith, Whitehurst's first season returned just one goal in 26 appearances. The second, though, brought the start of his emergence into a fans' favourite, working tirelessly under coach and club great Chris Chilton. "They saw potential in me. I was in digs on Spring Bank and Brian Marwood was in the same place," he said. "I didn't drink at that time and I was probably the fittest player there. They liked that and if I could get my technique better, I had a chance. They must have seen that. "To be totally honest, if I hadn't have had a two-year contract I think I'd have been bombed straight out. Even after 12 months, I was still shocking. "The endeavour was there. I'd give it 100 per cent but I didn't have the technique. "I used to work on it with Chris. He was a big influence in the first few years of my career. "He's still, and always will be, a Hull City legend, and he worked with me a lot. Knowing what runs to make, how to work defenders, it helped a hell of a lot. Eventually it began to come." A third season ended with promotion back to the third tier and though 1983-84 ended with that cruel day at Burnley, when promotion was missed on goals scored, his 24 goals inspired an ascent to Division Two 12 months later under Brian Horton. City cashed in on Whitehurst the following campaign when selling him to Newcastle for a club-record £232,000, beginning a tour of England that included spells with Oxford, Reading, Sunderland, Sheffield United, Doncaster and Crewe, not to mention a return to Boothferry Park between 1988 and 1990. "I've lived all over the country and I tell them about Hull people," said Whitehurst, who this week began working at an oil refinery in Immingham, a short commute from his Doncaster home. "They call a spade a spade, but they're fair. You can't get better than that. The place gets a bad press, but I always stick up for it. "The people there are what make it. They're brilliant. Not just the football fans, the people of the city. They looked after me. "I enjoyed every single minute of my career, wherever I was. I particularly loved it at Hull because of the people." The feeling was, and remains, mutual. http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull...5931016-detail/story.html#AaLw2g3xPDDwOqwG.99
Saw him in 2011 at Blackies. It's safe to say his language was very colourful, but his stories were pretty interesting about him scrapping and genuinely considered one of footballs hard men. I was surprised at how small he seemed, he's supposed to be 6' - He didn't seem it. He worked at one of the power stations in 2011.
My all time favourite player. A legend. There was a very amusing interview somewhere online that he gave to some students (if I remember right). Worth a read if anybody can be arsed searching for it.
"If you came and gave me one, you're going to get it back. I wouldn't necessarily smash you without you doing something to me."
Surprised it didnt mention the famous Alan Hansen interview - in Shoot was it? - where he was asked his toughest opponent and he said Whitehurst. The interviewer said (I'm paraphrasing) "but you've marked Maradona havent you?" and Hansen replied "that's nothing compared to marking Whitehurst".
A lot of players arounds his time and before wouldn't last long on the pitch today, which is a pity the contact is going out of the game.
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What he said about improving under Chilton remains true today. Whitehurst's football skills were an embarrassment when he first started at City and I reckon all of our strikers could improve at least 20% with a forward coach.
I recall reading that subject being raised with Billy, and he said something like, I must have been bad, I've never played on the same pitch as him.
I think Billy was referring to a specific game Hansen had mentioned, rather than suggesting he'd never played against him... "In Alan Hansen's autobiography he said he'd played in that game. I could never get to the bottom of that one 'cos he played for Liverpool. His ghostwriter phoned me up and asked me if he could say a couple of stories about me because Hansen wanted to do it. He said: "we'll send you a book when it's finished". They did put the stories in but I never got the ****ing book. I just can't understand that, I think he wrote in his books something to the effect that, at the beginning of every season he would look for Oxford – or whoever I was playing for – because it was a nightmare playing against me. And then he goes on to say this. It doesn't really bother me, if he's written it, he's written it. He was a different class as a player."
Big Billy is spot on. He would not. The game now is way too soft as last night showed. It was how the game should be played. Shame Gerrard did not stick one on that cheap coffee bloke mind.
Re game last night. Chelski v Liverpool. Predictable Chelsea went through on a penalty and free kick around the box. The brown-nose adulation of Hazard by the commentators really annoys me. He is a fabulously talented footballer but he is also a diver. He falls down every time someone challenges him and he leaves his leg daggling in tackles so it looks as though he has been fouled. I see it, you must see it, why don't the commentators and more importantly the referee see it?
He's right in terms of improving his skills, ended up being able to control and pass a ball as well as most other players at that level. On the other hand I've also seen him batter the keeper straight from a kick off punted into the opposition box so assume the keeper must have upset him before the match
I remember us playing Bristol City and Billy ended up near the left half way flag. He started to run towards goal, getting up a fair head of steam, when their full back decided to step in front of him & give away a free kick for obstruction. Billy went straight over the top of him and was about to shoot when the ref gave us a free kick. Their full back was carried off on a stretcher, unconscious! No foul by Billy just a big man playing the game hard.
my favourite line, "When I first went into Hull City I was diabolical. I was **** to be fair," he said. & he was, but always gave 100% , my favourite 'goal' when he just pushed the goalie over the line & we got it
Big Billy, I just missed his first stint at city when I was introduced to the tigers as a young lad by my father but was very excited when he re signed as part of the Hesford Norman deal with Slumberland I believe ? First game I watched he instantly became a cult hero with me as he flattened some unsuspecting centre back! Great player.
My and my mates bumped into him outside the ground once before a match, I asked him if he was 'going to score today' he replied 'If i knew that I'd be down ****ing Ladbrokes to have a bet on myself!' What a man, the KC ought to have some Rambo Billy graffiti painted on it somewhere as an homage to him somewhere, a proper fighter and not one of these 'Big time Charlies' we are cursed with this season
