Football 'Hard Men' (1 Viewer)

mechaishida · Dec 11, 2015

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Whitehurst

Just found this guy by chance on Youtube, never heard of him before. Anyone ever see him 'in action'?

eastwoodsdustman · Dec 11, 2015

I remember him playing for Oxford. Never thought of him as a hard man but appears he was pretty tough.
Mick Harford was another who was hard as nails.
A lot of modern 'enforcers' like Robbie Savage and the like wouldn't have lasted 2 minutes in the 70's and 80's.

bringbackrattles · Dec 11, 2015

Our own George Curtis was the hardest/toughest player to ever wear the Sky Blue.Terry Yorath was no softie neither,but George"Iron Man" Curtis was the real deal.

martcov · Dec 11, 2015

And George Curtis was a really good guy.

bringbackrattles · Dec 11, 2015

martcov said:
And George Curtis was a really good guy.

Yes he was as he used to run a chippy on the Walsgrave Road and talked a couple of times with him,and always friendly. But on the pitch he was as hard as granite,and all centre-forwards who played against him would say they knew they were in for a tough ninety minutes up against our Iron Man !

skyblueinBaku · Dec 11, 2015

bringbackrattles said:
Our own George Curtis was the hardest/toughest player to ever wear the Sky Blue.Terry Yorath was no softie neither,but George"Iron Man" Curtis was the real deal.

You are absolutely right, Rattles. A real rock in defence. However, football is very different now, and I doubt that referees would let him stay on the pitch for 90 minutes nowadays!

lifeskyblue · Dec 11, 2015

Yes Curtis as hard as any of them. Great thing was it was a tough game. No quarter asked or given. No rolling around after a hard challenge, no going down as if a sniper took you out.

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Terry Gibson's perm · Dec 11, 2015

Right a the start of my watching football but didn't blues have a whole group of them Noel Blake, Tony Coton, Robert Hopkins etc.

henry the wasp · Dec 11, 2015

The early/mid 80s blues side had some right hardmen /nutters in it. Not just on the pitch either. Van den hauwe, Blake, Harford etc. I bet it was lively out on the piss aswell.

henry the wasp · Dec 11, 2015

Terry Gibson's perm said:
Right a the start of my watching football but didn't blues have a whole group of them Noel Blake, Tony Coton, Robert Hopkins etc.

you beat me to it. A stand out game for me was a 4-4 at our place. Dirty side blues were.

Monners · Dec 11, 2015

I remember Paul "Dobbin" Dyson poleaxing Harford at St Andrews back in about 83 time - the ref gave a free kick but no more. Harford had to go off. We won 2-1 and it was a scary day!

Terry Gibson's perm · Dec 11, 2015

Sam Allardyce.

mechaishida · Dec 11, 2015

eastwoodsdustman said:
I remember him playing for Oxford. Never thought of him as a hard man but appears he was pretty tough.
Mick Harford was another who was hard as nails.
A lot of modern 'enforcers' like Robbie Savage and the like wouldn't have lasted 2 minutes in the 70's and 80's.

Apparently, Whitehurst was a bare-knuckle fighter in his spare time. There's a story somewhere of an incident during his time at Sheffield Utd; after the match, he was confronted by a gang of Sheff' Wednesday fans, so he picks the biggest one in the bunch and knocks him right out. KO'd. Seems he was a bit of an arsehole, but as tough as nails.

As for George Curtis, well, he was our Iron Man...didn't he own the Pub at HR as well, at some point? At 15 I was in there and got served by him, not knowing who he was at the time. Until of course, I was educated in detail by several of the older crowd.

blueflint · Dec 11, 2015

norman hunter at leeds was hard as nails george curtis too much of a gentleman strong but fair i remember

mechaishida · Dec 20, 2015

Does anyone else class John Fashanu as a hard man? Personally, I found him cynical and sneaky.

Terry Gibson's perm · Dec 20, 2015

mechaishida said:
Does anyone else class John Fashanu as a hard man? Personally, I found him cynical and sneaky.

He thought he was and got others to believe it sneaky with pointy elbows

mechaishida · Dec 20, 2015

Terry Gibson's perm said:
He thought he was and got others to believe it sneaky with pointy elbows

I always prayed for the day when Wolf would suplex his smug head in on Gladiators. Bah.

Anyone remember Chic Charnley?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chic_Charnley

Apparently, a solid centre-half, but he was pretty vicious.

no_loyalty · Dec 20, 2015

I remember Julian Dicks as being a bit of a hard man

mechaishida · Dec 20, 2015

no_loyalty said:
I remember Julian Dicks as being a bit of a hard man

Aye, he was pretty nails, as I recall. Good left back as well, and a jackhammer of a left peg.

LastGarrison · Dec 20, 2015

Duncan Ferguson should get a mention.

And Curtis Woodhouse and Leon McKenzie off the pitch.

Gazolba · Dec 21, 2015

bringbackrattles said:
Our own George Curtis was the hardest/toughest player to ever wear the Sky Blue....George"Iron Man" Curtis was the real deal.

Totally agree but whenever he came up against Tony Hateley, he had a hard time.

mechaishida · Dec 21, 2015

LastGarrison said:
Duncan Ferguson should get a mention.

And Curtis Woodhouse and Leon McKenzie off the pitch.

Duncan Ferguson was pretty hard, I'll give him that...nasty piece of work though, when he wanted to be.

Stuart Pearce was obviously a tough guy on the pitch, off the pitch though, he was as calm and Zen as a sleeping monk. I met him a few years ago whilst doing some security work, hell of a nice guy.

Gazolba · Dec 25, 2015

Nobby Stiles. He's the player that man-marked Eusebio out of the Portugal semi-final in the 1966 World Cup.

Macca · Dec 25, 2015

Depends on your definition of hard. Plenty of thugs about

mechaishida · Dec 26, 2015

Macca said:
Depends on your definition of hard. Plenty of thugs about

I guess the true definition is a player who knew he could handle himself, was as tough as old boots but was also not an arsehole.

You could include the entire Sheff Utd squad in the Arsehole/Thug category.

Otis · Dec 26, 2015

Two words. Trevor Hockey.

Case closed.

Not sure I remember him ever making a tackle.

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sky blue zam · Dec 29, 2015

Liam Daish?

higgs · Dec 29, 2015

Colin hendry

Hadji10 · Dec 29, 2015

Curtis Woodhouse

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