OF all the tributes that have been paid to Charlie Hurley, the gentle-giant of a centre-half who arrived on Wearside in the late 1950s as a promising young Irishman and left more than a decade later as ‘the King’, perhaps the most fitting was contained within the programme for his testimonial in October 1967.
“The occasion of the signing of Charlie Hurley for Sunderland was a great event for me as a manager, but even more so for Sunderland Football Club,” wrote Alan Brown, whose two spells as boss of the Wearsiders spanned much of Hurley’s time in the North-East. “No club has had or could have a more valuable and loyal player than King Charles.
“It took me ten solid consecutive hours of hard talk to persuade him to leave London and move North, at the time all his family were there, plus a few relatives, and at the end of ten hours when wearily Charles turned to me and said ‘All right I will sign for you’, I jumped to my feet and actually cheered, and the whole family rose with me cheering like mad.
“I have never had the slightest cause to regret this and consider that very moment the happiest that I have had in football up till now. No player commanded the respect of his manager and the players in higher degree than Charlie Hurley.”
And when it comes to assessing Sunderland’s storied history, no player has left a more indelible impression on the record books, or created a more powerful sepia-toned imprint on the memory banks of all those who saw him play, than the King.
Born in Cork as one of seven siblings, Hurley moved with his family to Essex at a young age. Always a proud Irishman, who regarded playing for his country as one of his greatest achievements, he was equally at ease as a cockney in his early years, starting out with Millwall after briefly working as an apprentice toolmaker.
He excelled in his four seasons at the Old Den, and it says much that as well as being voted as Sunderland’s Player of the Century in 1979, Hurley achieved an identical accolade with Millwall when they held their own fans’ poll almost three decades ago.
Eventually, the central defender outgrew the Lions though, with Brown’s powers of persuasion luring him to Wearside. It was to be a pivotal moment in transforming Sunderland’s fortunes.
“There was huge expectation when I moved from Millwall to Sunderland,” remembered Hurley in an interview with Roker Report. “It was a great time to play football and be paid - no-one had anything back then, so I really was blessed.
“I signed for twenty-thousand pounds as a centre half - the fee was amazing given the record signing at that time was forty grand. Millwall encouraged me to go, as it was amazing money for them too. This was worth equivalent of thirty-six terrace houses. That was the true valuation at that time.”
Not, however, that things were plain sailing from the start. Hurley’s first game as a Sunderland player was a 7-0 defeat to Blackpool. Things improved in his second game. They only lost 6-0 to Burnley.
“Sunderland were a lot better than Millwall and I was not used to it,” said Hurley. “Admittedly, there were some under-performing players as well as myself, but the responsibility needed to rest on my shoulders.”
That would be a trait that would constantly reappear during Hurley’s time on Wearside. Leadership, humility, self-sacrifice. They can seem like old-fashioned attributes in the modern footballing world, but they remain the cornerstone of what supporters want to see from those representing them on the pitch. Hurley wasn’t a native Wearsider, but he embodied everything that Wearside is about. For more than a decade, he was the perfect fit.
The statistics help explain why Hurley’s popularity has endured – more than 400 senior appearances in a Sunderland shirt, the cornerstone of the promotion-winning side in 1963-64, the only member of that team who had also endured relegation the previous decade – but they only tell part of the story.
Hurley’s mystique was always about more than the bare facts and figures. It was the way in which he played, a combination of the rugged tough-tackling defender that had to be prevalent in the 1950s and 60s with the artistry of the libero that would begin to appear long after he had retired. It was the one-club leadership that tied him so powerfully to Sunderland, and that meant, long after he retired, he would cherish his pilgrimages back to Roker Park or the Stadium of Light. And it was the rare belief amongst Sunderland fans that they had a player who could walk into any other team in the country, but who would rather play out his days in red-and-white.
Returning to the programme from Hurley’s 1967 testimonial, one is immediately struck by the words of Jackie Milburn, then a scribe for the News of the World, and someone who should know a thing or two about being taken to footballing hearts in the North-East.
“Tonight, we salute the King,” wrote Milburn. “And if ever a royal occasion is warranted, surely it is to pay tribute to the most popular player to wear a red and white shirt. In his make-up, any player who earns the nickname King from the North-East sports followers has to consistently show skill, class and complete dominance. Charlie Hurley has achieved this with regal distinction.”
Hurley left Sunderland in the summer of 1969, winding down his playing days with Bolton Wanderers. He had a brief spell in management with Reading, but his five-year spell in charge at Elm Park proved relatively unremarkable, aside from one magical evening in the spring of 1973.
With Reading having drawn with Sunderland in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Hurley returned to Roker Park for the replay, which Sunderland won 3-1. It was a celebratory homecoming in which Hurley’s standing as a legendary great was confirmed. It was also to prove fitting that, with Sunderland going on to lift the FA Cup at Wembley that season, Hurley was afforded a footnote in the story of the club’s greatest triumph.
His final visit north came in November 2016, to mark his 80th birthday, when he was the guest of honour on an emotionally-charged day that began at the Charlie Hurley Gates outside the Stadium of Light and ended with him celebrating his induction into the Hall of Fame with a host of his team-mates from the promotion-winning team of the 60s.
“Every time I am lucky enough to return, it feels like coming home,” said Hurley, when reflecting on his relationship with Sunderland. “The reception I get and the friendly welcome is amazing considering it has been fifty years or so.
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“The fans make the place so special to play football, it’s just a shame that modern footballers can’t be distracted from the bright lights of London or Manchester to experience this unique part of the world and the passion from the terraces.”
Hurley got it, and a generation of Sunderland supporters got him. Time moves on, and a new generation of fans has had to rely on stories and memories, snippets of conversations with parents and grandparents, a picture cut out of a newspaper here or a match report buried away on the internet there.
They never saw Hurley play, never got to experience the thrill of him charging into a tackle in front of the Fulwell End or throwing himself into a pile of bodies to try to win a header from a corner. They know though. And they’ll always regard him as the King.
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