Kirk Hunter (born 2 October 1965) is a retired Northern Irish footballer. While he played less due to injuries and suspension in the later stages of his career, he won two Irish League titles with

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

, and is one of the most decorated Crusaders players.

Club career

Hunter began his career with Crusaders initially as a striker, but also as a midfielder. With Crusaders he won several trophies, and was part of one of the club's most successful sides in history. One of the highlights of his early career was scoring a hat-trick against

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

in a Gold Cup semi final on 4 December 1985, a competition Crusaders went on to win. Whilst being an effective player, Hunter was also notable for his fiery nature on the pitch, and was without a doubt one of the most aggressive players in the history of Irish League football. In just one of many infamous incidents on the football pitch Kirk was brought to court and sued for a career-ending tackle on ex-

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

player Paul Murnin in 1992. In another incident Hunter was sent-off for fighting without touching the ball against North Belfast rivals

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of Margate in the Thanet District, Thanet district of Kent, England. It includes the Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay estate, built in the 1930s with wide avenues and detached and semi-detached houses with driveways, gar ...

in 1998 after being on the pitch less than 60 seconds. However, there were also occasions when his all-or-nothing approach proved inspirational for his team-mates, such as an

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

quarter-final against Linfield on 9 March 1996. Nearing the end of his career, and with the score at 0-0, Hunter was brought on as a substitute and helped the Crues to a 2-0 victory, but was substituted after 30 minutes of being brought on by manager Roy Walker, due to a fear of him being sent off. Irate Linfield fans threw missiles such as beer cans at Hunter as he was being substituted. Hunter was given a testimonial in 1997 against

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

, which included players such as

Paul Gascoigne Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and one of the best English footballers of ...

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former association football, footballer who has since worked as a Manager (association football), manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Jo ...

, and

Gennaro Gattuso Gennaro Ivan Gattuso (; born 9 January 1978) is an Italians, Italian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is currently the Manager (association football), head coach of the Italy na ...

(who made his Rangers debut in the match). After a spell with

Carrick Rangers Carrick Rangers Football Club is a semi-professional Northern Irish football club playing in NIFL Premiership. The club, founded in 1939, hails from Carrickfergus, County Antrim and plays its home matches at Taylors Avenue which is known as th ...

he retired from football. Despite these controversies, Kirk is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of Crusaders, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.

Honours

Crusaders * Irish League: 1994–95, 1996–97 *

Irish League Cup The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (known as the BetMcLean Cup for sponsorship purposes, and commonly known as the Irish League Cup) is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the ...

: 1996–97 *

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster F ...

: 1991–92 * Gold Cup: 1985–86, 1995–96 *

Ulster Cup The Ulster Cup was an annual football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football' ...

: 1993–94

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Kirk 1963 births Living people Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland NIFL Premiership players Crusaders F.C. players Men's association football forwards Men's association football midfielders Carrick Rangers F.C. players NIFL Championship players