Roger Patrick "Ernie" Hunt (17 March 1943 – 20 June 2018) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

for

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

, Everton, Coventry City,

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

and

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

, and for the

Los Angeles Wolves The Los Angeles Wolves were an American professional Association football, soccer team that played for two seasons. In 1967 they played in the United Soccer Association, finishing as champions, and in 1968 North American Soccer League season, ...

in the

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association (USA) was a professional association football, soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League ( ...

. At international level, he was capped three times for the England under-23 team. He was known as "Ernie" – a contraction of Ernest, his father's name – to avoid confusion with

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

striker

Roger Hunt Roger Hunt (20 July 1938 – 27 September 2021) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Eleven years with Liverpool, he was the club's record goalscorer with 285 goals until being overtaken by Ian Rush. Nonetheless, H ...

. In 1971 he was the winner of the inaugural BBC Goal of the Season award.

Career

Born in

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

, Hunt was working for

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

when he was signed as an amateur by

in 1957. He progressed through their youth ranks, made his debut on 15 September 1959 in a 3–0 defeat in the Third Division at

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was f ...

, which made him Swindon's youngest ever first-team player, aged 16 years 182 days, a record which stood until 1980, and signed professional forms in March 1960. He finished as the club's top goalscorer for four consecutive seasons, and helped them win

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the Second Division in 1963. Hunt made his debut for the England under-23 team on 2 June 1963 in a 1–0 defeat to their Romanian counterparts, the first of three

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

he won at that level. Swindon were relegated at the end of the 1964–65 campaign, and Hunt left to join

in September 1965, for a fee of £40,000, which was at the time Swindon's record transfer receipt. In all competitions, he scored 88 goals from 237 games for Swindon. Hunt was Wolves' leading scorer with 20 goals as they won promotion to the First Division in 1966–67, and was part of the Wolves squad who, playing as the

, won the 1967

title. However, he made just six outings in the top flight for Wolves before the club sold him to Everton for £80,000 in September 1967. His time at

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a Association football, football stadium in Walton, Liverpool, Walton, Liverpool, England, it was the home of Premier League club Everton F.C., Everton from 1892 until 2025. It is now the home of Everton F.C. (women), Everton's ...

was short-lived as he failed to settle, making only 12 appearances before a £65,000 transfer to Coventry City in March 1968, just six months after arriving. The striker was a fans' favourite during his five-year spell at Coventry and scored one of the most famous goals in English football history in October 1970, against his previous team Everton. Awarded a free kick just outside the penalty area, Willie Carr gripped the ball between his heels and flicked it up for Hunt to volley home. The match was televised on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's ''

Match of the Day ''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a Association football, football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights during the Premier League season. ''Match of the Day'' is one of the BBC's longest-runn ...

'', and the goal was awarded the programme's Goal of the Season, so gained huge fame. The move was outlawed at the end of the season. He spent a loan spell at

before leaving Coventry to join

, where he ended his league career in the 1973–74 season. He subsequently served a number of

non-League Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

clubs.

Life after football

After retiring from the game, he did a variety of jobs, including running a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

in Ledbury,

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

, called The Full Pitcher and window cleaning. In 2008, he was living in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

. Hunt died on 20 June 2018 aged 75 in a care home. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Honours

;Los Angeles Wolves *

: 1967 ;Coventry City * Coventry City Hall of Fame

References

External links

League stats
at Neil Brown's site
Stats and photo
at Sporting Heroes {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Ernie 1943 births 2018 deaths Footballers from Swindon English men's footballers England men's under-23 international footballers Men's association football inside forwards Swindon Town F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Los Angeles Wolves players Everton F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Atherstone Town F.C. players English Football League players United Soccer Association players Ledbury Town F.C. players Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Deaths from dementia in England Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in England English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English expatriate men's footballers 20th-century English sportsmen

Career

Life after football

Honours

References

Further reading

External links