Kevin James Hector (born 2 November 1944 in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

) is an English former

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 scored 268 goals from 662 appearances 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 ...

playing for Bradford Park Avenue and Derby County. His 486 League appearances for Derby County is a club record. He also played in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

for the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March 18, ...

, and was capped twice for

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 ...

Career

Hector had a successful start to his playing career in the lower leagues at Bradford Park Avenue. In season 1965–66, he scored 44 league goals in a single 46-game league season plus 6 goals in the first 4 league games of the following season prior to his transfer to Derby. Tim Ward signed him for Derby County in 1966 and he was a key player in their success under the management of Brian Clough and Dave Mackay over the next few seasons, forming a formidable partnership with John O'Hare. Hector played for the Rams for a total of 12 years, during which time they won the

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

championship twice (the first time in 1972 under Clough and the second time in 1975 under Mackay) and the

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier ...

championship (in 1969), and reached the semi-finals of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

, the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

and the League Cup. He left Derby for Vancouver Whitecaps and scored 15 goals for the Canadian outfit as they won the 1979 NASL title. After his time in North America he rejoined Derby in the early 1980s. He made a record 589 appearances for Derby in his two spells, 486 of which came in league games. Hector played twice for

, his debut coming as an 88th-minute substitute in the fateful

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

qualifier against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

in October 1973, when England, needing victory to qualify, were held to a 1–1 draw. With his first touch of the ball, he nearly won the game for England as his header from a corner was cleared off the line.

References

Hector's Football League career statsHector's FA profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hector, Kevin 1944 births Living people Footballers from Leeds English men's footballers England men's international footballers English Football League players Men's association football forwards Bradford (Park Avenue) A.F.C. players Derby County F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Vancouver Whitecaps (1974–1984) players Burton Albion F.C. players English Football League representative players English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada English expatriate sportspeople in Canada Boston United F.C. players Shepshed Dynamo F.C. players Gresley Rovers F.C. players Belper Town F.C. players Eastwood Town F.C. players Heanor Town F.C. players