Page 34 - 358264 LP231909 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (Issue 257)

ASK YER DAD
HURLEY
It is often said that there are two inevitabilities in life: death and taxes. For fathers, however, there is another. It may not yet have happened if you are a father, but it will: one day you will unexpectedly catch yourself passing on a nugget of wisdom which your father passed on to you. My first moment was when I found myself explaining to my son why Athletic Bilbao were called Athletic and not Atletico like their Madrid counterparts and gathering even more enthusiasm when I explained why they played in red and white stripes and black shorts, “well there was this fella from Sunderland...”.
The footballing wisdom from your father continues way beyond the match itself though and in households across the country there
will be fathers shoehorning little gems of knowledge into children who probably aren’t even that interested. There may even be some eye rolling going on, nonetheless, the fact that as a father you are able to regurgitate their facts suggests that despite an apparent lack
of interest the words permeate the boredom barriers and lodge themselves somewhere only to be brought out an opportune moment years down the line. To call many of them facts is
a far stretch at times though; a friend of mine once recounted an afternoon with his father when he replayed a VHS highlights video over and over and provided analysis to his son to prove why every single goal Sunderland had conceded in the match was Gary Bennett’s fault.
Fathers have a habit of remembering their heydays with relish and romantic nostalgia. Things were always better then. In fairness as I trooped into a dilapidated Roker Park with my dad he may well have had a valid point about the Roker Roar. The famous Cup replay against Manchester City was a million miles from watching a half empty Roker Park witness Ricky Otto putting our defenders
the whole legend of Charlie Hurley appears to have absolute credence. It wasn’t just my father and for any player to have that much admiration passed down through generations there had to be something special about him. That makes the time when I saw him with my own eyes such a momentous occasion. This colossus of a man, the strongest man in the world; a player who would simply clatter through defenders to get his head on a corner and bury it into the net following chants of “Charlie Charlie Charlie” was actually a bit shorter than I pictured. When I say a bit, I mean a lot. My dad always left that detail out in the stories. Perhaps, as players have naturally become bigger and more physical over the years, time has made comparisons with modern players pointless but even to his day I pass on the story of the greatest centre half the world has ever seen to my son.
to the sword against Southend United. This 34 ALOVESUPREME ISSUE257
romance and legend was never more apparent than in the regular idolising of Charlie Hurley.
To a young, wide eyed lad the stories (which happened almost daily) about Charlie Hurley painted this picture of a man statuesque next
to his opponents. A towering presence who mere mortals were fortunate to share turf with. I thought Kevin Ball was tough, but Charlie Hurley was Thor to his Loki. “Defenders coming up for corners, Charlie Hurley invented that.” I have been assured by others who adored Charlie Hurley that this was indeed the case. In fact,