Ernie Hunt
Footballer who devised the ‘donkey kick’ and often turned up to training sessions in fancy dress
ERNIE HUNT, who has died aged 75, was a skilful, attacking footballer whose cheery personality lifted the spirits of every team he played for. He won no major honours but is fondly remembered for a spectacular goal whose technique was rapidly outlawed.
In October 1970, his Coventry City side were playing Everton when they were awarded a free-kick in a central position just outside their opponents’ penalty area. It was the perfect position to try out a move they had been practising in training.
Hunt’s team-mate, Willie Carr, stood with the ball between his feet while Hunt stood slightly behind and to the side. As the referee blew his whistle, Carr jumped up with the ball gripped between his ankles and released it in mid-air for Hunt to volley into the net. Everton were stunned by the “donkey kick”, as it became known.
Fortunately for posterity it was captured by Match of the Day cameras and went on to win the BBC’S Goal of the Season award. But it was soon made illegal.
The free-kick was a manoeuvre entirely in keeping with Hunt’s engaging, “cheeky chappy”, persona. The title of a 2004 biography, Joker in the Pack, was apt: he would often turn up for training in fancy dress, in anything from a Sergeant Bilko mask to a gorilla suit.
Although he was mildly averse to training, his ability to hold on to the ball while his team-mates joined the attack was unrivalled. And his effervescent character was good for team morale.
Later in his career, he was playing for Bristol City, who were 1-0 down at half-time in an FA Cup tie against the mighty Leeds United. In the dressing room Hunt told a few jokes, sending the team out into the tunnel laughing; the Leeds side were said to be so unnerved that they gave up their lead. City won the replay at Leeds’ home ground, Elland Road, thanks to what one match reporter described as Hunt’s “podgy cunning”.
Roger Patrick Hunt was born on March 17 1943 at Swindon, Wiltshire. His father, Ernie, rode for a local speedway team, and his son became the team mascot. After leaving school he worked for British Rail, but was spotted playing football by Swindon Town, and he became one of “Bert’s Babes”, the group of promising youngsters nurtured by the team’s manager, Bert Head.
One of his fellow “Babes” was Mike Summerbee, later of Manchester City and England, with whom he would cycle to training on a tandem. Footballers’ then meagre wages were reduced even further during the close season, and Hunt’s summers were spent digging graves.
He made his debut in 1959 as the youngest player in the club’s history, a distinction he would hold for 20 years. He was top scorer for four seasons in a row and was a mainstay of the side as they won promotion to the Second Division in 1963. He also won three England Under-23 caps.
In 1965 he joined Wolves for £40,000, and was their leading scorer with 20 goals as they were promoted to the First Division in 1967. That summer the team played as Los Angeles Wolves, winning the United Soccer Association title, but six games into the new domestic season, in September, Hunt was sold to Everton for £80,000.
He was misused by the Everton manager, Harry Catterick, however, and made only 14 starts before being sold to Coventry for £65,000.
He left Coventry in 1974, having scored 50 goals in 168 appearances. In the late 1980s he gave an interview to a tabloid newspaper in which he claimed that in the 1970s Coventry had bribed Southampton players not to win their last match of the season. He moved to Bristol City – where he pulled off the “donkey kick” once more, despite its being outlawed. He ended his career at non-league Atherstone United.
In retirement he ran a pub, the Full Pitcher, for nine years in Ledbury, but began drinking the profits – “It was like giving a match to an arsonist,” he recalled – and there were convictions for drinkdriving.
For a time he ran a home for juvenile delinquents in Gloucestershire and also worked as a window cleaner, but fell off his ladder, breaking eight ribs.
He moved back to Swindon to care for his elderly parents, taking a job in the commercial department of Swindon Town FC. He did a similar job at Gloucester City until he gave an interview to a tabloid newspaper alleging match-fixing.
Ernie Hunt was twice married and twice divorced. He is survived by two daughters and a stepdaughter.
Ernie Hunt, born March 17 1943, died June 21 2018