Trevor Hockey

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Born Keighley; May 1, 1943. Died 1987.

The following piece is a profile of the 1960’s and 70’s footballer Trevor Hockey. It is as well to remember that as you may find yourself thinking you are reading about Robbie Savage if you let your concentration slip.

I wouldn’t want that to happen because I don’t think Mr. Savage will ever warrant a profile on this website.

Trevor Hockey was born in Keighley in 1943, the son of a Welsh rugby player who had moved north to earn a living in the professional code of the game. Hockey inherited a sporting aptitude from his father but it was in football rather than rugby that his chief talent lay. His performances in local youth football drew the attention of Bradford City whom he joined as a junior and before he had turned seventeen Hockey was turning out on the wing for the first team in the third division.

This proved to be a tough baptism for Hockey, a somewhat frail figure at this time, in a team struggling at the wrong end of Division Three. In fact Bradford were actually relegated to Division Four, with Hockey in and out of the side, at the end of the 1960-61 season.

The young winger, now beginning to fill out, was certainly not the most skilful player ever to hit league football but he had already shown that he was brave enough to take the hard knocks and come back eager for more. Beyond this natural bravery Hockey was reasonably sharp across the ground and could put over a decent centre.

Without doing anything extraordinary, however, Hockey had done enough to attract early attention from the higher divisions and this was confirmed by his transfer to first division Nottingham Forest in November 1961. More surprising than the move itself was the fact that the eighteen year old winger was thrust straight into the first team at The City Ground and remained a regular throughout a prolonged, and ultimately successful, relegation battle.

The following season saw a vast improvement from Forest with Hockey remaining an automatic choice. The winger missed only one game in the league as Forest managed a 9th placed finish and also contributed four goals, not a massive amount but the most he would ever manage in a single league season. There was excitement in the FA Cup as well as Forest made it to the 6th round but, with a semi final tie against Manchester United awaiting, they then crashed to a 5-0 defeat against second division Southampton in a second replay.

It probably surprised a few people that Hockey had managed to hold down a first team place at Forest so consistently since his move from Bradford but the fact that he had done so made it at least equally surprising that the situation should then change so abruptly. In November 1963, after two years in the Forest first team, Hockey was sold to Newcastle United, then in the second division, and life on Tyneside was instantly more difficult for the player than it had been in the Midlands.

From being an automatic choice in a team comfortably placed in the first division Hockey found himself struggling to establish himself in a side struggling to live up to huge expectations in the second. It is also likely that he suffered as much as anyone from being a part of the team that lost a 3rd round FA Cup tie 2-1 at home to Bedford Town, a hugely embarrassing result for a club with such a rich recent history in the competition.

The following season went some way towards easing the pain of that particular defeat as Newcastle finally regained their place in Division One as second division champions but again Hockey was unable to command a regular place in the side, appearing in just over half of their games.

Hockey’s career to this point had been slightly confusing. He had been a success when it seemed least likely and struggled when the odds looked to be more stacked in his favour. This pattern was about to continue.

As Newcastle returned to the first division Hockey finally nailed down his place in the first team and was a regular during the first three months of the season before being sold to second division Birmingham City for £25,000. His stay with Newcastle had lasted exactly as long as his stay at Forest but now he was back exactly where he had started at St. James’ Park.

Birmingham, just as Newcastle had been when he joined them, were a club mired in the middle of the second division looking to return to the top flight but failing to live up to the expectations of a large fan base.

Hockey, now twenty two, quickly realised that this was an important move for him. At two clubs he had now done a decent enough, and totally honest, job without really establishing himself and had found himself moved on. The player sensed that things had to be different at St. Andrews if he wasn’t to drift back to the lower divisions where he had started his career. Hockey immediately threw himself into a whole hearted campaign to establish himself as a central figure in Midlands football, both on and off the pitch.

Hockey’s brand of wing play had always relied heavily on graft rather than craft and it was inevitable that he would evolve into an out and out midfield player at some stage of his career. The traditional role of the winger was about to be redefined massively by England’s 1966 World Cup success which saw Alf Ramsey setting his side up in a 4-3-3 formation and Hockey was undoubtedly one of those who benefited from the trend that followed on from the so called “wingless wonders”.

Suddenly Alan Ball was the model for the perfect modern hybrid of winger/midfielder. Rather than hugging the touchline players were demanded with the energy to cover every blade of grass, supporting the attack one minute, back helping out the defence the next. Possessing skill was obviously a benefit but a capacity for hard work and the ability to get stuck in became perhaps more important than the ability to beat a man.

Hockey was no Alan Ball but he was not a bad imitation, especially in the second division, and under Stan Cullis at Birmingham he quickly established a reputation for himself as a tenacious, indefatigable spoiler whose job it was to fetch and carry for the ball players in the side and to tackle anything that moved in the opposition. It was a role Hockey took to with relish.

This metamorphosis into a midfield terrier helped Hockey to truly establish himself as an integral part of the Birmingham City side but the outgoing Yorkshireman was now keen to let loose his personality off the pitch as well. In this respect his move to Birmingham couldn’t have happened at a better time either.

The image of the footballer was changing rapidly in 1966. Since the abolition of the maximum wage at the start of the decade footballers were quickly catching up with the stars of music and film as objects of public interest and adoration. George Best had already lit the blue touch paper in this respect and the forthcoming World Cup would accelerate the trend. With both Birmingham and Villa in something of a slump at this time the city was ripe for a larger than life character to come along and provide a little colour and Hockey quickly made this role his own.

Hockey would end up spending five years at St.Andrews and it is fair to say that there was never a dull moment. On the pitch he would spend that time being feted by his own fans and ritually abused by opposition supporters. It is likely that he enjoyed the cheers and the catcalls equally. There would be running battles with the opposition and, frequently, with the referee, there would be suspensions and fines but also plenty of honest graft in the cause of Birmingham City.

Off the pitch Hockey, a clean cut, good looking chap with a prominent Kirk Douglas dimple, soon had his own fan club and regularly appeared in the popular best looking footballer polls of the time. Dubbed “The Beatle of Brum” he dabbled in music himself, wrote regular columns for a local paper and kept his fans happy by driving a velvet trimmed car and purchasing a lurid pink piano.

Hockey was obviously a hard man with bundles of self confidence and no insecurities about his masculinity whatsoever.

It is also worth pointing out that the various football magazines in publication at that time regularly printed letters from fans writing to detail how Hockey had gone out of his way to comply with their requests. Hockey certainly enjoyed and sought public attention but he was also meticulous in never shirking from the demands this attitude created.

Despite his best efforts on the pitch, however, this remained a frustrating time for Birmingham who became a real “nearly” club.

In his second season with the club Birmingham enjoyed good runs in both the League and FA Cup’s but both ended in disappointment. Hockey managed to find the net more often in cup ties that season than he did in the league as he scored in League Cup victories over Ipswich Town and Sheffield United as well as an FA Cup replay win against Rotherham United.

The League Cup offered a realistic chance of glory as Birmingham reached the semi finals to be paired against third division Queens Park Rangers. Having taken a first minute lead in the first leg at St.Andrews, however, this tie turned into a nightmare as Rangers recovered to win 4-1 before clinching a 7-2 aggregate victory back at Loftus Road.

City also reached the 6th round of the FA Cup and were close to knocking Tottenham out at St.Andrews but, after being held to a goalless draw, they then crashed to a 6-0 defeat in the replay.

The following season saw Birmingham getting closer to promotion but eventually finished off the pace in 4th position but another good cup run took them through to the semi finals of the FA Cup. Hockey’s season had already been interrupted by injury, however, before a broken foot ruled him out of the mouth watering clash with West Bromwich Albion at Villa Park.

There was a typically bizarre source of consolation for Hockey in missing this crucial fixture as his first single, Happy Cos I’m Blue, was released on the same day. I’m not sure how well this record fared but there is certainly no sign of it in The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and, for the record, Birmingham had a day to forget as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat against The Baggies.

One milestone Hockey had achieved by the end of the 1968 season was that of playing on all ninety two football league grounds which, given the fact that he had only just turned twenty five was a remarkable statistic.

It seemed only a matter of time before Birmingham mounted a serious promotion campaign but the remainder of Hockey’s time at St.Andrews became one of increasing frustration and discord. The 1968-69 season started in desperate fashion with City losing their first three games which prompted Cullis to make changes to the team for the next game. Hockey was one of those dropped and the volatile midfielder immediately slapped in a transfer request.

Hockey would soon regain his place in the starting line up but Birmingham continued to struggle badly and although they recovered well during the second half of the season they were never remotely in promotion contention and had to eventually settle for a 7th placed finish. The FA Cup once again brought excitement with a 5th round home tie against Manchester United, the reigning European Cup holders, but after a thrilling 2-2 draw The Blues crashed out 6-2 in the Old Trafford replay.

The following season was a dire one although Hockey himself would only miss one game during the whole of the campaign. Birmingham slumped to the lower reaches of the division, finishing 18th, while the tenure of Stan Cullis as manager also came to an end with Freddie Goodwin taking over at the helm.

Goodwin was keen to make the most of Hockey’s combative qualities and handed him the captaincy but things still refused to gel with Birmingham managing only a mediocre start to the 1970-71 season and when Sheffield United came in with a £40,000 bid in January the club were willing to do business and Hockey was on his way back home to Yorkshire.

The Blades were heavily involved in the second division promotion race and saw Hockey as a player who could take weight off a talented midfield including the likes of Tony Currie, Geoff Salmons, Gil Reece and Alan Woodward.

This move worked out well for all concerned. Hockey, now sporting long hair and a shaggy beard that any self respecting Viking would have been proud of, was in his element chasing, harrying and tackling the opposition to distraction while his more gifted team-mates got on with the job of creating chances for the forwards. Hockey’s partnership with the mercurial Currie, the most talented player he would ever play alongside, was especially effective and United would go on to clinch promotion after remaining unbeaten in their last eleven games and taking nine points from the last ten available.

This run of form carried through to the start of the following season as The Blades shocked everyone by making a storming start to life back in the first division. United remained unbeaten in their first ten games, winning eight, to top the table and it was the Hockey/Currie axis that drew most attention and acclaim during this incredible run.

Whereas Currie instantly began being championed as a potential international candidate there appeared little likelihood that Hockey would be called upon for representative honours at this stage of his career but a change in FIFA’s regulations suddenly opened up the international arena to the Yorkshire terrier. Once it had been decided that a player could represent the nation of a parents’ birth Wales immediately turned to Hockey to beef up their midfield and his dream start to the 71-72 season got even better when he made his international debut in a 3-0 win over Finland.

Dreams do tend to be frustratingly short, however, and this one was never likely to be any different. Four successive defeats brought an abrupt end to United’s storming start and a 5-0 defeat at West Ham ended the prospect of cup glory at the quarter final stage of the League Cup.

Worse was to follow for Hockey as he then broke his leg during a 3-3 draw at Manchester City and was forced to sit out the final three months of the season. Hockey recovered from this injury in time for the start of the following season with the most exciting chapter of his career waiting to be written.

As well as another season of first division football to look forward to with Sheffield United he was a major part of Welsh plans as they looked forward to a World Cup qualifying campaign which would pit them against England and Poland.

Hockey returned to first team action on the opening day of the 1972-73 season and the fixture list could hardly have been more enticing. Birmingham City, having sold Hockey to Sheffield United, had actually managed to clinch promotion the previous season and their first game back in the top flight would find them locking horns with their former warrior at St.Andrews.

Hockey was doubtless eager to show his former fan club what they had been missing and would have been delighted to get his name on the scoresheet in The Blades’ 2-1 victory. This opening day success provided Hockey with the highlight of his domestic season while the World Cup qualifiers provided him with a bigger stage than he could have realistically dreamed of commanding only a couple of years earlier.

Wales’ first qualifier was at home to England and Hockey was at his spoiling best alongside John Mahoney in a dour battle that England finally edged through a single Colin Bell goal. The return at Wembley brought a more tangible reward as a John Toshack goal helped the Welsh secure a 1-1 draw, Hockey again in the thick of the action on a night when constructive football was kept to an absolute minimum.

One point from two games meant that Wales had to beat Poland at home in their next game to retain any chance of qualifying and this encounter provided Hockey with perhaps his most memorable moment in football. Once again his hassling and harrying had been crucial to the Welsh cause as the talented Poles were not allowed to find any rhythm and, with a minute remaining, the home side found themselves leading 1-0 thanks to a goal from Leighton James.

With the crowd whistling for time and Poland desperately trying to throw men forward Hockey made a sudden burst from midfield, played a one two with Tarry Yorath, and was suddenly clean through on goal with the chance to wrap up a famous victory.

Hockey had never been a prolific scorer and had probably as little experience in this kind of position as any midfielder ever born but he seized his moment of glory with an assured finish past the advancing Jan Tomaszewski, the man England would struggle so heinously to beat when they took on Poland later on in the series.

By this time Hockey had moved clubs again with Norwich City having taken him to Carrow Road in a player exchange deal in February 1973. The Canaries were embroiled in a bitter relegation battle and obviously felt that Hockey’s combative qualities would serve them well as they strove to stay in the first division.

Once more Hockey proved an astute signing as he pitched in to help Norwich survive by the skin of their teeth. Three wins from their last five games were enough to secure safety with two of these successes coming against the teams who ended up filling the relegation places that season, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace.

Having helped Norwich maintain their status Hockey found that his work in East Anglia was already done, however, as the club moved him on to Aston Villa, then a second division club, in the summer.

Hockey again managed a goal on the opening day of the season as his new club recorded a 2-0 win over Preston North End but the seasoned pro was beginning to look a little bit jaded, especially as he continued to be dogged by injury problems, and he failed to make a significant impact at Villa Park.

There was to be massive disappointment, and some ignominy, on the international front as well as Wales’ World Cup hopes came to a bitter end in Poland. The Poles had shown little stomach for a fight in falling to defeat in Wales but at home they had no hesitation in meeting fire with fire and this crucial game degenerated into a predictably bad tempered affair.

Unable to suppress the Poles physically the Welsh found themselves on the end of a 3-0 hiding as Poland’s undoubted quality was able to sporadically puncture the violence and, with their World Cup hopes over and faced with an increasingly volatile atmosphere, it was hardly surprising that the undercurrent of bad feeling should come to a head before the night was over.

It was also hardly surprising that Trevor Hockey should be the man to finally push the beleaguered referee too far. Hockey was sent off for basically breaking the camels’ back at the end of vitriolic game and his international career had finished in the worst possible manner.

Aston Villa also deemed Hockey surplus to requirements at the end of the 1974 season and the midfielder found himself back where he had started his career after signing for Bradford City, now in the fourth division. Injuries continued to trouble Hockey during his two seasons’ back at Valley Parade and prevented him from playing any real part in Bradford’s exciting FA Cup run during the 1975-76 season.

Hockey only appeared in the clubs’ 1st round victory over Chesterfield and had to watch from the sidelines as they progressed all the way to the 6th round where they lost narrowly at home to Southampton, the eventual cup winners.

This would prove to be Hockey’s last season in the Football League with his last appearance coming as a substitute for Billy McGinley in a home game against Southport.

Hockey never lost his love for football, however. Having left Bradford he joined the growing exodus heading for America where football was making a real effort to force its’ way into the national consciousness and also took on various roles in non league football before returning to Yorkshire to become a leading figure in local youth football.

Hockey showed himself to be something of a visionary as he established a coaching camp for local youngsters in and around his home town of Keighley and had been a leading figure in restoring non league football to Keighley by the time of his tragically early death in 1987.

Although it was an awful shock for such a man to pass away in his mid forties it was surely inevitable that Hockey should suffer the heart attack that killed him while taking part in a local five a side tournament.

Trevor Hockey was perhaps only a mediocre footballer who gained as much attention during his career for his antics, on and off the field, as for his ability but there can be no doubt that few players put as much into, or got as much enjoyment out of, playing football as Hockey did and for that fact alone we salute him.

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