Fond Tales Aplenty About Promotion-Winning Star
It is 60 years next month since Ernie Hunt, having become Swindon’s youngest ever debutant and then led their goal-scoring charts for four seasons in a row, signed for newly-relegated Wolves. In the countdown to tomorrow’s Molineux visit of Everton, the club he subsequently moved on to far too quickly, Wolves Heroes contributor Chris Westcott provides some personal memories of the man whose colourful biography he helped write.
Ernie Hunt, pictured signing at Molineux in September, 1965.
It was a great pleasure to work with Ernie Hunt on his book and I’d like to share some of those moments we enjoyed along the way.
His career is well documented, so I will restrict that part of this article to a short resume.
He was born and raised in Swindon, where his childhood hero was fellow Swindonian and Albion legend Ray Barlow.
Ernie made his debut for The Robins in the old Third Division at the age of 16 in September, 1959, and was heavily influenced by the two senior professionals, record goalscorer Maurice Owen and goalkeeper Sam Burton.
They were well versed in practical jokes and Ernie was a quick learner. During the summer, he earned a few bob with Mike Summerbee as a Corporation grave digger; another rich source of material! He also started cutting the players’ hair in the dressing room – even manager Bert Head didn’t avoid a short back and sides.
Progress was rapid for player and team-mates alike as a youthful team won promotion to Division Two in 1962-63 and Ernie received recognition with under-23 England appearances. But the rise was short-lived. Relegation followed at the end of 1964-65 and a break-up of Head’s talented youngsters was inevitable.
When Second Division Wolves tabled a £40,000 offer in September, 1965, Ernie was on his way. His good pal and former Swindon team-mate, Bobby Woodruff, was already at Molineux, which was a positive factor behind him going, too.
Wolves missed out on promotion that first season, when the new man was untypically beset with injuries. But success came in 1966-67, Ernie top-scoring with 20 goals in 37 appearances. An eventful and highly successful summer tour of the United States of America followed, during which he was again prominent among the marksmen – and the pranksters.
Terry Wharton, Ernie and Hugh McIlmoyle are the bystanders as Ron Flowers finds himself on the ball on photo-call day at Molineux in 1966.
The opening six games of the First Division season saw Ernie score twice before a bid of £80,000 from Everton proved too good to turn down. Goodison boss Harry Catterick persisted in playing him wide, though – a role to which he was totally unsuited.
After a dozen matches, he was on the move again, this time to Coventry, where manager Noel Cantwell gave him a free role. That played to his strengths and he produced arguably his best football there, donkey free-kick et al.
Moves to Bristol City and Atherstone followed before he called time on his career. He was managed at the latter by Gil Merrick, who was the goalkeeper when England suffered their infamous 6-3 home defeat against Hungary in 1953. Gil often went in goal in training and Ernie couldn’t resist the temptation of calling out ‘7-3’ whenever he put one past him!
Ernie photographed at home in Gloucester by David Instone more than a decade ago.
In retirement as a player, Ernie had various roles, ranging from a publican (‘like giving a torch to an arsonist’) and a window cleaner.
I interviewed him several times at his Gloucester home, being greeted on one occasion by his wife, Carole, who told me Ernie had fallen off his piano stool and been taken to hospital. She was adamant Ernie was happy for me to visit and interview him there…once I’d safely navigated his harem of nurses.
I stayed overnight at their home on another visit. Ernie and Carole took in stray cats to the extent they were all over the house. They put me in a room in the attic and Ernie’s slightly comforting words were: “Don’t worry, they can’t get up there.”
Of course, the inevitable happened. I was woken by a rustling in the middle of the night and a huge pair of eyes like dustbin lids were staring at me. “He must have been locked in there,” was Ernie’s apologetic response.
When his Joker In The Pack book was launched in 2004, there were signing sessions at Swindon, Coventry and, of course, Wolves, where we were joined by The Doog, Mike Bailey, Bobby Thomson, Terry Wharton and Lofty Parkes.
We were also invited to an Everton dinner at the Adelphi Hotel in the city, where Ernie’s overnight bag was found to contain a bottle of vodka and a wig.
Compere Elton Welsby introduced each player and, when it was Ernie’s turn, he entered from a side room wearing his wig. He lifted it up and brought the house down.
It was a lively evening and I retired relatively early, shortly after Ernie had sung Moon River in a duet with Howard Kendall. I was sharing a room with him and, about an hour later, there was a loud knock on the door.
Ernie was being propped up by Roger Kenyon, a big, strong centre-half. “He’s all yours,” said a relieved Kenyon. Ernie proceeded to take his shoes and jacket off, slumped on the bed and was out like a light inside 20 seconds.
In the morning, I managed to get him on the right train from Lime Street to Gloucester, albeit minus the vodka, wig and also his false teeth. I phoned later to make sure he had arrived okay, only to discover he had fallen asleep, missed his stop and ended up in Bristol.
On the 40th anniversary of that previously mentioned promotion to the First Division, London Wolves kindly invited Ernie and I to a celebratory dinner at Charlton Athletic.
Hunt with Willie Carr and (standing) writer Chris Westcott.
On seeing Dave Wagstaffe for the first time in many years, Ernie tugged at his hair, convinced he was wearing a wig. It was a memorable evening and thankfully an uneventful night as we again shared a room. The plan for the following morning was to take a river cruise, at which point I made my excuses and departed. I couldn’t bear the responsibility of trying to control Ernie on the Thames.
He was an emotional individual. When we met at The Doog’s funeral, he sobbed uncontrollably. When Ernie himself passed away in 2018, I had the privilege of sharing the eulogy with Chris Cattlin, who had signed for Coventry on the same day as he had. Chris spoke about his time together at the club and I talked about the rest of his life.
There was an excellent turnout in Gloucester of the football fraternity, particularly from his time at Swindon. Mike Summerbee travelled down from Manchester, Bobby Woodruff, Rod Thomas and Don Rogers also attended. To cap it all, their old goalkeeper, Sam Burton, by then 91, went acoss from Wales, accompanied by his daughter. Sam was reunited with his old team-mates after a gap of over 40 years and, after arriving slightly late, was very apologetic. “I’ve only just finished my paper round,” he said with a mischievous grin.
Sadly, drink got the better of Ernie and Carole but he was always cheerful and positive, such a likeable person and an excellent footballer. There was never a dull moment in his company.