On this day in 1925, former Sunderland player, coach and manager Billy Elliott was born in Bradford.
Having started his career with wartime games for Bradford Park Avenue in 1942, Billy’s impressive left wing performances brought about a move across the Pennines to Burnley in 1951, for £23,000, but not until he’d asked for the move several times. His 74 league performances for the Clarets saw him awarded with five England caps, in which he scored an impressive three times; a much better ratio than his club form of 14 in 74.
At the time, we were fond of splashing the cash, so we forked out £26,000 to bring Billy to our left wing in June 1953, a move that began a love affair with Sunderland which lasted a lifetime. Over the next six years, alongside fellow Bradfordian Len Shackleton as well as other SAFC players such as; Trevor Ford, Tommy Wright, George Aitken, Stan Anderson, Billy Bingham, Arthur Wright, the list goes on, he played 212 competitive games and scored 26 times. As well as sparkling on the wing, his hard-as-nails attitude suited a move deeper to left half, a position he’d occupied on occasion at Park Avenue and, from late 1956, even further to left back.
Following our relegation in 1958 he featured less regularly, playing only nine times in the 1958/59 season and scoring his final goal, a penalty in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday at Roker in September. After a 5-0 defeat at Swansea Town (now City) in the same month as his final Sunderland goal, we suffered a 6-0 defeat at Hillsborough four days later which ended Billy’s eight game run at left back. A certain Len Ashurst took over, and Billy’s final game in the stripes came at Cardiff City in December, where we lost 2-0. At the end of the season he moved to non-League Wisbech Town, where he remained until 1961.
Once his playing days were over, at the age of 36, he began his coaching career, taking on an exotic role in charge of the Libya national team, starting in October 1961. He left after a couple of years to work as a scout for Sheff Wed. A year later he became the US Forces coach in Germany, then two years after that became trainer at Daring FC in Brussels. In January 1968, he came “home” to Roker Park as coach, stepping in as caretaker manager when Alan Brown left by mutual consent at the end of October 1972. During his four game tenure, before the arrival of Bob Stokoe, he had the rather bright idea of moving Dave Watson from centre forward to centre half. Clever fella.
Back he went to his coaching role until late 1973, sitting on the bench on that fabulous day at Wembley half a century ago. Billy left us at the end of the 1972/73 season and, in 1974, began a four-year stint as coach at Brann in Norway. He was back at Roker when Jimmy Adamson left in late 1978, managing us until the end of the season, overseeing Gary Rowell’s finest hour at St James' Park (when he scored a hat-trick as we ran out 4-1 winners) and missing out on promotion by a single point (ooh, that team he selected for the Blackburn Rovers game. Ask yer dad). Despite supporters handing the club a petition begging them to give Billy the job on a permanent basis, Ken Knighton arrived and Billy was off to spend four years as manager of Darlington. On retirement, he settled in Sunderland and was a regular visitor to games but unfortunately suffered a heart attack at the Stadium of Light when a guest of Peter Reid in 1999. Thankfully, he was back in his seat before the season’s end.
Towards the end of 2007, Billy suffered ill health and passed away on 21st January 2008, aged 82, in his adoptive home, Sunderland.
The original Billy Elliott, with two ‘t’s, 212 games, 26 goals.
THE NIGHT NICKY SHARKEY MADE ME SLEEPWALK
THE NIGHT NICKY SHARKEY MADE ME SLEEPWALK
THE NIGHT NICKY SHARKEY MADE ME SLEEPWALK
THE NIGHT NICKY SHARKEY MADE ME SLEEPWALK
OTD: BILLY ELLIOTT BORN
OTD: BILLY ELLIOTT BORN