The next time you hear somebody say the words ‘Billy’ and ‘Whitehurst‘ in the same sentence, be sure to pay close attention to how they say them. Chances are if spoken by a former player you’ll see a shaking of the head followed by an audible sigh. If it is someone who observed Billy from the terraces then a look of wild excitement will invariably race across their face as they steam headlong into an anecdote that you couldn’t possibly think true. Such reactions say a lot about the man.

It is customary in pieces such as this to state that the term legend is grossly overused and you’ll hear no argument from me there. Indeed, increasingly so it seems any skinny player with long sleeves and an even longer fringe that produced a back heel or two receives the accolade. Billy Whitehurst, or Rambo Billy as he was gloriously named by then Tigers’ Chairman Don Robinson for his physical likeness to the Sylvester Stallone character, was different. He represented what all football fans could achieve if they worked at their game…. all football fans blessed with a huge gorilla-like frame and fearless mental attitude, that is.

Plucked from the building site and semi-professional football with Mexborough Town, Tigers fans soon learned to overlook the fact he didn’t possess the skills normally associated with football legends. Indeed, he was what can only be described as ‘uncompromising’ and his second touch was often a tackle – and oh how we loved him for it. We loved the way he picked up the ball with his back to goal, turned and rampaged his way through a backpeddling opposition defence before smashing the ball past the bewildered keeper (69 goals in 252 games in a City shirt). We loved the fact that when the opposition viewed our teamsheet and saw his name, the game was won there and then and we had another victory during what was a golden period. But we especially loved the tales from colleagues old and new about his astonishing off-field antics.

My own abiding memory of Sir William centres around him returning to the Tigers via a long list of clubs in 1988 as part of the deal that took wonderkeeper Tony Norman to Roker Park (Billy originally left in 1985 to Newcastle Utd for a then record fee for both clubs). I eagerly entered Boothferry Park to witness his second debut versus Ipswich (1-1, Whitehurst scored, naturally) but my eyes were elsewhere than the hallowed turf. I looked up at the opposite end of the stadium in wonderment as my eyes fixed upon the huge spray-painted letters proclaiming the legend  ‘Rambo Billy’. Word had it that an inspired group of the citizens of Hull had broken into the stadium in the dead of night to let Billy know what his return home meant to us. The very same graffiti remained visible until the day we left our famous old home for pastures new, some15 years later. The signing of no player before or since has provoked anything like such a reaction among the City faithful. Billy Whitehurst – legend indeed.

Gary Bolton

‘Alan Shearer’s got my shirt: the Billy Whitehurst story’ by Rob Finch is released in November 2005.