A special look at the 1982/83 promotion winning team
The Team
In part 1 of a two part series, we will look at a piece of Hull City history – the 1982/83 promotion winning team.
The manager at the time was Colin Appleton. Appleton was brought to the club in February 1982 and in his first season in charge lost only six games which gained the Tigers promotion to division 3.
Appleton was a captain during his twelve year spell at Leicester City but made his name as a manager of Scarborough where he won the 1973 FA Trophy. Appleton gained promotion with the Tigers in his first season but resigned after narrowly missing back to back promotions.
Appleton continued his managerial career at Swansea and Exeter but a second spell at Boothferry park saw him sacked after only five months with the Tigers languishing at the bottom of the second division. The twice former manager of the Tigers now lives in Seamer.
At the time, Jeff Radcliffe was the club physio. His time is now spent running his own practice in Gilberdyke.
Chris Chilton was Appleton’s assistant manager. A Hull City legend, the striker scored 193 goals in 415 games for the Tigers which is a club record. That spell lasted eleven years before he became assistant manager. Chilton now lives in Thorngumbald.
Pete Skipper arrived at the club from Darlington after a £10,000 deal was in part funded by the supporters club. The centre-back was the only ever present in the Tigers 1982/83 promotion campaign and also scored the goal which secured the Tigers promotion to Division 2 with a headed winner against Walsall in May 1985. Skipper went on to work for an oil rig company and is now a double glazing salesman in the Hull area.
Billy Whitehurst is another Hull City legend who was part of this promotion winning team. Whitehurst was a signing of former manager Brian Horton and went on to score 23 goals in 44 games before moving onto Newcastle and Sunderland.
Whitehust went on to be a successful greyhound owner. He now works at the BP refinery in Hull.
John Davies made 24 appearances for the Tigers due to the fine form of Tony Norman. The player, born in Llandyssil now runs Hull City’s Football in the Community Scheme.
Len Findlay was the Tigers number three goalkeeper. Findlay made no appearances for the Tigers and left the game.
Tony Norman made a record 226 consecutive league appearances for the Tigers from August 1983 until October 1988. Norman played in a total of 372 league games before joining Sunderland for £400,000.
Norman went on to play in the 1992 FA Cup Final and was capped by Wales five times. Norman went on to become a police officer in Durham but retired due to a heart condition.
Steve Richards rose through the Tigers junior ranks to play 58 games at centre-back. The Dundee born Richards played with the Tigers for four seasons before a successful spell with Scarborough.
Richards is now a police officer in Hull and manager of non-league Hall Road Rangers.
Les Mutrie scored 49 goals in 115 games as a prolific striker for the Tigers. Mutrie once scored in nine consecutive matches and now runs a pub in Northumberland.
Neil Thompson played 31 games for City before he moved to Scarborough. Like Mutrie, Thompson won England semi-professional honours.
Thompson spent seven years at Ipswich before becoming assistant manager at Boston United. Thompson is now the director of the Leeds Academy.
Check back tomorrow for the second part…
