Welcome to the first in our series of Tigers Legends Features.This will be a weekly Feature charting the careers of the players who have worn the Black & Amber shirt with pride and greatness.This week
Ken Wagstaff
HULL CITY LEGENDS
Number 1
KEN WAGSTAFF.
Ken Wagstaff was born on the 24th November 1942 in Langworth Nottinghamshire.
He had been playing in the Mansfield youth leagues and making quite a name for himself. The then Mansfield Manager Raich Carter (Another Tigers Legend) signed him for Mansfield Town in 1960 and immediately put him in the first team squad, for whom he made his league debut on 30th August 1960 in a 2-1 victory over Rochdale with Waggy netting both goals, he then went on to make a further 27 appearances that season scoring 7 goals.
In 1961-62 he found the net 15 times, but this was just a sign of things to come.
Wagstaff was becoming a firm favourite with the Field Mill crowd and in the 1962-63 season he formed a lethal partnership with Roy Chapman and bagged 40 goals as the
Stags were promoted from Division Four.
The following season he continued his goalscoring streak with 29, but as with many a goalscorer down the years a bigger club came knocking on Mansfield’s door and Hull City took Waggy to Boothferry Park for a £40,000 fee on November 12th 1964. Waggys record at Mansfield was an impressive 93 goals in 181 appearances.
Once again he scored on his Club debut for the Tigers netting a goal in a 3-1 victory over Exeter City. Also on the scoresheet that day was Chris Chilton and the pair were to form the most formidable strike partnership in the Tigers history. Waggy made 25 appearances for City in his first season, scoring 23 goals.
The following season he scored 27 goals in 46 appearances as the Tigers won the old Division 3 Championship. He also famously scored 2 goals in a 2-2 FA Cup match with Chelsea (Unfortunately we lost the replay 3-1).
Waggy carried on playing for the Tigers until 1975 when his career was cut short by a knee injury.
His record for the tigers was 430 appearances and 197 goals.
After leaving the Tigers he went off t
Waggy was a brilliant inside the box player. Him and Chris worked brilliantly together and with Ken Houghton and Ian Butler formed a fantastic front line. In 65-66 every 5 forwards logged double figures goals . I went down to Chelsea for that Cup game – 2-0 down with 5/10 mins to go and he slotted in 2 super goals! Hull fans smiled all the way to Fulham Broadway but on the tube lots of Hull fans looked so dejected at the “defeat” – until we 90 minute stayers told them about the 2-2 draw! Then they were happy – and annoyed that they’d given up so early! The replay was something else. Terraces so full that you were moved about without any control over that movement!!! Health and safety? Pah!
And here’s a funny story –
Playing footy at school, my trick shot was to bring my right foot up alongside my right side, calf at right angles, and hit the ball with the outsider of my shoe/boot without bothering to bring the ball under control – surprised the keeper every time cos you just helped the ball on its way – fast. I lost count of how many times Ken used this trick but he did score lots of goals that way. Great player.