CHARLIE HURLEY 1936 - 2024 HARDBACK
“THE GREATEST CENTRE HALF THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN”
 
Could a player who never won a League or Cup winner’s medal, nor played in a World Cup and who played mostly in the second and third tiers of English football, be considered “the greatest centre-half the world has ever seen”? Well, in the opinion of many contemporary pundits, Charlie Hurley was the best ‘ball-playing’ centre-half in English football between 1960 and 1965 which earned him the title ‘King Charlie’ among the Roker Park hordes. So what kind of player was Charlie Hurley? He was ahead of his time: as a fine exponent of playing out from the back some seven decades before it became common practice. He was as brave as a lion: notorious for putting his head where others wouldn’t put their boots and he was a superb defender who fought and won individual battles against sixties greats such as Jimmy Greaves, Denis Law and Roger Hunt.
 
First published in 2008 Mark Metcalf ’s acclaimed authorised biography of the former Sunderland and Republic of Ireland captain was extremely well-received and remains the best-selling book on any former Sunderland player. Charlie was rightly inducted into the Sunderland Hall of Fame at the inaugural dinner in 2019, and following his death on 22nd April 2024 there was renewed attention on this former titan of Roker Park.
 
However this book is about far more than just one man. Mark Metcalf paints a detailed landscape of professional football in the sixties, with all its big personalities, petty rivalries and thrilling games played before huge crowds of working class people. And nowhere was the passion of the supporters greater than at Roker Park when Charlie and the lads ran out to play.