Former Sunderland player and 1937 FA Cup winner Eddie Burbanks passed away on this day in 1983.
Full name William Edward Burbanks, Eddie learned his left-wing trade at Donny Grammar School, Thorne Town, Donny YMCA, and Denaby Utd of the Midland League, before we paid £750 for his signature in February 1935 – although Denaby claim it was only £300. He only managed a couple of outings that season, but scored on his debut against Portsmouth in a 4-1 victory. His only two appearances in our title-winning season of ’35-’36 were in the Durham Senior Cup, and his solitary goal came in the tie against Gateshead. Although playing down the left, he was a bit of an Allan Johnston in that he was right-footed, but could shoot with his left as well. Also a decent cricketer, Eddie opened the batting for South Yorkshire cricket team Bentley during the summer of 1935.
The paucity of appearances were down to the form of club stalwart Jimmy Connor, but in ’36-’37 Eddie scored, as did Raich Carter, as we beat Arsenal 2-1 in the Charity shield – played in October 1936 at Roker Park. That game was during a period when Connors was unavailable, and Eddie filled his boots for a month. His big chance came when Connor, who’d earlier scored, was fouled and suffered what was effectively a career-ending injury in the FA Cup 4th round against Luton the following February. Eddie featured in the remaining six FA Cup ties, and scored our third goal against Preston in the final as we lifted the cup for the first time. He’d managed 28 games that season, scoring seven times. He repeated his scoring total in 38 games the following season, and grabbed three in 33 in ’38-’39. Three games into the ’39-’40 season, the competition was suspended as war broke out, and although no records exist, it’s virtually certain that Eddie had featured in all three.
With hostilities robbing him of probably the best years of his career, he’d scored our last official goal before the war – winning the Durham Senior Cup with the only strike against Hartlepool – and he scored our first on the resumption of football in 1946, a penalty as we beat Derby, who featured Raich Carter, 3-2. During hostilities, when he served in the RAF as a PT instructor, Eddie turned out for his home town (Donny), Blackpool, Man U, Leeds (14 games), and Chesterfield – as well as 65 times for his parent club, and at least one appearance for an England side. That ’46-’47 season brought 33 games and his usual seven goals as we finished mid-table, and in ’47-’48 he played fifteen times as we finished third bottom and just avoided the drop.
Perhaps fittingly, his last game came in the Durham Senior Cup semi-final defeat to Darlington in April 1948, and with his league place having been taken by Tommy Reynolds his Sunderland days were numbered. After 154 games and 28 goals, he was off. His former captain Raich Carter, by then player/manager at Hull in Division 3 North, took Eddie to Boothferry Park in the June, where he was a vital part of the promotion-winning side the following season, weighing in with eight goals. When Carter resigned in September 1951, he dropped out of the picture, but when his mate returned as a player, he featured in the final 24 games of the season – celebrating his 39th birthday on the way. He left for a brief thirteen game spell at Leeds in the summer of 1953, signed again by Raich Cater, retiring at the end of the next season after captaining his side against former employers Hull, aged 41. For 23 years he ran a confectioner’s in Hull, and enjoyed only three years of retirement before passing away in 1983.
