Robert Dennis Curtis (25 January 1950 – 19 March 2010) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a right full back, most notably for

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

. He also represented

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

and

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...

. Bob was born in Langwith Whaley-Thorns in Nottinghamshire and was scouted by Charlton Athletic whilst playing as a striker for local side Shirebrook Town. He signed for Charlton in February 1967, and was given his chance in the first team after

Billy Bonds William Arthur Bonds (born 17 September 1946) is a former professional footballer and manager, who is most often associated with West Ham United with whom he spent 27 years as player and manager. He played 799 first-team games for West Ham in a ...

had been sold to

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. Curtis represented Charlton Athletic for 12 seasons, and in that time, he made 337

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

appearances for the Addicks, and scored 35 goals.Bob Curtis
''Post War English & Scottish Football League A-Z Player's Database''. Retrieved on 22 March 2010. He was famously once expelled from the

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

under-23 squad after he dyed his hair blonde, to make him look like his idol

Bobby Moore Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore (12 April 1941 – 24 February 1993) was an English professional footballer. He most notably played for West Ham United, captaining the club for more than ten years, and was the captain of the England natio ...

.Bob Curtis obituary
Charlton Athletic official site (20 March 2010). Retrieved on 22 March 2010. After a disagreement with the Charlton management staff, Curtis was sold to Mansfield Town in his native

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

for an undisclosed fee in March 1978. During his time with the Stags, he made 73 league appearances for the club, and 87 in all competitions, scoring seven goals. An achilles injury forced him to retire from full-time football in 1980, and he subsequently played one season for non-league Kettering Town before hanging up his boots in 1981. Curtis died in March 2010, aged 60, after a lengthy battle against

motor neurone disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(known as

Lou Gehrig Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned f ...

's disease or ALS in North America).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Bob 1950 births 2010 deaths English footballers Charlton Athletic F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Kettering Town F.C. players Association football defenders Neurological disease deaths in the United Kingdom Deaths from motor neuron disease English Football League players