Douglas 'Doug' Hunt (19 May 1914 – 30 May 1989) was a professional

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 ...

whose career lasted from 1934 to 1948. Hunt was a

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

who played for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

and Leyton Orient. Hunt lost some of his best years as a footballer to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

being only 25 when war was declared. In his 14-year career he made 169 appearances including cup ties and scored 73 goals.http://allfootballers.com/.
Gives statistics for career. Hunt holds a special place in the annals of Sheffield Wednesday being the only player in their history to score six goals in a competitive match. On retiring from playing, Hunt was a manager and a coach in

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

for 38 years.

Playing career

Hunt was born in the small

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

village of

Shipton Bellinger Shipton Bellinger is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. Shipton Bellinger is about north-east of the town of Amesbury and north-east of the city of Salisbury. It is on the A338 road, near its junction with the A303 road. It is i ...

. His football career started in the early 1930s in the Hampshire League with

Winchester City Winchester City Football Club are an English football team based in Winchester, Hampshire and playing in the Southern Football League Division One South. Craig Davis is the current manager. The club motto is "Many in Men, One in Spirit". Histo ...

where he took over the centre forward's shirt after Ted Drake had left to start his league career at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. Hunt's ability as a goalscorer was spotted by

and he signed for the north London club in March 1934.

Tottenham Hotspur

Hunt was initially assigned to play for Tottenham's nursery side

Northfleet United Northfleet United Football Club was a football club based in Northfleet, Kent. Around 1890 organised team football was being played in the town and in 1892 the Northfleet F.C. club was founded. It flourished for a few years in the mid-1890s u ...

and did not make his Tottenham debut until Christmas Day 1934 in a 3–0 away defeat at Grimsby Town.Soccerway.com.
Tottenham debut: v Grimsby on 25/12/34. Hunt made 12 appearances that season scoring 4 goals as Tottenham struggled and were eventually relegated from

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

at the end of the 1934–35 campaign. In his three seasons at Tottenham, Hunt never found himself as an automatic choice finding himself behind

George Hunt George Hunt may refer to: Sport *George Hunt (American football) (born 1949), American football player *George Hunt (footballer, born 1910) (1910–1996), English international footballer for Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal * George Hunt (footballer, ...

and then Johnny Morrison in the pecking order for first choice centre forward. He had an excellent record for Tottenham's reserve team, scoring 56 goals in 74 matches and in March 1937 he signed for

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

for a fee of £1700 in an effort to get regular first team football.

Barnsley

Hunt stayed at Barnsley for a year, the 1937–38 season saw the team in a relegation struggle but Hunt's form was good scoring 15 goals in 29 appearances and in March 1938 he became

Jimmy McMullan James McMullan (26 March 1895 – 28 November 1964) was a Scottish football player and manager. He won 16 Scotland caps as a player at half-back and was part of the famous ''"Wembley Wizards"'' side of 1928. Playing career Early life and Th ...

's first signing for Sheffield Wednesday for a fee of £3875.

Sheffield Wednesday

Hunt exchanged one relegation battle for another as Wednesday were also down near the bottom of the Second Division. He made his debut on 5 March 1938 against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and played in all the remaining 12 league games that season, scoring six goals as he provided a remedy for Wednesday's problem centre forward position which had been bothering them all season. He also took over from

Horace Burrows Horace Burrows (11 March 1910 – 22 March 1969) was a professional footballer who played for Mansfield Town and Sheffield Wednesday. Burrows was a left half whose league career lasted from 1932 to 1939, his career was curtailed by the outbreak ...

as club penalty taker. Some of his goals were vital, he scored the winner at

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

, then scored a vital brace in Wednesday's penultimate match of the season, a 2–1 home victory against

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

which lifted the team out of the bottom three. He then scored the winner in the following Saturday's 2–1 win at Tottenham to ensure safety.Stuart Jackson's SWFC Archive.
Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career. The 1938–39 season saw Wednesday involved in a thrilling promotion chase which saw them miss out on promotion by one point. Hunt had a fine season scoring 26 League goals in 30 appearances and finishing as club top scorer for the campaign. However it is the match against Norwich City on 19 November 1938 which has left Hunt with a unique place in Sheffield Wednesday history.Official Sheffield Wednesday site - Complete History.
Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career.

"Hunt's game" - six goals in one match

Despite their high finish, Wednesday had a slow start to the 1938–39 campaign, being well down the League in 14th place before the visit of Norwich, they had lost heavily 5–1 at West Brom the previous Saturday. Hunt however was bang in form having scored four goals in a

Sheffield and Hallamshire County Cup The Sheffield & Hallamshire County Cup was a county cup competition involving the professional sides within the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Football Association. It ran from 1920/21 to the mid-1990s, with several gaps between tournaments. E ...

semi-final tie 12 days earlier against Rotherham United. There were three main factors why Wednesday had such a crushing 7–0 victory on that day, firstly Norwich had a terrible away record having failed to pick up a single point on their travels. Secondly, Wednesday's

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 ...

international inside right

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

had one of his finest games for the club and created five of the six goals that Doug Hunt scored. Thirdly, Norwich's centre half Peter Burke was injured after 15 minutes and was a "passenger" for the rest of the game on the left wing. With no substitutes allowed, this left the Wednesday forwards and Hunt in particular with plenty of room. Hunt missed an easy chance in Wednesday's first attack but within two minutes of Burke's injury he had put Wednesday one up. After 25 minutes he scored a second when he beat Norwich's offside trap and ran on to beat keeper Harry Dukes. Hunt completed a hat-trick six minutes before half time after picking up a pass from Robinson and shooting home from the edge of the penalty area, he then added his and the team's fourth a minute before the break. Hunt's fifth came after 65 minutes when he connected with

Willie Fallon William Joseph Fallon (14 January 1912 – 23 March 1989 was an Ireland international footballer. His career spanned twenty years during the 1930s and 1940s. Fallon played for several clubs in the English League, most notably Notts County and ...

's corner, hitting the post but reacting quickly to knock in the rebound. Fallon scored Wednesday's sixth goal after 80 minutes and with three minutes remaining Hunt scored his sixth and Wednesday's seventh to create a new individual goal scoring record in a competitive match for Sheffield Wednesday.''"One Hundred Years at Hillsborough"'', Jason Dickinson, Page 104 Gives information on Sheff Wed v Norwich, 19/11/38.

Wartime

Hunt played in the first three matches of the 1939–40 season before official football was suspended because of

. During the war he returned to his home county of

and joined the army. He made guest appearances for

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

, Tottenham Hotspur,

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

and

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

winning the

London War Cup The London War Cup was an English football competition held during the Second World War. It was established to be a wartime replacement for the FA Cup, which had been suspended for the duration of the conflict. Although called the London War Cu ...

with Brentford in 1942. He returned to Brentford for the 1943–44 season, top-scoring with 18 goals and netting a total of 86 goals in 167 games for the Bees. He returned to Sheffield after leaving the army and played five games for Wednesday in the wartime league of 1945–46. He was put on the transfer list in February 1946 and accepted the post of player-coach at Leyton Orient in April of that year with a transfer fee of £620 changing hands.

Latter career

He had a good first season with Leyton Orient (1946–47) scoring 13 League goals in 39 appearances, finishing joint top scorer with Wally Pullen as Orient finished in the bottom half of

Division Three South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to o ...

. For the following campaign he was appointed assistant-manager but still put in 22 appearances for the first team at inside right. He left Orient to become manager at Gloucester City between 1948 and 1953 before moving to

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

in January 1954 whom he took to two Southern League Cup finals in 1955 and 1957. He also signed Ron Saunders for Tonbridge in July 1956 starting him on the road to becoming a top player and manager.Tonbridge F.C. site.
Gives details of Ron Saunders signing. In 1958 he moved to

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

as trainer-coach staying there for more than 25 years, being granted a Testimonial match in 1976,www.ciderspace.co.uk.
Gives details of testimonial in 1976. before retiring in 1986, aged 72. Doug Hunt died on 30 May 1989, aged 75 in

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somer ...

.''"The Wednesday Boys"'', Jason Dickinson & John Brodie, Page 149 Gives biographical information.''"The Men Who Made Sheffield Wednesday Football Club"'', Tony Matthews, Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career and biographical information.

Honours

Brentford *

: 1941–42

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Douglas 1914 births People from Test Valley 1989 deaths English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Winchester City F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Gloucester City A.F.C. players Gloucester City A.F.C. managers Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Brentford F.C. wartime guest players Yeovil Town F.C. non-playing staff Tonbridge Angels F.C. managers Southern Football League managers English football managers British Army personnel of World War II English Football League players