Richard Terence Heath, (17 November 1943 – 25 January 2011) 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 ...

, who played for

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

, Scunthorpe United and Lincoln City.

Playing career

Leicester City

Terry Heath joined his hometown club

as an apprentice in 1961, making his Football League debut in the 2–0 home win against

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 ...

on 10 November 1962. He made four further appearances during the season scoring twice, his first goal coming in the 4–3 home victory over Manchester United on 16 April 1963. The following season he made just three League appearances but did play in the first leg of the

1964 Football League Cup Final The 1964 Football League Cup Final, the fourth to be staged since the competition's inception, was contested between Stoke City and Leicester City, both of the First Division, over two legs. Leicester City won 4–3 on aggregate. Match revie ...

, a 1–1 draw at Stoke City on 15 April 1964. Leicester's 3–2 victory in the second leg one week later secured them the trophy. The League Cup appearance would prove to be his last for the Foxes as during the summer of 1964 he linked up with

for a fee of £8,000.

Hull City

His spell at

Boothferry Park Boothferry Park was a football stadium in Hull, England, which was home to Hull City A.F.C. from 1946 until 2002, when they moved to the KC Stadium. In later years, financial constraints forced Hull City to allow Kwik Save and Iceland superma ...

was a frustrating one as he struggled to establish himself in the first team, making just 31 Football League appearances for the club in four seasons before moving on, in March 1968, to join Scunthorpe United for a fee of £5,000.

Scunthorpe United

He made an immediate impact at The

Old Showground The Old Show Ground was a football stadium in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, that was the original home of Scunthorpe United F.C. from 1899 until 1988, when they moved to Glanford Park – the first newly constructed Football League stadium s ...

, scoring on his debut in a 5–1 victory over

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

and going on to score five goals in 12 appearances though Scunthorpe finished bottom of Division 3. Apart from injury, he was to be a regular in the side for five seasons, becoming a crowd favourite for his surging runs from deep positions and his explosive shot and finishing top scorer for the club in both the 1968/69 and 1970/71 seasons with 15 and 10 goals respectively. The 1971/72 season saw Scunthorpe United promoted but Heath was missing from the team with a groin injury from December onwards.

Lincoln City

In February 1973 Heath joined Lincoln City on loan, debuting in the 1–0 home victory over Darlington on 28 February 1973: a victory noted for being the first managerial win for

Graham Taylor Graham Taylor (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln C ...

. He went on to play nine games for the club that season, scoring once in the 2–0 victory at

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional 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 play in a blue and ...

on 31 March, before a knee injury ended his season. In the summer of 1973, a fee of £2,000 secured his services on a permanent basis However, having started City's first two games of the season, an injury to his other knee caused him to be out of action from the end of August until the middle of February. Despite returning for seven games he was advised to retire from the game; a testimonial game being held for him on 1 March 1976 when 5,292 spectators saw the Imps defeat

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

1–0.

Retirement

After his enforced retirement he worked as a storeman in

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

and then at

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A ...

steelworks before moving to

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

where he ran a guesthouse as well as earning a reputation for oil painting with a particular fondness for painting nature and wildlife. He later moved to Spain, becoming an honorary member of the Quesada bowls club in Ciudad Quesada, Rojales,

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

before his death on 25 January 2011 following a long illness.

References

External links

Lincoln City F.C. Official Archive Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Terry 1943 births English Football League players English footballers Leicester City F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players 2011 deaths Association football midfielders