John O'Rourke (11 February 1945 – 7 July 2016) 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 lea ...

. His position was

centre forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

. During his career he played for

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

and

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth ( ) is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. ...

. Such was his scoring success and popularity on Teesside that fans would sing "Give us a goal, John O'Rourke" to the tune of

The Troggs The Troggs (originally called the Troglodytes) are an English beat music band formed in Andover, Hampshire, in May 1964. Their most famous songs include the US chart-topper " Wild Thing", " With a Girl Like You" and " Love Is All Around", al ...

song " Give It to Me". An £18,500 signing from Luton Town, he scored two on his debut at Colchester and went on to score 27 in 39 games as Boro clinched promotion from Division Three at the first attempt. This included a hat-trick in the crucial last match of the season, a 4–1 victory over Oxford United. On 31 December 1966, while playing for Middlesbrough, O'Rourke was involved in a collision with

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers FC is a men's professional football club in Bristol. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is affiliated to Bristol Rovers W.F.C., whose team play in the FA Women's National Leag ...

goalkeeper Bernard Hall, which left Hall in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

for sixteen days and ended his footballing career. The following season, 1967–68, he scored two further hat-tricks before moving to Ipswich Town in February 1968 for £30,000. -QPR initially almost signed him from Middlesbrough in 1967/68 but couldn't agree terms. O'Rourke was signed by QPR Manager Gordon Jago in 1970 for a then record fee of 65,000 pounds From Coventry City (after a competition with Millwall to sign him) -The following season, he scored a few, but QPR then signed Stan Bowles; O'Rourke was injured and then kept out by a forward line of Bowles, Givens and Thomas. And QPR sold him to Bournemouth for about 40,000. When his playing days were over, O'Rourke became a newsagent on the south coast. He died on 7 July 2016, aged 71 of cancer.

References

External links

John O'Rourke profile at Ipswich Town Talk
1945 births 2016 deaths England men's under-23 international footballers Ipswich Town F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Poole Town F.C. players Rangers F.C. (South Africa) players Weymouth F.C. players Dorchester Town F.C. players Footballers from Northampton English men's footballers Men's association football forwards English Football League players 20th-century English sportsmen {{England-footy-forward-1940s-stub