Nicknamed ‘Norman bites yer legs’, the Leeds defender won 28 England caps but had his biggest successes at Elland Road
Norman Hunter had to wait 41 years for his World Cup winners’ medal – as a non-playing member of England’s 1966 squad he was not deemed entitled to one until the rules were eventually revised – yet the Leeds United centre-half’s no-nonsense playing style is as fondly remembered today as any other from the era when televised football turned local heroes into household names.
Partly that is to do with the wonderfully apposite nickname that followed him around after the 1972 FA Cup final against Arsenal, when a banner in the Leeds end declaring “Norman bites yer legs” was spotted and commented on by the studio pundit Brian Clough. There was more than a grain of truth in the assertion, though rather than being a menace on the pitch Hunter, whose death at the age of 76 was confirmed on Friday, was simply a brusquely physical defensive presence of a type common at the time.
Written by Paul Wilson
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2020/apr/17/how-norman-hunter-became-one-of-leeds-uniteds-biggest-legends under the title “
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