Norwich City great Hugh Curran has died. He was 82.
Born in Scotland, Curran played for Third Lanark and Millwall before joining the Canaries in January, 1966. He was one of manager Ron Ashman's last buys as City manager, costing a bargain £12,000.
He scored a remarkable 53 goals in 124 games for City in the old Division Two and was named player of the season in 1968.
Curran‘s tally included a hat-trick against Ipswich Town in a 4-2 League Cup second round win at Portman Road in 1968-69.
"It was one of the happiest times I had in my football career," he recalled.
"At the time I was just scoring goals and I didn't even know it.
"In the season I left for Wolves, I scored 22 times before the end of January. I didn't want to go but the board of directors had a good offer.
"I remember having a meeting with the manager, Lol Morgan, and telling him it was my ambition to play in the First Division. He said he understood that but he didn't want me to go.
"He said 'If I can double your wages, will you stay?' I said yes, because I loved it at Norwich. Unfortunately, it didn't materialise. Next thing I knew, there was a knock on my door one day and he said 'come on, we're off'. It was Wolverhampton Wanderers."
Wolves paid £60000 for Curran in 1969 and he went on to play for Oxford United and Bolton before returning to Oxford. Curran also won five Scotland caps.
He retired due to injury in 1979 and went into business before running a hotel with his brother Ronald in Lanarkshire.
Curran also owned a number of pubs in Oxfordshire and London.
After six months of retirement in 2005, Curran was "bored to tears" and decided to get a job as a supervisor at Oxford's Thornhill park-and-ride service.
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