51 Facts About Emlyn Hughes

1.

Emlyn Hughes started his career at Blackpool in 1964 before moving to Liverpool in 1967.

2.

Emlyn Hughes made 665 appearances for Liverpool and captained the side to three league titles and an FA Cup victory in the 1970s.

3.

Emlyn Hughes completed a full set of English football domestic honours by winning the League Cup with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1980.

4.

Emlyn Hughes earned 62 caps for the England national team, which he captained.

5.

Emlyn Hughes was made an OBE in 1980 for his services to sport.

6.

Emlyn Hughes was born in Barrow-in-Furness, the son of Fred Hughes, a Great Britain, Wales, Barrow, and Workington Town rugby league footballer.

7.

Emlyn Hughes made his debut for Blackpool in 1964 playing alongside Jimmy Armfield and Alan Ball, initially as an inside forward, but later at left-half.

8.

Emlyn Hughes settled into the midfield at Liverpool during a transitional period for the club, earning the nickname "Crazy Horse" after an illegal rugby tackle on Newcastle United winger Albert Bennett.

9.

Liverpool did not win any honours in his first four seasons there, but Emlyn Hughes was seen as a forerunner of the future which Shankly had in mind.

10.

Emlyn Hughes played in the next game in the same position.

11.

For Emlyn Hughes, 1970 was an important year in his career.

12.

Emlyn Hughes had six caps by the time Ramsey included him in his provisional squad of 27 which flew to South America for altitude-acclimatising friendly games against Colombia and Ecuador.

13.

Emlyn Hughes featured in neither game but was selected in the final squad of 22.

14.

Emlyn Hughes was the youngest player selected by Ramsey, and the only Liverpool player in the squad.

15.

Emlyn Hughes controversially withdrew Bobby Charlton and Martin Peters in the second half but retained a clearly exhausted Terry Cooper, who played at left back the entire 120 minutes although Hughes was available to replace him.

16.

Smith wrote that he was "disgusted" with what Emlyn Hughes said and never spoke to him off the field again.

17.

Smith stated that he thought Emlyn Hughes was trying to "set him up" and was not really trying to bribe Arsenal players.

18.

Emlyn Hughes appeared again for England in the quarter-final of the 1972 European Championships, again under Ramsey, again facing West Germany, again with the same result; victory for West Germany.

19.

In 1973, Emlyn Hughes won his first League title with Liverpool and his first European honour with the UEFA Cup, against Borussia Monchengladbach.

20.

In October 1973, Ramsey selected Emlyn Hughes to be left back as England hosted Poland at Wembley.

21.

Emlyn Hughes lunged into a last-ditch tackle but Domarski's shot evaded his block and slipped under Shilton's body and into the net.

22.

Later that month Emlyn Hughes was appointed England captain, replacing Bobby Moore, by caretaker boss Joe Mercer.

23.

Emlyn Hughes captained England for all of Mercer's seven games in charge, and initially maintained the role when Don Revie was appointed as Ramsey's permanent successor.

24.

Emlyn Hughes was now predominantly a central defender and played in a tactically disastrous team against Italy in Rome, which marked the lowest point of Revie's tenure as England manager.

25.

Emlyn Hughes was voted the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year.

26.

In 1978, Emlyn Hughes was in the Liverpool team which played and lost its first ever League Cup final, to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest in a replay.

27.

Liverpool lost to Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-finals, with Emlyn Hughes caught out of position for the winning goal.

28.

Emlyn Hughes left Liverpool after 665 appearances, scoring 49 goals, for the club.

29.

Emlyn Hughes continued to be selected for England squads even after leaving Liverpool.

30.

Greenwood included him in the squad for the European Championship finals in Italy as an experienced reserve, but Emlyn Hughes did not play any matches and England were eliminated in the group stages.

31.

Emlyn Hughes became only the fifth player to represent England in three separate decades, joining Jesse Pennington, Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton and Peter Shilton.

32.

The 57 caps Emlyn Hughes earned in the 1970s made him the most capped England player of the decade.

33.

Emlyn Hughes left Wolves in 1981, joining Rotherham United as player-manager.

34.

Emlyn Hughes refused and was sacked, to be replaced by George Kerr the following day.

35.

Emlyn Hughes joined Mansfield Town briefly in 1983 but did not make any appearances for the club.

36.

In 1979, Emlyn Hughes became a team captain on the long-running BBC quiz A Question of Sport, opposite the former rugby union footballer Gareth Edwards.

37.

Emlyn Hughes left the programme in 1981, but returned in 1984, this time playing against England's former rugby union captain Bill Beaumont.

38.

Emlyn Hughes became much mimicked for his competitive nature and high-pitched protestations when not being able to recall an answer.

39.

Emlyn Hughes once identified a picture of a heavily muddied jockey as John Reid, only to be told it was Princess Anne.

40.

Emlyn Hughes caused a minor national debate when he defied protocol and put his arm around her.

41.

Emlyn Hughes called her "ma'am" throughout, except for one occasion, when he referred to her as "mate".

42.

Emlyn Hughes later joined her team for the much criticised It's a Royal Knockout project, the brainchild of her brother Prince Edward.

43.

Emlyn Hughes hosted the short-lived BBC game show Box Clever during 1986 and 1987.

44.

Emlyn Hughes was immortalised in comic strip form as he was signed by Melchester Rovers in the Roy of the Rovers strip; he wrote a column for the teenage football magazine Match.

45.

In later years, Emlyn Hughes lived a quiet retirement, occasionally working as an after-dinner or motivational speaker.

46.

From 1995 Emlyn Hughes became chief patron to the Sheffield-based charity FABLE.

47.

Emlyn Hughes died at his home in Dore, Sheffield, at the age of 57.

48.

Emlyn Hughes was voted at No 10 on the official Liverpool Football Club web site poll "100 Players Who Shook The Kop".

49.

Emlyn Hughes is remembered at Anfield, a statue of him being carried by Bob Paisley was unveiled in 2020.

50.

In 1980, Emlyn Hughes was decorated with the OBE for services to football, and later featured on the television tribute show This Is Your Life.

51.

On 24 July 2008, it was announced that Emlyn Hughes would be inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame.