Terry Cooper obituary: From rugby league roots to football stardom for Leeds United and England - YEP 2/8/21
Leeds United are mourning the death of Terry Cooper - the Yorkshireman steeped in rugby league history who became one of his country’s brightest stars in football.
By Lee Sobot
Born in Brotherton, Cooper used to be a regular in the
stands at either Castleford or Featherstone along with the rest of his family
as a child.
But the young Yorkshireman always dreamed of being a
footballer and was eventually handed that chance by Leeds under legendary boss
Don Revie.
There was nothing legendary about Revie or Leeds when Cooper
first arrived at the club on trial having been spotted playing for Ferrybridge
Amateurs in 1961.
The Whites were loitering in the old second division and
definitely not the attractive proposition that they are today.
“For some reason I always wanted to be a footballer, even
though I didn’t really have any heroes or role models - and certainly not at
Leeds,” said Cooper back in June 2000 in the edition of Leeds Leeds Leeds.
“They weren’t big at all where we were from and as it took
over an hour-and-a-half on the bus by the time you’d gone through all the
villages, not many could be bothered to make the effort to get up there.”
But nine years after making that effort as part of his
initial trial, Cooper was representing England at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico
with his club now the country’s dominant force.
By then, Cooper had become Revie’s left back as part of a
side that had scooped four major honours in the last three years.
Initially signed as a left winger, Cooper had scored the
only goal of the game as Revie’s Whites bagged their first major honour by
beating Arsenal 1-0 in the 1968 League Cup final.
The first of two Inter Cities Fairs Cup triumphs and the
followed the same season, after which Leeds became champions of England for the
very first time and then won the Charity Shield.
Cooper’s brilliant displays took him to the England team as
part of a career that would go on to feature 20 caps for the Three Lions.
There would have been substantially more appearances for
both club and country had Cooper not broken his leg in 1972 which led to 20
months out.
Even so, the defender amassed 351 appearances for the
Whites, netting 11 goals including his most famous strike in the League Cup
final against Arsenal.
Cooper formed a formidable partnership with Eddie Gray down
the Whites left hand flank as part of an era when Revie’s side scooped seven
major honours in seven years, ending with the 1974 league title, by which time
Cooper had returned having missed the 1972 FA Cup final win.
The left back eventually departed the club in the summer of
1975 and went on to make a big impact with his next clubs as firstly a player
and then a manager.
Cooper left Leeds to join former Whites team mate Jack
Charlton who by then was in charge of Middlesbrough and thereafter two spells
at Bristol City followed either side of time at Bristol Rovers and Doncaster
Rovers.
The former left back then went on to manage Bristol Rovers
as well as Bristol City - twice - in addition to Exeter City and Birmingham
City.
Then, once calling time on management, Cooper spent 12 years
scouting for Southampton before retiring in 2007.
There were tributes from throughout the land as football
received the devastating news that Cooper had passed away aged 77 this weekend.
As part of the cruellest last year for Leeds, yet another
Revie legend has left for the sky.
When Peter Lorimer passed away back in March, former Whites
boss Simon Grayson tried to offer some sort of comfort as part of a period in
which United had to also wave farewell to former legends Jack Charlton, Trevor
Cherry and Norman Hunter.
“Terrible news that Leeds United have lost another legend of
the club,” said Grayson back in March
“That will be some team looking down on us that we’ve lost
this last year or so."