‘A magical man’: Chris Chilton obituary

LOVED: Hull City legend Chris Chilton

Chris Chilton was one of Hull City’s greatest players & the club’s all-time record goalscorer. His death today at the age of 77 has thrown his family, friends, and fans into mourning. Hull City columnist Sam Hawcroft looks back on his life and career

Tributes have been flooding in from Hull City fans following the death of Tigers legend Chris Chilton, aged 77.

Sproatley-born Chilton had been suffering from dementia during the past decade, prompting an appeal that raised more than £40,000 to support his family, who had been struggling with the spiralling costs of his respite care.

Chilton’s family, who had initially hoped to raise just £1,000, were blown away by the generosity shown by the club, fans, fellow ex-Tigers, and the wider football community – but this was a measure of the fact that, not only was Chillo the club’s all-time record goalscorer, but a genuinely great bloke to boot.

His legendary 1960s strike partner Ken Wagstaff told Burnsy on Radio Humberside that he’d been at the hospital last night with Chilton and his family. “I went to see him, and, you know, I can’t handle things like that, but I stayed for two hours, trying to make Margaret and the family laugh [about old times], and I could imagine him thinking, ‘Who’s brought that bugger here to talk to me about football!’

“He was a lovely man all round, not just in football,” Wagstaff added. “He was a great header of the ball and he was quite quick for a big man. What can I say? He was just a magical man.”

Richard Gardham, author of The Decade, told Burnsy that Chilton had been his first interviewee for his book, but he had been “lovely, kind and generous” and put him completely at ease when he sensed his nervousness.

I only met Chilton very briefly in the Three Tuns in 2000 during the filming of End of an Era, the film presented by Martyn Hainstock to mark City’s move from Boothferry Park to the KC Stadium, as it was then. I recall being somewhat over-awed by the occasion!

So it was very moving to watch a clip, shared by TigerTube on Twitter, of Chilton and Wagstaff talking to Martyn about the old days when they’d be playing in the wind and snow, trying to control the ball “while some big hatchet man’s kicking chunks out of you”.

Chilton first signed for City in 1960 and spent 11 years at the club as a player; he and Waggy are widely seen as two of the best players never to grace the top flight. Chilton scored 222 goals in all competitions for City – an astonishing tally unlikely to be bettered.

He was well before my time, I’m sad to say, but fans older than me will surely remember the big Number 9 knocking in all four goals in a 4-2 victory at home to Wrexham in October 1963. In October 1964, he bagged another four in addition to Ray Henderson’s hat-trick in a 7-0 mauling of Barnsley at Boothferry Park.

MEMENTO: How Chris Chilton signed his autobiography for Martyn Hainstock

He might have stayed longer at the club were it not for what he saw as shoddy treatment of him, as he recalled in his 2004 autobigraphy, Chillo. “I never felt that Hull City wanted to keep me because they never spoke to me; they didn’t come and ask me to meet them,” he wrote.

“I walked back down North Road into the ground. I heard somebody shouting behind me: ‘Ken! Ken!’ I looked over my shoulder and it was one of City’s directors – I won’t say who it was – walking towards me.

“He said: ‘Don’t you think it would be better if you went to Chelsea?’ I said: ‘I don’t really know. Why is that?’ He said: ‘They’ve offered £100,000.’ I replied: ‘Seeing that I’m not Ken, you might be mixing me up with someone else.’ He said, ‘Oh, sorry. Did I call you Ken?’ I said: ‘Yes, twice.’ I felt really insulted, I really did.”

After a back injury ended his short spell at Coventry City, Chilton returned to East Yorkshire in 1972 and played for Bridlington Town for a couple of years, and he would “quite happily” have played out his days there but for a phone call out of the blue from Walley Barnes, former Welsh international and by then an agent for South African football.

GENEROUS: A snapshot of the fundraising appeal for Chris Chilton

This led to Chilton’s “African adventure” playing for Highlands Park in Johannesburg, which almost resulted in him being selected for the national team.

He and his wife Margaret were enjoying life in South Africa and, in 1975, son Gary was born there. But as political unrest over apartheid increased, they realised it wasn’t the “dream location” they thought it was, and made the decision to return to the East Riding in 1978.

On the day that Chilton had started work as a coalman, he received a call from then-City manager Ken Houghton, asking him if he wanted to manage the club’s youth side and reserves. Chilton agreed, and went on to become a mentor to the likes of Gary Swann, Garreth Roberts and future England boss Steve McClaren.

McClaren wrote in his foreword to Chillo: “When I moved into the first team at Hull, Chillo followed me as caretaker manager and then first-team coach. They were dark days back in the early 80s as receivership threatened the club’s existence and we were a young team.

“We survived those dark days through teamwork and by having a strong character at the helm, and Chris Chilton was certainly that.”

Chilton spent eight years on the management side of Hull City, and, after a stint as assistant manager at Lincoln City in 1987, he nearly returned to Boothferry Park after receiving a call from Colin Appleton.

“We met up and chatted about the problems that Colin was facing during his second spell as manager,” Chilton wrote. “I agreed to give it a go but then fate took a hand. The day after that meeting Don Robinson resigned as chairman of Hull City.

“His successor was Richard Cheetham and one of the first things he did was sack Colin Appleton. My job at Hull City was finished before it even got started!”

He later worked as a painter and decorator before retiring to live in Thorngumbald; a humble ending for a player of such talent and revered status.

But, while he might have privately rued missing out on the untold riches that footballers of future generations would enjoy, for Chilton, family and friends were what mattered most. As he concluded his book: “In that respect I’m not the ‘nearly man’ – I’ve made it.”

Chris Chilton, 1943-2021.

Our thoughts are with Margaret, Gary, Gemma, and all of his family and friends.