Scottish Striker Passes Away

The Wolves family have been hit by yet another bereavement, with news of the death of Hugh Curran.

The Scottish international striker was 82 and had been in poor health for several years.

Born in Glasgow, he served as an apprentice at Manchester United before starting to show his goal-scoring worth with 27 in 57 League games for Millwall.

He then achieved a similar strike-rate in well over 100 matches for Norwich, prompting Bill McGarry to invest £60,000 in him in January, 1969.

Wolves saw the best of him as he netted 47 times in 98 League and cup appearances, starting with a 2-2 draw against his former club United.

Highlights for him included two goals apiece at home to Nottingham Forest (in Peter Knowles’s farewell appearance) and at Chelsea on successive Saturdays in September, 1969, and further braces later in that prolific season against Brighton, Everton, Chelsea again and Albion away.

He topped the club’s goal charts that season with 23 and followed up the year after with 20, including a hat-trick at home to Forest two weeks after he had again struck twice at The Hawthorns.

In the following months, he started to be squeezed out by John Richards, though, and returned from a non-playing role in the UEFA Cup quarter-final away to Juventus to discuss what he thought would be his Molineux exit.

Bill McGarry had lined him up for a move to Huddersfield but it fell down because of a dormant knee problem and he then went on as a substitute in the second leg of the UEFA Cup final two months later at Spurs – one of his lucky grounds with Wolves.

It was in the following September that he finally left, for Oxford, and he had a second spell at the Manor Ground after also playing for Bolton.

John Richards has spoken previously about what a fine header of the ball Hugh was, not forgetting that he scored the only goal on a frosty Molineux afternoon against Sunderland when British football was shown live on Scandinavian TV for the first time.

Wolves picked up a sizeable following across the North Sea as a result and the player earned further acclaim with a goal for Scotland at Wembley in 1971, although it was in a 3-1 defeat.

We were delighted to track Hugh down well over a decade ago after he had disappeared off the radar. We were tipped off that he worked on the park and ride scheme in Oxford and dropped in on him to say hello – an introduction we followed up with a second visit to his workplace.

We at Wolves Heroes now wish to convey deepest condolences to his family and close friends and plan to write more about him in the coming weeks.