HARRY HOOD
3 October 1944 – 26 May 2019
Sunderland: 9 November 1964 – 7 October 1966
SAFC career 33+1 appearances / 10 goals.
Club historian Rob Mason pays tribute..
We were sad to learn of the death of former Sunderland forward Harry Hood, who has passed away aged 74. Harry was a right winger or centre forward who did well at Sunderland – once scoring the winner against Manchester United – and won a stack of silverware with Celtic.
Glasgow born, Harry had turned down Celtic to sign for Sunderland before later joining the Celts. Interviewed in Sunderland’s match programme in 2010 Harry remembered the interest in him following his 40 goals in 63 league games for Clyde, “I was absolutely stunned when I ran out at Roker Park for my debut. Remember in my career I would ultimately play in front of huge raucous crowds in Glasgow but I’ve never forgotten what the noise and atmosphere was like inside Roker Park.”
Having debuted in a win over Burnley shortly after turning 20 Harry soon got his first goal against Everton – a club where his brother Jackie was a pro. After a more than decent first season on Wearside injury struck Harry who would miss the entire 1965-66 campaign after suffering a double hernia doing weight training in pre-season. When he returned in 1966-67 he would play just a handful of games despite scoring in a big win over Blackpool on his last appearance at Roker.
The problem was Harry became one of a group of players effectively frozen out by Ian McColl, the ex-Rangers man who had become Sunderland boss at the end of Hood’s first season. “I wasn’t seeing eye to eye with Ian McColl and I felt he never gave the likes of myself or John O’Hare the run we deserved.”
In October ’66 Sunderland cut their losses on Harry, selling him back to Clyde for under half the £26,000 he had cost. Once again he excelled and two and a half years later finally did sign for Jock Stein’s all-conquering Celtic not long after scoring against England in winning his only international cap at Under 23 level. He did tour with Scotland in 1967 but did not win a full cap.
At Parkhead Hood won five league titles, three cups and played in four other finals – scoring in the 1971 and ’74 Scottish Cup finals as well as scoring a hat-trick in the 1974 semi-final against Rangers.
In May 1976 Harry crossed the Atlantic to briefly play for San Antonio Thunder before finishing his playing days with Motherwell and having short spells as manager of Albion Rovers and Queen of the South in the early eighties.
After leaving the game behind Harry became a hotelier in Lanarkshire. He is fondly remembered as an exciting and effective player at Sunderland with a record, that while short-lived on Wearside, was one to be proud of.