Charlie Hurley RIP

[West Stand Man]

His obituary is in The Times this am. A brief mention of his time with us.

[Fox Talbot]

It took him 4 1/2 seasons to win promotion from Div 4. There again it was a club that hadn't won promotion for 50 years!

He gave us the varied talents of Robin Friday and Percy Freeman, a few memorable cup ties, promotion, some sort of near-ish misses and I think he was generally regarded as a decent bloke.

RIP Charlie

[Mid Sussex Royal]

His obituary is in The Times this am. A brief mention of his time with us.

Thanks for starting a separate thread, as the news has got somewhat lost on the ex player's thread.

Although I started going during Jack Mansell's reign, it wasn't until the early 1970's i started going regularly, and the 1976 promotion was special being the first the club had achieved for a generation.

There's a great story about Charlie on the STAR twitter page; following the last game of the season in 1973-74, a 0-0 stalemate at Chester, Charlie ordered the team coach to stop at the same pub as the supporter's coach were and the players travelled back to Reading on the same coach as the fans.

I guess that means ian Branfoot is now our oldest surviving manager with Maurice Evans passing way too soon.

[grey_squirrel]

I sadly remember his last game in charge of us.

26th February 1977. My birthday. Bury (our bogey team at the time) at home. I was sat right behind the dugout.

We were 3-0 down at half time and Charlie came out for the second half clearly upset. Unbeknown to us at the time, he had resigned in the dressing room.

A true gentleman and an absolute God on Wearside.

RIP Charlie

[karbota]

It took him 4 1/2 seasons to win promotion from Div 4. There again it was a club that hadn't won promotion for 50 years!

He gave us the varied talents of Robin Friday and Percy Freeman, a few memorable cup ties, promotion, some sort of near-ish misses and I think he was generally regarded as a decent bloke.

RIP Charlie

Errr no Fake, Robin played for Reading youth team well before the Charlies Hurley days, and then later returned to Elm Park with Hayes in the FA Cup, Charlie signed him but never found or gave him.

RIP Charlie Hurley.

[Brogue]

What a shit remembrance for him today. Players didn’t gather around the centre circle and it wasn’t on the refs whistle. All a bit slapdash and haphazard

[grey_squirrel]

What a shit remembrance for him today. Players didn’t gather around the centre circle and it wasn’t on the refs whistle. All a bit slapdash and haphazard

Remember football only existed after the formation of the Premiership. So why?

[Orion1871]

What a shit remembrance for him today. Players didn’t gather around the centre circle and it wasn’t on the refs whistle. All a bit slapdash and haphazard

DJ Megaparty was the one who screwed it up. He said we'll have a minutes applause before the players and the ref had a chance to gather around the centre circle.

He was also still babbling on, trying to be the star of the show as usual, when the ref was ready to blow the whistle for kick off.

[okanaganroyal]

First manager I can remember singing his name in the south bank in the 70s Charlie Hurleys blue and white army, did wonders with Reading.
Charlie Hurley RIP

[Fox Talbot]

What a shit remembrance for him today. Players didn’t gather around the centre circle and it wasn’t on the refs whistle. All a bit slapdash and haphazard

Club couldn't even get a photo of him on the scoreboard! Axe the Comms - or aren't there any left?

[Ark Royal]

Omnishambles of a rememberance. Charlie Hurley was an old school pragmatic manager for us and concentrated on making us very difficult to beat, but stuck with individual goal threats from Robin Friday, John Murray and (briefly) Percy Freeman.

My nan worked at Elm Park for many years as a tea lady and cleaner and always said that Charlie was a perfect gentleman; I will always be grateful to him for guiding us to our first promotion in 50 years. RIP Charlie.