Cooper: Terence (Terry)

1961-1975 (Player Details)

Left Back

Born: Brotherton nr Castleford: 12-07-1944

Debut v Swansea Town: 11-04-1964

5’71/2” 10st 9lb (1970)

#16 in 100 Greatest LUFC Players Ever

He attended Brotherton School and played with Wath Wanderers, the Wolverhampton Wanderers Nursery Team. He had trials with Wolves, but was playing with Ferrybridge Amateurs when he joined Leeds as an apprentice in May 1961, turning professional in July 1962. He was a speedy left winger when he made a surprise debut on the day Leeds gained promotion from the Second Division in 1964, but later switched to to left back with devastating effect and became the master of the attacking overlap. He eventually displaced Willie Bell, putting his experience as a winger to good effect with breathtaking runs which added weight to the United attack. His goals were relatively rare, but he scored against Arsenal in the 1968 League Cup Final at Wembley to give Leeds its first major trophy. He was a vital member of the Leeds team that won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1968, the First Division Championship in 1968-69 and followed it up by again lifting the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1971. In 1969 he won the first of his twenty England Caps and played in the 1970 World Cup, where he was acclaimed as the best left-back in the world. He broke a leg at Stoke City in 1972 but fought back to earn an England recall by Don Revie against Portugal in November 1974, but he limped off after only twenty-three minutes. March 1975 saw a move to Middlesbrough for £50,000, where he scored once and made one hundred and five League appearances before leaving to join Bristol City for £20,000 in July 1978. He only made eleven appearances before he crossed the city to became Player-Coach at Bristol Rovers in August 1979. He was there almost three years and made fifty-nine League appearances before he assisted Billy Bremner at Doncaster Rovers for a brief spell and played twenty games for the club. In May 1982 he returned to Bristol City as Player-Manager and also became Britain’s first Player-Director. He played a further sixty League game, scoring once. After retiring as a player in 1984, he helped bail City out of dire financial trouble and steered them to victory in the 1986 Freight/Rover Trophy, but his failure to push City into the Division Three promotion frame saw him axed and replaced by his assistant Joe Jordan in March 1988. He was appointed Exeter City Manager in May 1988 and took them to the Fourth Division title in 1989-90. That success saw him appointed Manager of Birmingham City in August 1991. He also became a Director but left in November 1993 and rejoined Exeter City as Manager in January 1994 before he quit in June 1995 due to ill-health. He was for a time Assistant Manager to Graeme Souness at Southampton, but is now chief scout for the club in Europe and South America based in Tenerife. His son, Mark, overcame the bone disease osteomyelitis to be signed by Bristol City in September 1987, he later played with Exeter City, Southend United (on loan), Birmingham City, Fulham, Huddersfield Town (on loan), Wycombe Wanderers, Exeter City, Hartlepool United, Macclesfield Town (on loan), Leyton Orient, Rushden & Diamonds, Hednesford Town, Forest Green Rovers, Tamworth, Hinckley United and Kettering Town, and later Managed Tamworth and Kettering Town.