Obituary: Mike Hellawell

Mike Hellawell (Heritage Number 410) was born in Keighley on June 30th, 1938 and began his career with QPR in 1955. Town had the opportunity to sign him at the time, and he’d been a regular spectator at Leeds Road as a boy, 

As a 16-year old playing for Salts, Hellawell was spotted by Town scout Andy Bowman and he played for the youth team. The club said he wouldn’t make it, he was “too frail”. Hellawell later joked: “Then they paid about £15-20,000 for me 10 years later!”.

After successful spells with QPR and Birmingham City, where he played in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final in 1961 and won the 1963 League Cup, he also won two England caps in 1962, impressing in both matches, against France and Northern Ireland.

Ever humble, when pressed on whether it was a proud moment to represent his country, he once said: “Yeah, I suppose it was, really! I only signed to play football so I could play cricket, I wasn’t really bothered about football. It was a bit of an afterthought really, playing a bit of football. It was a miracle that I played for England”.

Hellawell played seven matches for the Yorkshire Second XI between 1959 and 1960, alongside a young Geoffrey Boycott, and one match for Warwickshire in 1962.

After a spell with Sunderland, Hellawell signed for Town in September 1966 for £20,000. He was unlucky that his time coincided with the phasing out of wingers following England’s World Cup win, the famous “wingless wonders”. This was bad news for old-fashioned wingers like Hellawell, prompting him to once say: “Ramsay was the first manager to play 4-3-3 and that changed everything. I was obsolete then!”

When Hellawell arrived, Town were mid-table and he displaced long-serving Kevin McHale at outside-right, making his debut at Derby County on September 24th, 1966. He missed just two games in 1966-67 as Town finished 6th. He scored his first goal in a 2-1 win at Charlton Athletic. The goal was considered so rare that his teammates made a big fuss and invited the press down to Leeds Road to celebrate!

Although 1967-68 was an average season in the league, finishing 14th, Town did reach the semi-finals of the League Cup but lost out to Arsenal 6-3 over two legs. Hellawell played 22 times during that season and his final match came against Plymouth Argyle on 24th February 1968. 

At the end of that campaign, Tom Johnston was sacked and replaced by chief coach Ian Greaves. This changed everything as Greaves favoured 4-3-3, meaning Hellawell, as an old-fashioned winger, was surplus to requirements. He saw out his days in the reserve team before leaving for Peterborough United in December 1968.

Despite this, Hellawell spoke fondly of Greaves: “Greavsie was ahead of his time, he was a good manager. I got on well with him, he was nice. He was a Catholic too, so we used to get on with our religion as well!”

Hellawell is fondly remembered by the Town faithful, and well-remembered for his pace and running down the right wing. He once spoke about this, saying: “They used to like me going down the wing. Supporters like speed, don’t they? It frightens defenders as well, they’re frightened to death of speed and they used to clobber me!” 

Numerous fans have spoken about how he would knock the ball past the full-back and beat him with sheer pace. Sometimes he would be that quick he would have to take aversive action to stop himself from landing in the terrace! He was affectionately known as “Arkle” after the famous racehorse and Town fans often joked that he could catch pigeons! 

After spells with Peterborough United and Bromsgrove Rovers, Hellawell retired in 1972. After initially becoming a newsagent, he went on to work as a greengrocer in Keighley before spending the last 24 years of his working life at Damart in Steeton before retiring in 2011.

In his later days, as his wife of 63 years Brenda was diagnosed with dementia, Hellawell became her full-time carer, once joking: "She laughs and says at least she has a certificate to say she can't remember things and asks me what my excuse is!" They became involved in dementia awareness with organisations such as Dementia Society and Sporting Memories. 

In 2020, Hellawell released his autobiography, The Impossible Is Possible. The book led to a lot of interest in his life and career, culminating in numerous speaking engagements in the local area. Hellawell was a religious man and all the proceeds from the book were donated to his local church. 

He also attended his very first match at The John Smiths’ Stadium in February 2023, the 2-1 win over Birmingham City, and hosted a book signing in Keighley in April, which was heavily attended. After an earlier event in Keighley he joked: “The offers have been coming in now - I’m getting famous in my 80s! I never thought I’d be spouting, I’m not a brilliant public orator but I can spout a bit!”

To a certain generation of Town fans, he was already famous in his late 20s and the amount of tributes that have been posted online from Town fans shows just how loved he was during his time at Leeds Road, and how he’ll always be remembered.

Mike Hellawell passed away on July 16th at the age of 85 and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time.