OTD: COLIN GRAINGER IN MEMORIAM

On this day in 2022, 'The Singing Winger' Colin Grainger passed away aged 89.

Colin joined the Lads in February 1957, having found games hard to come by at his first club, Wrexham, but establishing himself as a speedy left winger over four seasons at Sheffield Utd. Born in the mining town of Havercroft, between Barnsley and Pontefract, he’d actually started his working life as a motor mechanic, but a career in football came as no surprise given his family connections. His big brother Jack played about 400 times for Rotherham, his cousins Dennis and another Jack Grainger and Edwin Holliday also played, as did his brother in law Jim Iley.

While at Utd, Colin won the first of his seven England caps, scoring twice, but an ankle injury effectively ended his international career within a year, and precipitated his move to Sunderland – which he wasn’t keen on. The fee was a hefty £17,000 plus Sam Kemp, and it was with us that Colin played the majority of his football. After a difficult first half-season, Colin requested a transfer because of his relationship with incoming manager Alan Brown, who he quite simply didn’t get on with. 1957-58 got even worse, and we were relegated despite Colin’s best efforts in his 30 league appearances.

In 1960, he asked for a loan from the club to buy a paper shop in South Shields, and when it was refused, he basically went on strike and refused to play for us in the 1960-61 season. Other players, including Stan Anderson, requested talks with the board to express their dissatisfaction with how the club was being run, but the upshot was that Grainger was sold to Leeds United for their then record fee of £15,000.

His stay at Elland road lasted only until October ’61, as his ankle problems had affected his speed, and it just wasn’t working for him, so he was sold to Third Division Port Vale. Spells with Doncaster Rovers and Macclesfield Town followed before he hung up his boots to concentrate on his other career in music. In 1956, he’d been paid £50 for being a supporting act to the Hilltoppers in Sheffield, but his football commitments meant that he couldn’t take up the offer of supporting them on tour.

A year later he toured the country after voice coaching from Joan Collins’s dad Joe, made TV appearances and even released a single in 1958. He continued his vocal career, and shared a stage with the Beatles in 1963, getting the same £50 fee as them. It was a gig they’d signed up to just before Please Please Me became their first hit. Once football was over, Colin continued singing until 1970, when he turned his attention to a career in sales, doing a bit of scouting for the likes of Oldham and Leeds at the same time. His biography, The Singing Winger, was published in 2019.

Colin Grainger, the singing winger, 124 games and 14 goals, RIP.