OTD: EDDIE BURBANKS BORN
- BY HARRISON BERGERON
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
On this day in 1913, Eddie Burbanks was born in Campsall. The winger played for the club between 1935 and 1948, racking up 154 appearances and scoring 29 goals. One of those goals was the third in the 1937 FA Cup final, as we won the competition for the first time.
Full name William Edward Burbanks, Eddie learned his left wing trade at Doncaster Grammar School, Thorne Town, Doncaster YMC and Denaby Utd of the Midland League, before we paid £750 for his signature in February 1935 (the equivalent of £46,700 today) although Denaby claim it was only £300 (or £18,700 today). He only managed a couple of outings that season but scored on his debut against Portsmouth in a 4-1 victory in April '35. His only two appearances in our title-winning season of 1935/36 were in the Durham Senior Cup and his solitary goal came in the tie against Gateshead. Although playing down the left, he was a bit of an Allan Johnston, in that he was right footed, but could shoot with his left as well. Also a decent cricketer, Eddie opened the batting for South Yorkshire cricket team Bentley during the summer of 1935.
The paucity of appearances were down to the form of club stalwart Jimmy Connor but in 1936/37 Eddie scored, as did Raich Carter, as we beat Arsenal 2-1 in the Charity Shield; played in October 1936 at Roker Park. That game was during a period when Connor was unavailable and Eddie filled his boots for a month. His big chance came when Connor, who’d earlier scored, was fouled and suffered what was effectively a career-ending injury in the FA Cup fourth round against Luton Town the following February. Eddie featured in the remaining six FA Cup ties and scored our third goal against Preston North End in the final as we lifted the cup for the first time. He’d managed 28 games that season, scoring seven times. He repeated his scoring total in 38 games the following season and grabbed three in 33 in 1938/39. Three games into the 1939/40 season, the competition was suspended as war broke out, Burbanks had played in all three of them but these don't count towards official statistics. He did get onto the pitch a few times after the suspension of league and cup football, in the form of friendly matches and the League War Cup.
With hostilities robbing him of probably the best years of his career, he’d scored our last official goal before the war, winning the Durham Senior Cup with the only strike against Hartlepools United (now just Hartlepool United), and he scored our first upon the resumption of league football in 1946, a penalty as we beat Derby County, who featured Raich Carter, 3-2. During hostilities, when he served in the RAF as a physical training instructor, Eddie turned out for his home town (Doncaster), Blackpool, Manchester United, Leeds United and Chesterfield, as well as 65 times for his parent club and at least one appearance for an England side. That 1946/47 season brought 33 games and his usual seven goals as we finished mid-table and in 1947/48 he played fifteen times, as we finished third bottom and just avoided the drop.
Perhaps fittingly, his last game came in the Durham Senior Cup semi final defeat to Darlington in April 1948 and, with his league place having been taken by Tommy Reynolds, his Sunderland days were numbered. After 154 games and 29 goals, he was off. His former captain Raich Carter, by then player/manager at Hull City in the Third Division North, took Eddie to Boothferry Park in the June '48, where he was a vital part of the promotion-winning side the following season, weighing in with eight goals. When Carter resigned in September 1951, he dropped out of the picture but, when his mate returned as a player, he featured in the final 24 games of the season; celebrating his 39th birthday on the way. He left for a brief thirteen game spell at Leeds United in the summer of 1953, signed again by Raich Carter, retiring at the end of the next season after captaining his side against former employers Hull, aged 41. For 23 years he ran a confectioner’s in Hull and enjoyed only three years of retirement before passing away on 26th July 1983, aged 70.
