It's Sunderland at the KC this weekend, and the first player that leaps to mind as a legend to both clubs is Tony Norman.
I don't know if the Mackems regard him as their greatest ever goalkeeper - as Jimmy Montgomery's longevity and legend still encircles the Stadium of Light, I doubt it - but he is ours. And while Boaz Myhill can still become our top catcher of all time, his fellow Welsh international is still the bees' knees as far as City keeping is concerned.
Norman was everything, just everything, you wanted in a goalkeeper. He was fit, brave, tall, agile, commanding, loyal, uncomplaining, disciplined, trustworthy and just the right side of eccentric. He spent eight years at Boothferry Park and barely missed a match, playing his part in two promotions along the way and being the recipient of those ultimate compliments for a keeper about being worth a fixed number of guaranteed points per season.
However, for all his worth and quality as a goalkeeper, for all his wonder saves and the sense of security he supplied to the back four and the adoring supporters, nothing quite became Norman's career with the Tigers as much as his odd, sudden exit.
Between Christmas and New Year 1988, Sunderland - in the same second tier as City - came in with a stack of cash for Norman. Eddie Gray, City's likeable but feeble manager, decided it wasn't right - not because he wanted Norman to stay, but because he wanted players as part of the deal too. Aside from anything else, only the teenaged Gavin Kelly - a keeper of promise but of continuing rawness as Norman never got injured or dropped his standards - would have been left at the club for the visit of Ipswich to Boothferry Park on New Year's Eve.
Back came Sunderland with another offer - the money, plus a goalkeeper. The goalkeeper was Iain Hesford, Zambia-born, not untalented, but less athletic, less reputable and generally underwhelming physically. In short, he was a bit on the podgy side. He could keep, Gray knew that, but he wasn't Norman. Why did Sunderland want Norman if they were claiming Hesford was a more than adequate replacement? There needed to be more sugar before the medicine could be ingested.
So, finally, Gray decided to stamp his foot and demand that Sunderland striker Billy Whitehurst became part of the deal or none of it would happen. The Mackems agreed instantly. Whitehurst's return to the club where he made his name as a goalscorer, his reputation as no shrinking violet and many thousands of terrace-bound admirers, proved an astute bit of business by Gray - firstly because his return was a success, and secondly because his homecoming very much calmed the indignation at the news that our brilliant keeper had gone.
Hesford, for his part, became something of a laughing stock in his three years with the club. For the first six months he was ace - indeed, he performed some Norman-esque point blank saves (which weren't noticed as Whitehurst scored at the other end) in that game against Ipswich and also for much of the season's remainder. He played his part in City's deceptive run to the fifth round of the FA Cup (although Norman would have saved at least two of Liverpool's goals which ultimately knocked us out) and generally kept goal with competence as the team's fortunes as a whole began to decline.
His subsequent two seasons saw his standards drop considerably, prompting Terry Dolan to bring in Alan Fettis and prepare the young Ulsterman for first team goalkeeping after the 1991 relegation. Fettis, despite local fame for madcap goalscoring rather than exceptional goalkeeping, became a fine custodian for City and eventually left, like Norman, for good money and with a city's sorrow and thanks ringing in his ears.
But he wasn't Norman. Our greatest keeper had been and gone, a keeper whose presence always allowed us a little positivity, a little optimism, that even mild underperformance elsewhere in the team could be alleviated by great goalkeeping at the base of the XI. Hesford soon became a parody of himself, then the 1990s became the decade of keepers whose promise quickly heralded their exit to bigger clubs who weren't skint - Fettis, Roy Carroll, Andy Oakes.
Norman came back to the KC as a VIP guest when Sunderland visited us in the Championship two seasons ago, and got an almighty ovation from all within the walls. He is employed by Sunderland as a goalkeeping coach in their Academy these days, and any youthful keeper from Wearside should feel exceptionally grateful for having this man as their mentor. He was, to a generation of Hull City supporters, the greatest thing in gloves we were ever likely to see.
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