1948-52 · INSIDE FORWARD & PLAYER-MANAGER · 150 APPS · 62 GOALS
Known as ‘The Maestro’, Horatio Stratton Carter is one of the best players to have ever played in the colours of Hull City.
Universally known as ‘Raich’, he was an excellent schoolboy player who won four England caps at that level. First playing football on amateur terms at Sunderland, a combination of talent and determination earned him a professional contract with the Black Cats, a move that saw Carter leave his apprenticeship as an electrician.
Five years on from making his league debut, he had won the First Division title, FA Charity Shield and captained the club to their first FA Cup triumph in 1937. When World War Two came, Carter initially joined the Auxiliary Fire Service before becoming a PT instructor with the RAF. He also featured for both Sunderland and Derby County in wartime football, playing 17 times for England.
When the war ended, the inside forward transferred to Derby and in his first year became the only player to win FA Cup winner’s medals either side of World War Two. In March 1948, Carter joined Hull City as joint player and assistant manager. Within days, he was elevated to player-manager following the departure of Frank Buckley.
On his debut against York City on Saturday 3 April 1948, in a book written about him called ‘Footballer’s Progress’, Carter was quoted as saying: “And so I led my new teammates out on to the field at Boothferry Park and was greeted by a terrific roar of welcome that was a foretaste of the life that lay before me in Hull.”
In his first full season as player-manager, Carter crafted a team that won the Division Three North title, going unbeaten in the first 11 games and setting the club’s record attendance of 55,019 against Manchester United in an FA Cup fifth round tie at Boothferry Park.
Resigning from his managerial duties in September 1951, having won 69 of his 145 games in charge, Carter remained as a player to help the club retain its Division Two status. Scoring 62 goals in 150 appearances, he left City to concentrate on business interests but would feature for Cork City, lifting both the FAI Cup and Munster Senior Cup.
Later managing Leeds United, Mansfield Town and Middlesbrough, Carter’s legacy has lived on. Inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2013, it was only right that Carter be inducted into City’s Hall of Fame, too.
