(Image: Newsquest)
KEITH Mumby is one Bradford Northern’s greatest ever players.
But the club nearly lost him to their fiercest rivals when he was only 21.
Mumby was in the T&A sports pages quite a lot in October 1978.
We ran a nostalgia piece earlier this month about how Mumby had been overlooked for the Great Britain squad ahead of the first Test of the home Ashes.
George Fairbairn got the nod at full back in all three matches instead, as the Australians took the series 2-1.
But away from the international arena, Mumby’s club future was also up in the air, after several months of being linked with a move to Leeds.
On this day 48 years ago though, Northern fans were able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Northern chairman Geoff Cooper confirmed that Mumby had agreed to stay at Odsal following a lengthy chat with the board.
Cooper admitted that Mumby had indeed put in a transfer request, after claiming he would benefit from a change.
But Bradford reminded their star full back that he was already on the fringes of full international honours, while he would soon qualify for a benefit if he were to stay at Odsal.
Cooper denied reports that Leeds had actually made an official bid for Mumby, but either way it did not matter, as the player had decided he was staying now.
Already Bradford’s three-time player of the year at the age of 21, Mumby went on to stay at the club until 1973.
And less than three years after withdrawing his transfer request, Mumby was a two-time Championship winner, while Leeds were enduring a 32-year league title drought…