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With nearly 500 appearances over 16 years at Elland Road,
Grenville Hair was a supremely fit and dedicated player who
deserved greater international recognition than selection for a
handful of FA touring parties. Persuaded to focus on the football
rather than the athletics field by Major Frank Buckley, he became a
regular in the side at the age of 21 and in the following 10 years
he barely missed a game until Paul Reaney and Willie Bell started
to claim regular places in the early 1960s. He left the club in
1964 to take up a player-manager position with Wellington Town, and
three years later he became coach at Bradford City. Promoted to
manage the side in 1968, he had been in charge for just a month
when he suffered a heart attack after a training session that was
to prove fatal.
James Hair says: I am his Grandson and I am currently at Repton
School along with my older brother. i also have a sister aged 3. my
father (Grenville's son) is currently the owner of a McDonald's
Restaurant, he is called Kenneth Hair. Grenville also has another
son called Anthony.
Ian Gledhill says: I seem to remember Grenville Hair being
pressed into service as a goalkeeper for the reserve team in the
early sixties. This was of course in the days when Central League
fixtures were played on a Saturday afternoon. I think it must have
been about the time when keepers like Tommy Younger, Ted Burgin and
maybe Alan Humphreys were at the club and due to injuries Leeds
were forced into actually selecting Grenville between the sticks.
Anyway, the fixture was at Elland Road but I cannot remember who
the opponents were. The YEP made quite an issue of it. Maybe
someone could confirm this and prove that my memory is not just
playing tricks.
John Hill says: I recently been researching my family tree and
discovered that Granville's mother was my Grandmothers sister. I
never knew Granville but he did help my older brother collect
football players signatures. It was sad that he died so young on
the brink of another career with Bradford.
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