If you don’t have a nose like Steve Bruce, you’re not giving 100 per cent, say Newcastle boss’s old mentors
THE man they called ‘Little Brucey’ is now the big boss at Newcastle.
And nobody is happier for him than two of his oldest mentors.
Bob Hamil was Steve Bruce’s PE teacher during his days at Benfield School in the 1970s.
And Peter Kirkley ran Wallsend Boys Club, where the new Toon chief started out, and got him his life-changing trial with his first professional team Gillingham.
Bruce’s appointment has been met with a mixed reception by the Toon Army, who have questioned his managerial record and the fact he used to boss Newcastle’s arch-rivals Sunderland.
But Hamil, 72, told SunSport: “It’s happy days! He is home.
“We have a manager who is a Geordie. He is one of our lads.
“This is the same lad who used to crawl under the turnstiles to get into St James’ Park.
“That was how he was brought up, so nobody can say that he doesn’t have Newcastle in his blood or in his heart.
“I’m not surprised at the backlash because there is so much bitterness now.
“But Steve was sacked at Sunderland after getting 13th and tenth in the Premier League.
“Rafa Benitez got tenth and 13th and he is seen as a hero.
“Bob Stokoe played for Newcastle and won the FA Cup as manager of Sunderland, who have now got a statue of him.
“Supporters have got to get their heads around the fact that he deserves to have a go at it.”
Bruce, 58, would not be where he is today without Hamil and especially Kirkley — now the president of Wallsend Boys Club, who have named their ground Kirkley Park in his honour.
Kirkley, 77, recalled: “I first met Steve when he was five or six.
“He used to walk down from where he lived in Walker, three or four times a week, and came and played in the five-a-side leagues that we had then.
“Back then, 11-a-side football didn’t start until you were about 13 and that’s when I really noticed Steve.
“He was that good, he always played up a year age group.
“A coach called Stan Nixon had a phrase, ‘A good player is like a bird on the fence — always looking around so he knows where everything is’. That summed Steve up.”
During his teenage years, football was not the only sport Bruce excelled in. Hamil added: “Steve was also in my basketball and cricket teams.
“We used to call him Little Brucey because he was much smaller and because we had another Bruce two years above him.
“He was a good basketball player. He was nippy.
“He would pinch stuff and have a big smile on his face as he broke away to score a basket.
“We got to the quarter-final of the national Under-18 competition and he was only 16.
“I remember we once went to a school for an athletics meet and they had hurdles but we didn’t have a hurdler.
“We asked, ‘Who is going to do it?’. It was like Dad’s Army where they all take one step back!
“But Brucey stepped forward. He was tiny and it was too much for him.
“When he got to the end, he went under the last barrier!
“Everybody fell about laughing but they didn’t laugh at him, they laughed with him. He was so well respected.”
It was Kirkley who contacted clubs about Bruce, who started work as an apprentice plumber at a Wallsend shipyard after leaving school. He said: “I took him to trials. He had about four or five.
“Newcastle rejected him because he was too small. He was really disappointed they didn’t want him.
“Burnley was another one and I think he went to Middlesbrough and Sunderland as well.
“He started working at the shipyards and he probably thought he wasn’t going to have a career in football.
“But Gillingham had just started to use a scout up here and I got him to have a look at Steve.
“When he saw him, he thought ‘Wow’ and brought him straight down.”
Bruce’s career took off from there, as he went on to shine at Norwich for three years before going on to captain Manchester United.
In a golden era at Old Trafford he won the Premier League three times, two FA Cups one League Cup and a Cup Winners’ Cup but he has never forgotten his roots.
Kirkley said: “He’s been back to our club many times. He’s always found time to visit. He’s great on fundraising.”
Hamil added: “You couldn’t find a better lad. He invited us down to Old Trafford when Manchester United played Tottenham in 1991.
“John Watson was refereeing the match and he was the other PE teacher with me at the school.
“When we arrived, we went to the players’ dining room.
“And Steve just got up from his table, left his meal, left all the internationals, left Alex Ferguson, and came across and looked after us and our children, and took us on a tour of the ground.
“We became the most important people.
“Someone once said that Steve Bruce was the only person who could leave a Mercedes unlocked in Daisy Hill — which is a rough area — and it would still be there when he went home.
“Although I’m not sure it would be safe now!”
Bruce has been in touch with both Kirkley and Hamil since his appointment at St James’ Park, replying to their text messages wishing him ‘good luck’ and inviting them down to the Toon’s training ground.
Kirkley added: “I am immensely proud. I just hope that he is successful.
“You cannot say how it is going to go but it will not be for want of him trying.
“He deserves it and he’ll get the respect of the players straightaway.
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“I don’t think he will want to take another job after this.”
Hamil said: “You know how people show their medals? Well, Brucey can just show his nose!
“He can say, ‘Unless you get a nose like that, you are not giving me 100 per cent!’”