One of Town’s greatest ever strikers passes away
- Huddersfield Town legend Les Massie passes away
- Les sits fifth on Town’s all-time scoring chart
- Massie played for the Club for over a decade
Everyone at Huddersfield Town is saddened to learn that one of our greatest ever strikers, Les Massie, has passed away this week aged 85.
Les was voted as one of the Club’s 100 greatest ever players to feature in the ‘Fans’ Favourites’ book by supporters in Town’s centenary year and sits fifth in our all-time scoring chart, with only George Brown, Jimmy Glazzard, Billy Smith and Andy Booth surpassing his 108 goals.
Born in Aberdeen on 20 July 1935, Les was one of several young Scotsman to make the move to Town in the early fifties, joining the Club from Banks O’Dee in August 1953.
His Town debut came under Andy Beattie in a Division Two away game at Fulham in September 1956, and he didn’t have to wait long for his first goal – that came in a thumping 5-0 victory at Barnsley two months’ later.
Les became a regular under the management of Bill Shankly, alongside two other talented young players; 16-year-olds Denis Law and Kevin McHale.
He played his entire Town career in Division Two, with his best single season goalscoring total in 1959/60 when he grabbed 20 league goals in just 40 starts.
Les’ time at Town came to an end in October 1966, by which point he had netted an incredible 108 goals in 363 appearances. He subsequently played for Darlington, Halifax Town, Bradford (Park Avenue), Workington and Drogheda before hanging up his boots.
Massie was a regular attendee at Town games in recent years and was always on hand to help the Club with interviews and other matters.
Our thoughts are with his son Neil and his family at this difficult time.
