By Will Foster

Throughout the 1970s only four players scored 40 or more goals for the Hatters. At the top of a list that features Peter Anderson (40), Ron Futcher (43) and Malcolm MacDonald (43) there sits Jimmy Husband (48), Harry Haslam’s final piece in the jigsaw in that side that won promotion to the top flight in 1974.

Not that it was an easy start to life at Luton for Husband, who arrived for £80,000 from Everton and of whom big things were expected from the start. By his own admission he’d added to the problem by gaining half a stone as he stayed in hotels while looking to buy a house, but there were other factors at play too.

With the transfer being completed in November it wasn’t easy for Husband to sell his house, meaning a regular commute down the M6 at a time of a petrol shortage, a 50mph speed limit and a train dispute. ‘In terms of home life the move couldn’t have come at a worse time for me,’ he said in an interview shortly after signing, ‘it’s been a real drag having to dash around the country and no Father wants to be away from his family for long periods.’

He would find some familiar faces at Kenilworth Road however, including Bobby Thomson who he’d played with in the England U-23s. He also found the approachable Harry Haslam to be a breath of fresh air in comparison to his ‘God-like’ and distant Harry Catterick at Everton. Still the forward remained goalless in his first 12 games for his new club, before finally heading home a John Aston corner in a defeat at Fulham in March.

Then, two weeks later he’d finally start to win over those fans doubting Town’s new big money signing. In-front of a season high crowd of 17,045 at Kenilworth Road he and Barry Butlin terrorised the Leyton Orient defence, with Husband securing a hat-trick in a 3-1 win by heading in John Ryan’s corner with 10 minutes to go. The win moved the Hatters four points clear of the visitors and the top 2 spot wasn’t relenquished from that point, with promotion the following month.

Jimmy Husband was born in Newcastle in 1947 and grew up as a fan of the Magpies. Seen as a precocious talent in his teens he attracted the interest of almost every top-flight club but it was Toffees’ scout Harry Cooke who was the most persuasive, leading Husband to sign at Goodison Park while still a teenager. He would win the 1965 FA Youth Cup soon after, while also making his first team debut towards the end of that season.

A fast and skilful forward, Husband was mostly used as a winger during his time on Merseyside, during which he’d play in the 1968 FA Cup Final and make 30 starts in Everton’s title winning side of 1970. That would prove to be the high watermark of his years at the club though, and by the winter of 1973, now playing mostly in the reserves, he was attracting the interest of a host of managers, including Malcolm Allison at Crystal Palace, before Harry Haslam won the race for his signature.

Now back in the top flight with his new club Husband, like many of the Luton team, found it tough going. He managed only three goals in a season where the Hatters were narrowly relegated, though a win at home to his former club Everton during the battle to stay up would surely have been sweet.

Arguably his best spell came in the next two campaigns, during which his goals helped the club stablise back in the 2^nd Division during a time of financial uncertainity. In all he would score 27 times over the next two seasons and be almost ever present during very reasonable 7^th and 6^th place finishes.

A game against Charlton in September 1977 would gave Jimmy perhaps his best day in a Luton shirt. On a rollocking afternoon at Kenilworth Road he’d score four times in a remarkable 7-1 win, the first time the Hatters had scored that many since the famous 8-2 win against the ‘Bank of England’ Sunderland side in 1955. Husband was the first to notch four since John O’Rourke in 1964, and only Steve White has done it since, in 1981.

His time at the club was coming to an end however, and with David Pleat looking to refresh the team Husband was given the opportunity to join the raft of English players moving to play in the USA, spending time with the Memphis Rogues and Cleveland Force. When he did return to the UK he did so to Bedfordshire, and would run the Chequers Inn in Roxton for a spell before working in sales until retirement.

A lover of rock music, fine food (he noted Oysters as his favourite food in an interview) and fast cars, Husband wasn’t perhaps the archetypal 70s footballer.  He was a guest for the 2005 Centenary celebrations at Kenilworth Road in 2005 by which point the 70s perm was gone, but not the love for the club that gave him a second career in football.

Sadly Jimmy passed away in 2024, leaving his wife Val and children Jamie and Jilly.

Below: Jimmy (left) with fellow 70s hotshot Barry Butlin