Biography

Tall and pacy winger Eddie Munnings joined the Tigers in the 1931/32 season as new City manager Hayden Green assembled a squad designed to lift the club back into the Second Division following relegation in May 1930. Munnings came into the first team in early September and quickly found his feet, scoring his first City goal in a 4-1 win Darlington two days after his debut. During late November and December 1931 he scored four goals in seven starts, having switched from outside left at the start of the season to the right flank. He continued to patrol the right wing for the rest of the season, scoring four goals in his last five starts during April 1932 including a brace in a 4-1 defeat of Rochdale. Munnings’ goals and creative threat encouraged the Tigers to offer him an extended deal with the club but the terms were not to Eddie’s liking and he left in the 1932 close season.
Charles Edward “Eddie” Munnings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, his father worked as a cooper in a local brewery and was also a prominent local football referee. It was therefore natural for Eddie to play football in his younger days, joining local Midland League side Boston Town in 1924 as an amateur while also playing in the Boston & District League for Boston Trinity and West Sports. He was also an accomplished all-round cricketer who spent his summers winning accolades on the local scene with bat and ball, later spending ten summers playing Minor Counties cricket for Lincolnshire.
By the time he was 21 Munnings was a first team regular for Boston Town and in October 1927 his talents attracted the attention of Grimsby Town, who signed him after a brief dispute about his player registration that was settled in the Mariners’ favour. Eddie joined Second Division side Grimsby at a time when the club were on the up, while he found his feet in Grimsby’s Reserves the first team were surging to promotion at the end of the 1928/29 season. Although he came close to a start a couple of times, it was unlikely that Grimsby would risk the untested Munnings in a First Division fixture and by the end of the 1929/30 season he was still to make his senior debut for the Mariners. Rather than waiting another season on the fringes he elected to move to Swindon Town, for whom he signed in June 1930. Eddie scored on his Robins’ debut in October 1930 against Queens Park Rangers and while his 14 starts suggested that he was not a first team regular, he added two further goals and showed himself to be an effective Football League wideman, talent that led to Hull City bringing him back to the East Coast in the summer of 1931.
In July 1932 Munnings returned to Swindon Town, the lure of the Wiltshire air dragging him away from the banks of the Humber. The 1932/33 season saw Munnings eastblish himself as a first team regular and he contributed 11 goals in 34 starts including a Christmas Eve hattrick in a 6-2 thumping of Cardiff City. However Swindon did not have a successful season despite Eddie’s efforts in front of goal and had to apply for re-election, while their application was successful this slump led to Munnings again returning to his more northerly roots. In the 1933 close season he signed for Division Three North side Mansfield Town and was a first team pick throughout most of the season, scoring seven times in 32 starts for the Stags. However by the summer of 1934 he had decided to end his Football League and returned to his home town club, who after a disbandment and rebirth were now called Boston United. Eddie scored 59 goals in 121 starts across three seasons at Boston United before finally hanging up his football boots in the summer of 1937 – a year later he also played his last summer of cricket for Lincolnshire.
Munnings moved to Scunthorpe in the late 1930s where he worked as a clerk in a steel rolling mill and also came to prominence as a talented table tennis player. He later moved to Lincoln and lived to a ripe old age that befits a sporting polymath, eventually dying in March 1995 just a few weeks shy of his 89th birthday.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 6 July 1906, Boston
Hull City First Game: 5 September 1931, Walsall A (Division Three North), 25 years, 61 days old
Hull City Final Game: 30 April 1932, Accrington Stanley H (Division Three North), 25 years, 299 days old
Clubs
Boston Town (1924-1927), Grimsby Town (1927-1930), Swindon Town (1930-1931), Hull City (1931-1932), Swindon Town (1932-1933), Mansfield Town (1933-1934), Boston United (1934-1937)
Hull City Record
Career: 34 apps, 9 goals
Eddie MunningsSeason | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1931/32 | 31 | 7 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |