Louis Hamilton, son of former Wolves and Leicester midfielder Neville, is talking about becoming a Dad for the first time in the near future.
“Those are the times when I miss him most, when things happen that I would love to talk to him about,” he says.
“It brings it all back, it’s an emotional time because it’s the sort of occasion when you want your Dad there.
“We were very close, and I learnt so much from him.”
A fixture between Wolves and Leicester is one to bring back memories of Neville Hamilton, who sadly passed away in 2009 at the age of 48.
He is more well known to Foxes fans than Wolves, having started his career with his home city club and making a handful of appearances, before later returning as a coach within the youth set-up, nurturing the likes of England striker Emile Heskey and Wolves’ promotion winner Richard Stearman.
With Wolves, it was, sadly, a case of what might have been.
Just over forty years ago, in the summer of 1984, Hamilton had arrived at Molineux.
Having properly learned his trade, and risen to prominence, with successful spells at Mansfield and Rochdale, this was his big opportunity.
A winger or wide midfielder, as one of four signings snapped up by new boss Tommy Docherty, Hamilton had already impressed in several friendlies.
None more so than his new team-mates.
“Neville hadn’t long arrived but he had settled in quickly and was doing well,” legendary Wolves defender Geoff Palmer recalls.
“He was a good player, a really fit lad who got about the pitch, got on with his football and did what he had to do.
“He was impressing and I think he would definitely have made the first team when the season started and made a positive impact, I have no doubt about that.”
But then, one normal day of training at Castlecroft, with the new season just weeks away, tragedy struck.
“I can remember even now, I think it was a bit of a practice match, and Neville was just running towards me,” adds Palmer.
“All of a sudden, he just collapsed, and fell to the floor. None of us knew what was going on and it was really frightening.”
Hamilton had suffered a heart attack. And this was a time when there was nothing like the specialist equipment of today, a defibrillator, or numerous members of staff all trained in up-to-date lifesaving techniques if such an emergency should occur.
Denis Conyerd is now 82. Having initially worked in private practice, he became Wolves’ physio after answering a call put out by Derek Dougan in the local press.
He can still picture vividly pretty much every moment of that perilous and life-threatening situation at Castlecroft that pre-season summer morning.
“I was based out of the Castlecroft training ground at the time, previously it had been at Molineux but Tommy wanted me down at Castlecroft,” recalls Denis, who worked alongside club doctor Bill Tweddell.
“It was a normal day and I was going about my business until Jim Barron (assistant manager) suddenly rushed in and said that Neville had collapsed.
“I rushed out and he was lying in the centre circle, and I remember just going into an auto pilot, feeling for a pulse and there wasn’t one there.
“I wanted to do chest compressions, but Neville was a really fit and strong lad, and I couldn’t get his chest to move, so Frank Upton (youth coach) came over and started helping out.
“He did 15 compressions, and I did mouth to mouth, but still there was no response.
“But when Frank did another 15 compressions, and I followed up with more mouth to mouth, Neville responded, by which time the ambulance had arrived and driven onto the training ground.
“I followed up at the hospital, where he went on to recover, which was brilliant news for everyone.
“I was so pleased he had made it, and remember phoning my wife at lunchtime with a sense of elation but also exhaustion – it was over so quickly but fortunately, with Frank’s help, we had been able to bring him round.”
Football is never, despite the famous Bill Shankly quote, more important than life or death, and so Hamilton, after this life-threatening event, would never kick a ball competitively again.
The detail provided from Conyerd’s recollections feel important in providing context because, even his understandable retirement from playing, Hamilton still had so much more to offer.
At the time, Hamilton himself reflected on the dreadfully difficult contradiction of having to sadly give up on his footballing dream, and yet, being given a second chance at life.
“Coming to Wolves was the biggest thing that happened to me, but I feel I let everyone down by not fulfilling my potential,” he said.
“I can only be grateful that I happened while I was a Wolves player because at a lesser club I might have died.
“They did everything at the time and since then to help my recovery.”
But the beauty of the situation, if there was one, is that despite being forced to hang up his boots so much earlier than he might otherwise have anticipated, he was able to positively influence the careers of so many more young players who were fortunate enough to come under his tutelage.
And so it was that Hamilton moved into the coaching environment, with hugely impressive results.
He qualified as a full FA coach in 1986, and later in his career would work in backroom roles with Notts County and Rushden & Diamonds.
But it was within the youth set-up back at Leicester, where he gravitated after initially joining the club as a Community Department Officer, and back where he had made his debut as a 17-year-old against
Manchester United, that he enjoyed his most enjoyable success.
Future England striker Emile Heskey was among those charges for whom Hamilton played a positive role in their development, as well as later Wolves favourite Richard Stearman, who made 130 appearances after
emerging at the Foxes, followed by 254 at Molineux, including two promotions.
“I remember being coached by Nev at Under-15 level at Leicester, that key period when it was coming towards the time when you were trying to get a full-time scholarship,” Stearman recalled this week.
“Quite often the Under-15 and Under-16 groups would be mixed, so we’d receive our first insight into what life would look like as a full-time scholar.
“So Nev was instilling those slightly more adult principles in us, preparing us for what things might look like if we were fortunate to get a contract moving forward.
“I loved that side of it, and he was a really good coach, very bubbly and animated, and we all enjoyed his sessions.
“I remember a pre-season tournament which Nev led over in France, and he made me captain, which was a big achievement for me at the time and something I will always remember.
“He was also quite firm with us, another way of preparing us for what would come later on, and a little bit ‘old school’, but above all else, a really good coach who had a major impact on my early career.”
It was in February 2009, three months before Stearman would win the Championship title with Wolves, that Hamilton sadly passed away at the age of 48, several days after undergoing heart surgery.
Gary Lineker, a playing contemporary of Hamilton’s at Leicester, was among those paying tribute to a ‘good player who developed into a good coach who was brilliant with the youngsters’.
So too another former Leicester player and now club ambassador Alan Birchenall, who added: “I have seen thousands of players come through this club over the years and I would put Neville up there with the best of them.
“If ever there was a smile or a laugh down at the training ground, both when Nev was playing and coaching, you knew that he would be involved.
“He was a great player, wonderful personality and very popular at the training ground, who was also a big help to me in raising money for the ex-players’ charity.”
If Hamilton’s loss was keenly felt within the footballing family such had been his influence in the world of coaching, of course, nowhere was it more painful than for his real family, son Louis, daughter Simone, and wife Linda.
For Louis in particular, who had been an aspiring player himself including some time spent at Peterborough, losing his Dad not long before his 18th birthday understandably prompted many difficult challenges.
“That sort of time is a key age in a young person’s life and I was in the process of trying to become a scholar at a club but all of a sudden we were grieving – myself, my sister and my Mum,” he explains.
“I got into a little bit of trouble, nothing crazy but just linked to anger issues and depression, and ended up with a criminal record.
“I had started doing some coaching and one day I turned up to a private school where I was working and they said I couldn’t stay there as I’d got a record, even though it was spent by then.
“I remember sitting in the car crying, wondering what I was going to do next, because all I wanted to do was try and follow in my dad’s footsteps.
“Mum and Dad had taught me so much, and I just wanted to do them proud.”
Over time, doing his parents proud is exactly what Louis has gone on to achieve. Hamilton senior had also run a fitness business alongside his coaching, and Louis returned to his studies to complete his own fitness qualifications, which eventually led to the opening of Hamilton’s Honour, Leicester’s first boutique health and fitness studio, at the back end of 2020.
It is, as the name suggests, a fitting tribute to his father.
“After getting my qualifications I started working in a few gyms, then bought two garages which were converted into a personal training studio, before saving up all my money with the idea of expanding.
“That is where Hamilton’s Honour was born, and I’m really pleased with how it has gone.
“It was all coming together just before COVID and the lockdowns, and then for 14 months I had nothing in terms of financial support, and so many times when we couldn’t open.
“But with everything that I had been through before, those challenges were nothing, I knew I could cope, and sure enough we’ve managed to get it going and it’s doing well.”
For many years Louis found it difficult to talk about his father’s death, but did so in an emotional address delivered at the Leicester Mercury Sports Awards back in 2019, which carries an annual Neville Hamilton prize in memory of the man who not only proved so influential in the local community, but also in setting up and being a judge at the ceremony.
One of the previous recipients has been former Leicester chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who was honoured posthumously that same year, not long after his own tragic passing in the helicopter crash at
the King Power Stadium.
Even though his time at Wolves was so brief, supporters and players had also rallied round Hamilton following the heart attack which had ended his career.
Well known supporters such as Dave Meads and Albert and Muriel Bates helped lead on various fundraising initiatives, and one Supporters Club member Dave Best ran a marathon for the cause.
A charity match between former Wolves and Leicester players took place at Dowty Boulton & Paul’s Sports Ground – now Fordhouses Cricket Club – in September 1985, and for those who Hamilton came into contact with at Molineux, nothing but fond memories remain.
“I still often think about that day, as it’s the only time I had ever been involved in anything like it,” Conyerd recalls.
“I remember meeting Neville again afterwards and him saying ‘thank you Den’, and we stayed in touch with a few phone calls as time went on.
“It was such a shame because he was such a happy fella, fairly quiet back then and not as boisterous as some of the others, but always smiling and never causing anyone a moment’s trouble.”
Palmer echoes those sentiments, describing Hamilton as a ‘lovely lad’, and one whose career was so cruelly cut short by the health issues which came to a head at Castlecroft that day.
But the events at the training ground, whilst ending his playing career, did at least offer the chance for Hamilton to go on and create a new chapter which positively impacted so many young lives across
another 25 years.
“I was very close to my Dad, and I think I probably put too much pressure on myself at times to follow his lead, but eventually I have found something where I can give back, in my own way,” Louis explains.
“And his memory still drives me on, 100 per cent, just trying to do whatever I can to continue the legacy.”
“A great miss to our football club who was taken too soon,” adds Foxes ambassador Birchenall.
Still revered in Leicester, Hamilton has not been forgotten in Wolverhampton either, where he featured in one of the talks delivered by club historian Peter Crump in the Wolves Museum earlier this year, and also featured in a recent Museum newsletter.
‘Neville Hamilton, always part of the pack,’ the article concluded.
He may have been taken far too soon, but Neville Hamilton’s legacy, via his family, in football and with so many happy memories, lives on.
