{{short description|English footballer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}} {{Use British English|date=June 2016}} {{more citations needed|date=October 2013}} {{Infobox football biography | image = Steve Death.jpg | fullname = Stephen Victor Death | birth_date = 19 September 1949 | birth_place = Norton, England | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|10|26|1949|9|19|df=y}} | death_place = Reading, England | height = 1.70 m | position = Goalkeeper | youthyears1 = 1967–1969 | youthclubs1 = West Ham United | years1 = 1969 | years2 = 1969–1982 | clubs1 = West Ham United | clubs2 = Reading | caps1 = 1 | goals1 = 0 | caps2 = 471 | goals2 = 0 }}
'''Stephen Victor Death''' (19 September 1949 – 26 October 2003) was an English football goalkeeper who played for Reading for almost the entirety of his career. Death was one of the longest-serving players to appear for Reading. He has been described as "Reading's greatest ever goalkeeper".<ref name=deathwhu/>
==Career==
===West Ham United=== Death was an England schoolboy international who made one League appearance for West Ham United on 30 April 1969 in a 1–1 away draw with Manchester City covering for regular goalkeeper Bobby Ferguson.<ref name="deathwhu">{{cite web | url=http://www.ex-hammers.com/news.php?extend.39.1 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026191255/http://www.ex-hammers.com/news.php?extend.39.1 | url-status=usurped | archive-date=26 October 2014 | title=Hammers and Reading mourn Death | publisher=www.ex-hammers.com | accessdate=29 October 2013}}</ref> Death had originally joined West Ham as an apprentice in 1967 but by 1969 found his opportunities for first team football blocked by Ferguson and Peter Grotier.<ref name=deathwhu/>
===Reading=== He joined Reading in 1969 and went straight into the team as first choice goalkeeper, and despite being only {{height|ft=5|in=7|frac=4}}, the smallest goalkeeper in the Football League, he made the position his own for the next ten years with a total of 537 first team appearances.<ref name=deathwhu/> There were doubts about his height as a goalkeeper immediately on joining Reading. He made his debut on 8 November 1969 in a 1–0 win<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.11v11.com/matches/reading-v-brighton-and-hove-albion-08-november-1969-131605/ | title=Reading v Brighton and Hove Albion, 08 November 1969 | publisher=www.11v11.com | accessdate=29 October 2013}}</ref> against Brighton after which the press described him as "an insignificantly built bundle of daredevil energy". Doubts about his height resurfaced after the next game on 22 November 1969 a 6–2 defeat by Southport<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.11v11.com/matches/southport-v-reading-22-november-1969-131618/ | title=Southport v Reading, 22 November 1969 | publisher=www.11v11.com | accessdate=29 October 2013}}</ref> but Death continued to win the popularity of Reading fans so as to be named their player of the season in his first season for the club.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.football-england.com/steve_death.html | title=Steve Death | date=8 August 2011 | publisher=www.football-england.com | accessdate=29 October 2013}}</ref>
Death set many other records during his time at Elm Park. He was elected Player of the Season four times for seasons 1969/70, 1972/73, 1973/74 and 1976/77, won PFA Divisional Awards in 1973–74 and 1978–79,<ref name=deathwhu/> collected a Division Four Championship plaque in 1978–79, kept 26 clean sheets in that season,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/23/the-knowledge-players-no-transfer-fees-ever | title=Which player has moved most in his career without a transfer fee paid? | work=The Guardian | date=23 October 2013 | accessdate=29 October 2013 | author=Turner, Georgina}}</ref> and at one stage made 156 consecutive first team appearances; this remains a club record. Death held the record of 1,074 minutes without conceding a goal in English league football,<ref name=deathwhu/><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/article/rfc-history-232901.aspx | title=The Story of Reading FC | publisher=www.readingfc.co.uk | access-date=29 October 2013 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020193801/http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/article/rfc-history-232901.aspx | archive-date=20 October 2012 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> before Manchester United's Edwin van der Sar broke the record against Everton on 31 January 2009.{{citation needed|date=October 2013}}
==After football== Death was given a testimonial in the 1979–80 season, with over 7,000 watching his Testimonial Match against a Young England XI managed by his former manager at West Ham, Ron Greenwood.<ref name=deathwhu/> He left the game in 1982 and returned to his native Suffolk. He subsequently returned to Reading to work as a greenkeeper at Mapledurham local golf course.<ref name=deathwhu/>
== Death ==
Death died of cancer in 2003, aged 54 in the Duchess of Kent Hospice, Reading. He was survived by his partner, Sharon and his children Justin, Amber and Alexandria.<ref name=deathwhu/>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Navboxes | title = Awards | bg = gold | fg = navy | list1 = {{1973–74 Football League Fourth Division PFA Team of the Year}} {{1978–79 Football League Fourth Division PFA Team of the Year}} {{Reading F.C. Player of the Year}} {{Reading F.C. Hall of Fame}} }}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Death, Steve}} Category:1949 births Category:2003 deaths Category:English men's footballers Category:Men's association football goalkeepers Category:West Ham United F.C. players Category:Reading F.C. players Category:English Football League players Category:Deaths from cancer in England Category:People from Mid Suffolk Category:Footballers from Suffolk Category:20th-century English sportsmen