Birmingham City have announced the death of the club’s former League Cup winner Mike Hellawell at the age of 85.
Hellawell, a pacy outside right, played 213 games for Blues and scored 33 goals between 1957 and 1965.
He was part of the side that beat local rivals Aston Villa over two legs in the final of the League Cup in 1963.
Hellawell, who won two England caps, began his career at Queens Park Rangers before spells at Sunderland, Huddersfield and Peterborough.
He was also part of the Birmingham side that reached the final of the Fairs Cup – the predecessor to the Uefa Cup and its current incarnation the Europa League – against Roma in 1961.
Hellawell scored in the first leg of the final at St.Andrew’s that ended 2-2 before the Italian side ran out 4-2 winners on aggregate in the second meeting in Rome.
Blues’ triumph over Villa two years later was their last piece of major silverware until they won the competition again 48 years later in 2011 when they beat Arsenal 2-1 at Wembley under Alex McLeish.
Yorkshire-born Hellawell also played first-class cricket, making one appearance for Warwickshire against Oxford University in 1962, taking 4-54 and hitting an unbeaten 30 with the bat.
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