My first memory of hull hardmen was back in the day just before we re-emerged as a contender around '75, names like Alan Wardell, Tony Duke, Tony Banham, Len Casey ,our scrum half kenny Foulkes was a very tough little fella. Seems like there was an all-in fist fight every other game at the Boulevard in those days.
Most of the Paul Woods stories I would vouch for, but I do remember an incident one time at Widnes I think 80-81, involving a very young and at that time unkown Andy Gregory , might even have been making his home debut, Very early in the game he chipped over the Hull defence and as Woods collected the kick, Gregory came through full force and hit Woodsy very hard, then pushed him as he played the ball. I was rubbing my hands at the prospect of Woodsy chasing down Gregory for the rest of the match, but to my surprise he didn't. Woodsy might have been having an off day, but equally it might say a lot about Gregory too.

By my measure of 'hard' I would go with Charlie Stone, Trevor Skerrett, Paul Rose, Mick Harrison,Ronnie Wileman

It was an Aussie called Brett Atkins i think,big bearded forward.Skerret had seen enough of him dishing it out and waited for the right opportunity.He lined him up for the tackle and nearly broke him in half.Remember asking Trevor about the tackle a few years later,can't remember it he said all my tackles were like that.

Psyrax64 wrote:Ronnie Wileman...legend..ask Roger Millward..

You're getting hardman and cheapshot merchant mixed up again.

As an FC fan a bit embarasing that, Wileman was a good tough player but not in the same league as people mentioned on here, apologies for the Millward hit he was a great player.