Gary Rowell, Date of Birth, Place of Birth
TweetGary Rowell
English footballer
Date of Birth: 06-Jun-1957
Place of Birth: Seaham, England, United Kingdom
Profession: association football player
Nationality: United Kingdom
Zodiac Sign: Gemini 
About Gary Rowell
- Gary Rowell (born 6 June 1957) is an English former footballer—most notably with Sunderland—and a current local (North East) radio football commentator and newspaper columnist. Born in Seaham, he left school and joined Sunderland as an apprentice in 1972.
- His career was split (1972–84) between playing as a striker (albeit often coming from deep) and in midfield.
- He scored 102 goals for The Rokerites in all competitions, surpassing the previous record post-war goalscorer, Len Shackleton, who had scored 101 goals.
- Rowell's record stood until it in turn was beaten by Kevin Phillips in the early 21st century. Gary was a talented player who many supporters felt was destined to become 'fully' capped by England.
- Unfortunately, his career was severely disrupted by a serious knee injury that he sustained during a game against Leyton Orient (in which he had already scored the winning goal) during March 1979.
- Following a lengthy recovery, Rowell continued to score goals in the First Division at a healthy strike-rate, but he always looked likely to struggle to maintain full fitness for the whole of any season. Sunderland manager Len Ashurst forced Rowell out of Roker Park as part of a huge rebuilding plan in 1984, part of the slide which would ultimately take them to the third tier of English football for the only time in the club's history.
- Rowell moved to Norwich City, but never recreated his goalscoring exploits because of a knee injury he picked up on his first pre season tour with the Canaries.
- The injury would ultimately blight the rest of his career, although he did go on to play for Middlesbrough, Brighton & Hove Albion and Carlisle United before finishing his career with Burnley. Rowell is remembered by Sunderland supporters for scoring a hat-trick for Sunderland in a 4-1 win away at local rivals Newcastle United on 24 February 1979.
- Describing the match later, he said "When we hit the 4th I had a chat with Kevin Arnott about whether to try for a fifth or just to take the piss.
- We decided to take the piss."He now works as a radio summariser on Real Radio, commentating on all Sunderland games.
- He previously spent seven years covering Sunderland's games on Metro Radio and Magic 1152. In 2005, he was voted Sunderland's all-time cult hero on the television programme Football Focus, whilst in 2006, Sunderland fanzine A Love Supreme voted him their Best Player of the 1980s.
- Such accolades reflect his almost 'iconic' status on Wearside.
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