
Mick Kearns was a product of Coventry City’s youth policy before there was even a policy. He was a great servant for the club and is the only man to have played over 350 appearances for Coventry City as his sole club. Along with George Curtis and Brian Hill, he holds the unique record of having played in five different divisions of the league with one club. He was spotted playing for Stockingford Villa and joined City as an amateur in 1955. His first game was for the ‘A’ team against Birch Coppice. He combined his football with work as an apprentice motor mechanic at Massey Ferguson and soon impressed the City management with his skill and poise. A great reader of the game Mick became a regular first-teamer in 1958 and barely missed a game over the next nine years
Mick was one of a few players that Jimmy Hill did not jettison soon after his arrival in 1961 and it was the Farmer-Curtis-Kearns half-back line which would be the constant thing as City climbed out of the lower reaches of Division Three and won two promotions in four years. Hill later converted him to full-back and Mick, although preferring the wing-half role, happily obliged. He won a Third Division medal in 1964 and a Second Division medal in 1967.
In 1967 soon after City reached Division One, Mick’s knee problems got so bad he was forced to retire. He went to work in the family’s bingo hall in Nuneaton and ran the business until 1986 when George Curtis and John Sillett invited him back to the club as Reserve team coach and he later became Chief Scout and Youth Development Officer but left in 1992.
Penalties (5 - 4 scored)
1959-60
21 November 1959 v Norwich City A, scored
1960-61
14 January 1961 v Colchester United H, missed
1965-66
14 September 1965 v Southampton H, scored
12 April 1966 v Derby County H, scored
1966-67
17 September 1966 v Bristol City H, scored
Own goals (3)
1959-60
19 April 1960 v Grimsby Town H
1960-61
15 October 1960 v Chesterfield A
1965-66
12 April 1966 v Derby County H





























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































