May 23 – A UEFA.tv documentary from the confederation’s Extraordinary Stories programming strand, picked up the outstanding short documentary prize at the Sports Emmy Awards in New York on Tuesday night.
One-Armed Wonder: The Extraordinary Story of Jimmy Hasty tells the remarkable story of the murdered Belfast striker who lost an arm as a teenager but scored more than 100 goals in a club career that saw him play in Northern Ireland’s top two tiers.
Born in 1936, in 1950, at 14-years-old, Hasty lost his left arm in an accident at the Jennymount Mill in Belfast. 13 years later, he was the top goal scorer in Dundalk Football Club, becoming a major attraction and earning his ‘One-Armed Wonder’ nickname.
In a European Cup tie away to FC Zurich, he assisted the first goal and scored the second in a 2–1 win, which was the first away victory by an Irish side in European competition.
At the end of his life Hasty was working at a betting shop near Belfast Docks and was shot dead on the morning of 11 October 1974 while walking to work. The sectarian killing was claimed by Loyalist paramilitaries calling themselves the ‘Ulster Protestant Action Group’. No-one was ever prosecuted for his murder.
Collecting the award, director Richard Milway (pictured) said: “I’d like to thank the Hasty family, Jimmy’s sons Paul and Martin and his wife Margaret. It’s 50 years since Jimmy was killed and this was the first time that Margaret spoke about Jimmy’s death. She did so with amazing grace and courage and I’d like to dedicate this award to her.”
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