What makes a Burnley hero? Put six fans of any club in any room and ask them to define what makes a cult hero, and youd probably get six very different answers. Hero and legend and cult hero, they can all be so different; yet just sometimes a player can be all three. Maybe the great Jimmy McIlroy now in his eighties and the Club President at Burnley Football Club, is one of the latter. But what is it that makes one player a real cult hero, and not another? It's not just a matter of playing hundreds of games, as some of the most beloved play just a handful. But what are the qualities and features that need to be present to be a cult hero? A distinctive appearance perhaps, an outrageous incident on the pitch that has us open-mouthed, a player that inspires a sort of slavish devotion, inspires a laugh, is all-action, the quintessential hard-man, fans can identify with him, he has a dedicated following, could be eccentric; he doesnt quite fit the mould, some sort of rebel maybe. But whatever he is, whatever he has done, however he looks, the fans love him for it whether he is the pantomime villain or the loyal servant who has been at the club for 20 years. Its an extensive list and it needs to be said again a cult hero might exhibit only one of the above. But however they play, however they behave, whatever they look like, we hold cult heroes in deep affection and remember them for years. There is just something that sets them apart.
