Doherty, Peter Dermot (1913–90), soccer player and manager, was born 4 June 1913 in Church St., Magherafelt, Co. Londonderry, son of William Doherty, carter, and Sarah Doherty (née Duffin). His family moved to Coleraine, Co. Antrim, and he was educated at St Malachi's. Playing soccer for Station United, he made one appearance for Coleraine while employed as a bricklayer and bus conductor. In 1930 he was signed for £24 as an inside forward by the Belfast team Glentoran, which won the Irish senior cup in 1933. Second-division Blackpool signed him in November 1933 for £2,000 and were promoted that season. He scored eighteen goals in eighty-three appearances. He won the first of sixteen caps for Northern Ireland against England in 1935 before his skill brought him to the attention of first-division Manchester City, who bought him for £10,000 in 1936. Able to direct a team from the front, he earned the title ‘Peter the Great’ and scored thirty goals in his new club's league championship victory in the 1936–7 season. Manchester City won the FA cup in 1938 but were then relegated. Any attempt to regain their former status was prevented by the second world war. Doherty volunteered in 1940, and after basic training at Morecambe found himself a physical training instructor sergeant at the RAF's Loughborough rehabilitation centre for injured fliers. With his flame-red hair he had a reputation for short temper, but his wounded charges remembered him and his colleague, the great English forward Raich Carter, for their sympathy and good humour. He joined first-division Derby County with Carter in 1945, winning the FA cup against Charlton Athletic at Wembley in 1946. He enjoyed the dubious honour of scoring for both sides in normal time, deflecting a free kick into his net for an own goal and then scoring the equaliser to take the game into extra time. Derby eventually won 4–1.
He left Derby County to join first-division Huddersfield Town, where he scored thirty-three goals in eighty-three league games from 1946 to 1949 to rescue them from relegation in his first season. His international career also resumed: he scored the last second equaliser in a 2–2 draw against England at Goodison Park (5 November 1947). Doncaster Rovers recruited him as player manager in 1949 and were rewarded with promotion from the third to the second division as he scored fifty-five goals in 106 league games from 1949 to 1953. He won his last international cap in 1951 against Scotland and retired in 1953, having played in 403 league games and scored 197 goals. Northern Ireland employed this committed pipe-smoker as their manager in October 1951. He was fortunate in his team: Danny Blanchflower (qv), his captain, Jimmy McIlroy, Harry Gregg, and Peter McParland were all excellent players. On 6 November 1957 they defeated England 3–2 at Wembley before qualifying, for the first time, for the World Cup finals in Sweden in 1958, eliminating Italy as they did so. Their first match (8 June 1958) was a victory against Czechoslovakia; the date is remarkable, as this was the first time an Irish Football Association team ever played on a Sunday. Reaching the second round from a group that also included Argentina and West Germany was an achievement itself but the effort drained the players, who succumbed to France 4–0 in the quarter-final of a tournament eventually won by Brazil.
Doherty resigned from the manager's post in February 1962 because of the bad health of his wife, Jessica, and retired. The second player to be inducted to the Texaco Hall of Fame in 1971, he died in Blackpool on 6 April 1990, leaving one son.