Coventry sold Hunt on to West Bromwich Albion for £100,000 in March 1984, where he would win the club's Player of the Year award for the 1985–86 campaign.
[4] Despite prior assurances to the contrary, he was turned down for an apprenticeship at the age of 16, only for Aston Villa to change their mind after his mother rang manager Vic Crowe to complain.
[6] Hunt damaged cartilage in his knee during his debut for the reserve team and blamed the injury on Saunders' intense fitness regime.
[7] He made his first-team debut on 23 April 1973, coming on as a substitute in a 4–0 win over Sheffield Wednesday that secured Villa's promotion into the First Division.
[17][18][15] He scored his first goal in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the second game of the 1977 season, a 2–1 victory at Team Hawaii on 13 April.
The Cosmos qualified for the play-offs after finishing second in the Eastern Division, and Hunt provided all three assists for Pelé and Giorgio Chinaglia's goals in their first round win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
[23] The Cosmos won the Soccer Bowl by beating the Seattle Sounders 2–1 at the Civic Stadium; Hunt scored the opening goal and also provided an assist to Chinaglia, and was named the game's MVP.
[25] Hunt was persuaded to stay in New Jersey after head coach Eddie Firmani and owner Ahmet Ertegun agreed to provide him with a company car and several free plane tickets home to combat his feelings of homesickness.
Cosmos beat Minnesota Kicks in the two-game Conference semi-finals series despite losing the opening match 9–2, with Beckenbauer scoring the winning shoot-out goal.
[31] Having struggled to adapt back to the physical English game in the 1978–79 season, he established himself in the "Sky Blues" starting eleven for the 1979–80 campaign, playing as a left-sided midfielder rather than a pure winger.
[32] The Coventry team were young and inexperienced as established stars were sold off by chairman Jimmy Hill to fund the development of the club's training ground, the Sky Blue Connexion.
He had initially been approached by Vic Crowe, who was now coaching the Portland Timbers but found himself legally obliged to rejoin the Cosmos if he were to return to the NASL.
[39] He won his third Soccer Bowl title as the Cosmos beat the Seattle Sounders at Jack Murphy Stadium, with Chinaglia scoring the only goal of the game.
[42] He enjoyed the expansive passing football encouraged at The Hawthorns by manager Johnny Giles, which contrasted to the more restrictive style he had endured at Coventry.
[46] West Brom were relegated to the Second Division at the end of the season, though Hunt was named as the club's Player of the Year after the Sports Argus reported that he had "battled, almost alone, to keep Albion up".
[48] He scored an own goal two minutes into his second home debut, though a brace from Steve Hodge was enough to give Villa the victory over West Ham United.
[48] Villa lost only one of the eight games immediately following Hunt's return and their form improved enough to end the 1985–86 season three points above the relegation zone.
[49] John Pearson, writing in the Birmingham Evening Mail, said that "Steve Hunt's qualities of ball control, composure and precision passing have been the major reason in Villa's surge to safety".
[50] Graham Turner was sacked after a poor start to the 1986–87 campaign, with a 6–0 defeat to Nottingham Forest bringing his two years in charge to a close.
[51] Hunt felt that Turner's successor, Billy McNeill, "seemed unable to change the mood" at Villa Park as results continued to go against the "Villans" and that the new manager quickly lost the dressing room.
[40] He made two international appearances for England, making his debut as a substitute for Mark Chamberlain in a 1–1 draw with Scotland at Hampden Park on 26 May 1984.