The Yorkshire-born defender briefly held the left-back spot with City at the start of the 1969-70 campaign but his stay was short-lived with Alan Woollett winning the competition for the regular starting role in the number three shirt.
Houghton came through the youth ranks at his local club Barnsley before moving on to Watford and then Ipswich Town, where he won a Second Division championship medal.
He was keen for a move back to Yorkshire, however, and when he left Ipswich for Leicester he lived back in Barnsley while commuting to Filbert Street. He didn't need to do it long, with Houghton enduring the shortest spell of his professional career with the Foxes before he moved back to South Yorkshire with Rotherham United.