Jack Charlton, OBE, 1935-2020
Last Friday, July 10, the former Leeds United and England World Cup winner Jack Charlton died, aged 85.
Born in Ashington, Northumberland on May 8, 1935, he had a wonderful career in football. He started out with Ashington YMCA and then assisted Ashington Welfare before completing his National Service in the Household Cavalry.
In May 1952, after a trials and a spell down the mine with his father, he joined Leeds as a professional and remained at Elland Road until retiring in May 1973.
Thereafter he managed Middlesbrough (May 1973-April 1977), Sheffield Wednesday (October 1977-May 1983), Newcastle (June 1984-August 1985), Middlesbrough again (caretaker-boss, March-April 1984) and the Republic of Ireland (February 1986- July 1996). A tall, rugged and uncompromising centre-half, Jack was the linchpin of Leeds’ durable defence, being described as being ‘gangling, awkward and headstrong’.
Jack was almost 30 when Alf Ramsey handed him his international debut against Scotland at Wembley in April 1965. Teaming up with ‘our kid’ brother Bobby, they became the first set of brothers to play together for England since Frank and Fred Forman in 1899. Niggling injuries caused Jack to miss several internationals in the late 1960s but he was rarely absent from the Leeds defence. Between 1964 and 1970 Jack won 35 caps, scoring six goals. He was on the losing side just once, against Austria in 1965, while 23 of the games he played in, England kept a clean sheet.
He formed an excellent partnership with Bobby Moore and won his last cap in a 1-0 win over Czechoslovakia in the 1970 World Cup.
His first England goal came in the 3-0 win over Finland in June 1966 – a freak effort in the last minute, while his last (a header) beat Portugal in December 1969.
In between times he collected a well-deserved World Cup winner’s medal when England beat West Germany 4-2 in the final.
A Leeds player for 20 years, Jack made 773 appearances, 629 in the Football League, and scored 96 goals.
He helped Leeds win the First and Second Division Championships, the FA Cup, League Cup and Inter-Cities Fairs Cup twice, collected a plethora of runner’s-up medals and was voted Footballer of the Year in 1967. And besides his senior caps, Jack played in one unofficial international and represented the Football League six times.
As a manager he steered Middlesbrough to the 1974 Second Division title and took Eire into the 1990 World Cup quarter-finals .
His personal honours included an OBE, an Honorary Irish Citizenship, the Freeman of the City of Dublin and the Honorary Doctorate of the University of Limerick, and in 1997, he was appointed a deputy Lieutenant of Northumberland.
A life-size statue of Jack at Cork Airport in Ireland shows him sitting down enjoying his favourite pastime, fishing! With Jack’s passing this leaves only five players still alive who won the World Cup in 1966 – George Cohen, ‘Nobby’ Stiles, his brother Bobby Charlton, Geoff Hurst and Roger Hunt. You were a top man, Jack, a giant in the world of football, one of the very best. R.I.P.