Lions’ loyal servant on and off the field
RON FLOWERS made 515 appearances for Wolves, won 49 England caps and was a member of Sir Alf Ramsey’s World Cup-winning squad.
He scored 10 times for his country.
When he retired from playing, Flowers, below, ran a sportswear shop in Wolverhampton.
That is what they did then. The trappings of the profession, the trappings of fame, were meagre.
Not that it mattered to giants of the game such as Flowers, who has died, aged 87.
Having served his country in the RAF, Flowers signed for Wolves in 1952 and the midfielder was a cornerstone of the great club’s golden era, winning three league titles and an FA Cup.
He is fifth on Wolves’ all-time appearance list.
Flowers served his country on the field too, scoring England’s first European Championship goal in a qualifier against France in 1962. He scored two more in the World Cup in Chile that year, and of those 49 appearances, 40 of them came in succession.
By the time the 1966 World Cup came along, Flowers was an elder statesman of the squad and did not play a minute of the tournament, although, on the eve of the final, Ramsey had told him he would be in if Jack Charlton did not recover from a cold.
Big Jack woke up feeling fine and the rest is history. Not that Flowers ever felt a twinge of bitterness or regret.
“We were a band of brothers,” he said when, in 2009, he eventually received his World Cup winners’ medal. “I was happy to be part of one of the greatest days in English football.”
Every man in that squad of 22 played his part in it – only six are still alive.
Their achievements, Flowers’ achievements, will live forever.