A fantastic character who was at the heart of our great Leeds side
IT was very sad to hear the news of Jack’s passing because it’s another Leeds United legend gone following the recent loss of Norman Hunter and Trevor Cherry. One of my brothers texted me the news and I rang Mick Jones and Paul Reaney to let them know.
Big Jack was such a fantastic character and great fun to be around. He was absolutely fundamental to the success of that team that the gaffer (Don Revie) built up from the Second Division to one of the best sides in Europe.
Jack was older than the rest of us and was like our big brother.
Jack served Leeds United for 23 years and won the First Division title, FA Cup, League Cup and Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
He would obviously be part of any all-time great Leeds side and, when I joined the club in 1969, I would get changed next to him. Like the rest of the lads, Jack welcomed me into the club with welcome arms.
He used to come into training every morning with odd socks on and we would have England versus Scotland five-a-side games. The gaffer used to say ‘steady on lads’ because we trained the way we played and he didn’t want us to get injured.
Every day after training, we used to have a secret vote about who would receive the jersey as being the worst player at five-a-side.
Billy Bremner would say to someone ‘you were the best player in five-a-side today, so you can collect the votes’.
Billy would then say ‘right, Sniffer has one vote, Bites Yer Legs has two votes but today the jersey is going to Big Jack’.
I remember once he went absolutely crazy. He threw his training gear in his bag and said ‘you’re all ganging up on me, it’s not fair, I wasn’t the worst player!’
The next day it would be as if nothing had happened — the team spirit and the camaraderie was unbelievable.
Another time after training, Jack put a towel around him, picked up a newspaper and went to the toilet. Next to it there was a skip full of kit which had been worn at the weekend and from the top of that skip you could peer over and see who was on the lavatory.
Iwent to get a bucket of cold water and got quietly on the skip where I could see Jack reading his paper. I threw the bucket of water over him and scampered back into the dressing room to tell Billy and the lads. We were killing ourselves laughing and then Jack walked back in, soaked through and fuming but still with the towel around him with his newspaper!
It was hilarious but we were like one big family and that’s what the gaffer created.
Playing with Big Jack, I was always happy when him and Norman Hunter were in the side. In our day, defenders could defend and Jack was certainly one of them. He would often socialise with Billy Bremner and they would go out for a drink together.They lived close to each other and were room-mates for away games.
I was at the club’s centenary dinner last year where players from various eras attended. It was a lovely event but sadly Jack was too poorly to make it and now we’ve lost him.
I’m really hoping and praying that Leeds United can be successful again so that the young supporters can come to idolise a new generation of legends at the club.
We would be on Match of the Day every Saturday night and that’s how we became household names.
The game that stood out for me was when we beat Southampton 7-0 at Elland Road in 1972.
The sixth goal saw Norman racing down the left wing and cross the ball for Big Jack to head home at the far post.
That performance was as near to perfection as you could get from any team.
It is also one of my favourite memories of playing with Big Jack, a true legend of Leeds United and English football.