Jack Charlton Obituary
(1935-2020)
“Jack was the type of player and person that you need in a team to win a World Cup. He was a great and loveable character. The world of football has lost one of the greats. RIP old friend”
Sir Geoff Hurst on the death ofWorld Cup-winning team-mate Jack Charlton
Jack Charlton’s achievements with the Republic of Ireland as a manager should never overshadow his playing role as one of the main actors on the English football stage for two decades.
“Big Jack” became the third recently departed member of the outstanding Leeds United team of the1960s and 1970s when he died aged 85, not so long after Norman Hunter and Trevor Cherry. Dementia and lymphoma claimed a man who spent his entire 21-year playing career with the club for whom he made a record 773 appearances.
With Charlton, Leeds won the Second Division in1964 and the First Division five years later, followed by an FA Cup (1972), one League Cup (1968) and two Fairs Cups (forerunner of the Europa League in1968 and 1971). He was also the media choice as Footballer of the Year in1967, and awarded an OBE in1974, a year after his retirement.
The sum total of those team prizes does not adequately reflect Leeds’ dominance of the English game in those years. A machine constructed by manager Don Revie were runners-up more often than they were champions. They also possessed far more ability than detractors allowed.
At the heart of it all was Jack Charlton, a centre-half of personality, significance and commitment. Those individual qualities were never seen to greater effect than in England’s World Cup-winning effort in1966.
Charlton, for all his fearsome tackling and power in the air – which not only saved goals but scored them – was not summoned for national team duty until1965 when he was 29. He had been considered too rough-andready, perhaps even tarnished by outsiders’ antagonism to Leeds and Revie.
Years later he spoke about the put-down he received from Alf Ramsey when he joined up for the first time. Ramsey said: “Jack, I haven’t picked you because you’re the best centre-half in the country because you’re not. I’ve picked you for the balance of the team.”
In time Charlton reflected that Ramsey’s approach mirrored his own. As he said, self-deprecatingly, about his far-more-lauded brother: “Bobby could play. I couldn’t play. But I could stop other people playing. In a football team you need both.”
The pair shared their achievement as the second brothers to win a World Cup, after West Germany’s Fritz and Ottmar Walter in1954. But they were very different characters.
Mother Cissie, a cousin of old Newcastle hero Jackie Milburn, instilled their passion for the game. Bobby’s talent was always obvious; Jack’s not so much. Not even to him. Hence he followed father Bob down the pit on
“The word legend is used too much in football, but not for Jack for what he’s done domestically with Leeds, winning the World Cup…and the fact he did so well with Ireland”
Ray Houghton, who played for the Republic of Ireland under Charlton
leaving school. The awful prospect of a working life underground jarred him into turning seriously to football.
National service helped. Charlton captained his Household Cavalry team while serving in Germany. He returned with renewed commitment to Leeds United and the rest, as they say, is history. Including those 35 allimportant England caps (and six goals) between1965 and1970.
His last international was against Czechoslovakia in a group match in the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico. Otherwise Charlton was reserve to Everton’s Brian Labone. Would West Germany’s Uwe Seeler have scored that spirit-wrenching, close-range backheaded equaliser with Charlton in the team? Would England have then caved during extra-time in that quarter-final?
Charlton was never a man to waste time on ifs and buts. He took his pragmatism into management. His most notable achievement in spells with Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle United was in rebuilding Boro at every level and driving them back up into the old First Division in1974.
Later came international visibility as the first non-Irishman to manage the Republic of Ireland. Charlton’s demand of commitment was writ large all over a team worth far more than the individual parts. The Irish reached the European Championship finals for the first time in1988, then the World Cup, in which they reached the quarter-finals in1990 and round of16 in1994.
His achievements were acknowledged formally by the Freedom of the City of Dublin and honorary Irish citizenship.
But there was far, far more to Jack Charlton than football and a host of entertaining stories. In the words of a family tribute: “As well as a friend to many, he was a much-adored husband, father, grandfather and greatgrandfather. He was a thoroughly honest, kind, funny and genuine man. We are thankful for a lifetime of happy memories.” Football is too.