Lucky escape For Albion manager in car crash
WEST Bromwich Albion manager Jimmy Hagan had a narrow eascape when his car plunged down a steep embankment and into a canal.
The incident took place on Friday, January 24, 1964, and saw him crawl, cut and bleeding, through the smashed windscreen of his car as it sank into the chilly waters of the Birmingham Canal.
The weekly Dudley Herald reported the accident on Saturday, February 1:
“West Bromwich Albion manager, Mr Jimmy Hagan, was discharged from hospital last Sunday but told to take things quietly following his miraculous escape two days earlier when his car plunged more than 100 feet down a canal embankment.
“Albion players just leaving the club’s training ground at Spring Road, Smethwick, just before mid-day, rushed to their manager’s aid as his car went backwards and somersaulted its way down the steep slope of the nearby canal embankment.
“The car, a new Vauxhall Cresta, righted itself as it hit the towpath and then bounced into the canal. Bleeding from facial lacerations, 44-years-old Mr Hagan scrambled through the shattered windscreen as the car began to sink slowly almost up to its roof. Terry Simpson, Ron Fenton, Graham Williams and Stan Jones rushed down the embankment to pull Mr Hagan to safety. After club trainer Wilf Dixon had given first aid, Mr Hagan was carried up the embankment on a stretcher by ambulance men and then rushed to West Bromwich and District Hospital.
X-ray
“Later it was announced, following a thorough X-ray examination, that Mr Hagan was suffering from facial lacerations and a neck injury.
“The accident occurred when Mr Hagan reversed his car with the intention of driving along Spring Road and into Spon Lane. His foot slipped off the brake and his car plunge dover the unfenced embankment.
“When they pulled the manager to safety, Fenton said Mr Hagan told them: ‘It was good of you to get down so quickly, I thought some of you would have to be good swimmers.’
“Despite his badly shocked condition, Mr Hagan’s first thoughts were for Mike Fudge and Geoff Carter, the two players he had dropped from Albion’s FA Cup team to meet Arsenal the next day. The accident prevented him from interviewing the players according to his custom of speaking with all players dropped or rested from the first team. He told the players: ‘Tell Wilf (Dixon) to have a word with Mickey Fudge and Geoff Carter. Put the team sheet up and ring my wife.’
“Later firemen, assisted by a heavy crane, lifted the wrecked car from the canal.”
Age
It is interesting to note that the report gave Jimmy Hagan’s age as 44, as he was born in 1918 and the accident took place three days after his 46th birthday – perhaps he knocked a couple of years off his age.
As the report noted, the Albion were preparing for their match against Arsenal in the fourth round of the FA Cup. We can’t say how Jimmy Hagan’s accident affected the players but they drew the game 3-3, with goals from Ron Fenton, John Kaye and Stan Jones for Albion, and George Armstrong, Joe Baker and Johnny Macleod for Arsenal.
The Baggies lost the replay at Highbury, on January 29, by 2-0, Armstrong and Geoff Strong the scorers.