Make him Sir Jack.. .calls to mark death of a legend
LEEDS United yesterday paid tribute to World Cup winner Jack Charlton as calls grew for the football legend to be given a knighthood posthumously
Jack, 85, is the latest member of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning squad to die without being honoured.
The former Leeds United defender and Republic of Ireland manager had been diagnosed with lymphoma in the last year and was also suffering from dementia.
Tributes were paid to Charlton, fondly known as Big Jack, before Leeds United’s match yesterday, with both sets of players and staff applauding the former defender’s contribution to football after a minute’s silence had been held.
Celebrated
Pablo Hernandez, who scored the winner against Swansea yesterday, said: “Jack helped us from the stars and this win is for him.
“I celebrated a lot because it is such an important goal. The three points are for everybody, the fans, the club, but especially for Jack Charlton.”
Ray Houghton, who was a loyal servant for the Irish team under the much-beloved coach for years, winning 76 caps under his guidance, said: “He was a larger than life character.
“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, which he should have been knighted for, I’ve still never understood that, I think that’s an absolute disgrace.
“He changed everything about Irish football because there was a stage where we hadn’t qualified for tournaments, we had some great players and very good managers but didn’t quite get over the line.
“Jack came in and changed that mentality, got us through two
World Cups and one European Championship. His legacy within Ireland is absolutely huge.”
Ian Lavery, Labour MP for Big Jack’s home constituency of Wansbeck in Northumberland, has submitted an early day motion calling on the British Government to award the “legend” a posthumous knighthood.
He added: “We’ll be launching a petition very soon.”
IT was a Monday night in Dublin and the call came that Republic of Ireland boss Jack Charlton was ready for his press conference – in his hotel bedroom.
Forget flashing lights, cameras, or anything you might imagine when an international football manager is to speak about a European Championship qualifying match 48 hours away.
Big Jack greeted me, along with five colleagues, at his door. Just an ordinary room, with a football legend as its occupant.
After the conference I stayed on to ghost his latest newspaper column for the Daily Express.
Here was the chance for even more insight into the match against Austria with the target of making the 1996 European Championship finals in England the following summer.
Suddenly, Jack stretched out on the right side of the bed and said to me: “Come on, you are on the left.” So there I was, lying alongside him, notebook in one hand, pen in the other, tape recorder balanced on the duvet. It was surreal, even more so because I was born in July 1966, the month England won the World Cup, and here I was sharing football pillow talk with a hero of that side.
But two days later, on a dismal night in Vienna, Austria won 3-1.
The Republic still finished second in their group, but lost 2-0 to Holland in a play-off. The next month Jack resigned after almost a decade in charge. A hero to so many and for one football reporter, a lifetime memory of as down-to-earth a legend you could ever meet.