Jack Rowley - Manchester United Legend

Jack Rowley was born in the Black Country town of Wolverhampton on 7 October 1920 and started off his footballing career under the guidance of legendary coach Major Frank Buckley at his local club, however it was Bournmouth who he would make his League debut for.

In 1937 he was signed for Manchester United, by Walter Crickmer - who was manager at the time - for a fee of £3,000, aged 17. He made his debut for The Reds just sixteen days after his 18th birthday on 23 October 1937 in a 1-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday. Such was his burgeoning talent in only his second game for the club bagged four goals in a 5-1 win against Swansea City. That season the young striker, or winger as he was in his first season, would go on to net nine goals in twenty-five appearances.

Jack Rowley, like many of Sir Matt Busby's team were not only gifted footballers, but were larger than life characters too.

During his footballing years Rowley had the distinction of spending six and a half years as an anti-tank gunner with the South Staffordshire infantry and was therefore given the un-imaginative nickname of 'The Gunner', however it turned out to be pretty apt as he would later become renowned for his ferocious, as well as accurate shooting. In fact such was the power of his shot was reckoned to be the hardest of that era.

For eight years Rowley held the Manchester United scoring record for a season, when he bagged 30 goals in just 40 games of the 1951-52 season, until he was surpassed by the prolific Dennis Viollet in 1960. Overall The Gunner scored 175 goals in 359 League appearances.

Although World War II robbed Jack Rowley of six of his footballing years, it didn't stop this indomintable character for making guest appearances for Spurs, Wolves and Irish side Distillery amgongst other clubs. Remarkbly during the war years he scored seven goals for Spurs in one game and then just a week later scored eight for Wolves.

Rowley dominated the post-war English goalscoring charts. Not only did he bag himself two cracking goals in 1948 F.A. Cup Final win against Blackpool, he was top goalscorer in the first four season after the war. The season he broke Manchester United goals scored in a season record, he bagged consecutive hat-tricks in the first two games of the season, against West Bromwich Albion and Middlesborough respectively and helped United topple Spurs to win the League by four points.

Although he was a prolific goalscorer Rowley only played a handful of times for England, but did manage to grab himself a goal-a-game scoring record in his six appearances, by remarkably in four different positions. His highlight during his England career was grabbing 4 goals against Northern Ireland in 1949.

After the war had ended Jack Rowley went on to play for a further 10 years, when he then joined Plymouth Argyle in a player-manager capacity. His career in football management would see he take roles at Oldaham Athletic (twice), Wrexham, Bradford and Dutch giants Ajax.