Jack Hayward

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Jack Arnold Hayward OBE (born June 14, 1923 in Wolverhampton , † January 13, 2015 in Fort Lauderdale , Florida ) was a British businessman and best known as the chairman, owner and patron of the English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers . The contractor, whose fortune the Sunday Times estimated at 160 million pounds in 2008, was the Wolves' "lifetime president" after retiring from operations in 2006.

Private and businessman

Jack Hayward, who was born in Wolverhampton, first attended the Northaw Preparatory School and later the Stowe School - a renowned private school in Buckingham . During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force from 1941 and was trained as a pilot in Clewiston , Florida . In the Southeast Asian theater of war he flew a C-47 for the 671st RAF squadron and left the unit again in 1946 as a lieutenant .

His father, Sir Charles Hayward CBE , built new business activities in the Bahamas in the 1950s , which was then part of the British Empire . When Jack Hayward also joined the family in the city of Grand Bahama in 1956 , he became Vice President of the local port authority and was instrumental in establishing the Freeport free trade zone . He later took over his father's business and was involved in building projects in Freeport until his death. There a school was named after him with the "Jack Hayward High School".

Hayward financed the purchase of Lundy Island and gave it to the National Trust . He also donated money for restoration work on the first iron ship, the SS Great Britain . For his charitable activities , Elizabeth II proposed him to a Knight Bachelor in 1986 , after he had been accepted as an officer in the Order of the British Empire in 1968. His charity projects also include repair work on the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on the Falkland Islands .

Before his engagement for the "Wolves" he appeared as a sponsor for the English women's cricket team. He financed the tours over the West Indies in the seasons 1969/70 and 1970/71. In addition, he supported the first women's cricket world championship in 1973 , which took place two years before a men's world championship.

Hayward had two sons, Rick and Jonathan, who both worked for him with the Wolves. Jonathan Hayward, whose engagement lasted from 1990 to 1997, was accused by his father of embezzlement of 237,400 pounds in a national court case in 1999 - both parties later reached an out-of-court settlement. The older son Rick took over the chairmanship of the club from his father in 2003, but resigned from this position in 2006. After the club was taken over by Steve Morgan, this Jack Haywards grandson Rupert was appointed director, but he only stayed in this position for a year.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

In May 1990, Jack Hayward bought Wolverhampton Wanderers football club for £ 2.1 million from Gallagher Estates , became the sole owner of the club he had been with since childhood, and became its chairman. One of his first acts was to add his son Jonathan and former player legend Billy Wright to the board of directors . During his 17-year reign, he invested large sums of his private fortune in the renovation of the Molineux Stadium and with further player purchases and infrastructure expenses, according to media reports, the expenditure added up to an estimated 40 million pounds - the range of the relevant speculations ranges from 20 to 60 million pounds. The training ground, which opened in 2005, bears his name like the "Sir Jack Hayward Way" from 2003 (previously: "Molineux Way") near the Molineux stadium.

The long-term goal of re-establishing the club as one of the leading English football clubs was only partially successful. He employed seven different coaches and helped the "Wolves" only to one season in the Premier League ( 2003/04 ). Notwithstanding, he managed to sign a few players who, without his help, were beyond the financial capabilities of most non-top English clubs. In his function as a patron connected to his homeland, however, he stabilized the club, which was threatened with complete extinction in the 1980s, and thereby acquired a high degree of recognition. After the search for a new owner in September 2003 was unsuccessful, after his resignation as chairman in 2006 in August 2007 he finally handed over the club's fortunes for the symbolic sum of ten pounds - coupled with an investment commitment of 30 million pounds - to the businessman Steve Morgan .

Although Hayward was no longer a member of the association, he remained honorary president of the "Wolves" for life.

literature

  • Matthews, Tony: Wolverhampton Wanderers - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-85983-632-3 , pp. 80-81 .

Individual evidence

  1. Former Wolves owner Sir Jack Hayward dies in Fort Lauderdale aged 91
  2. ^ Sunday Times Rich List 2008 (Times Online)
  3. "Jack Hayward High School" ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (www.jackhaywardhighschool.org) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jackhaywardhighschool.org
  4. "When the women set the agenda" (Cricinfo)