Jackie Blanchflower

Jackie Blanchflower
Personnel
Surname	John Blanchflower
birthday	March 7, 1933
place of birth	Belfast ,  Northern Ireland
date of death	September 2, 1998
Place of death	Manchester ,  England
position	Half forward , center runner
Juniors
Years	station
1949-1950	Manchester United
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1950-1959	Manchester United	105 (26)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1954-1958	Northern Ireland	12 0(1)
1 Only league games are given.

John "Jackie" Blanchflower (born March 7, 1933 in Belfast , † September 2, 1998 in Manchester ) was a Northern Irish football player . The half-forward and middle runner was one of the "Busby Babes" of Manchester United in the 1950s and one of the seriously injured in the Munich plane crash , who then had to end their professional career.

Athletic career

Jackie Blanchflower followed his older brother Danny's route across the Irish Sea to England in 1949 to join Manchester United as a 16-year-old football talent . Equipped with a wealth of tricks, game intelligence and fighting strength, he made his way through the youth teams despite his deficits in terms of speed. In 1951 he made his debut as a right outside runner in the professional team, but a knee injury initially delayed further athletic development. As a half-striker, he then conquered in the season 1953/54 the regular place in a team that was increasingly rejuvenated by coach Matt Busby , which later became famous as "Busby Babes". At the end of the season, he also completed the first of a total of twelve international A matches for his home in Northern Ireland. He scored 24 competitive goals for United over a period of two years and won the English championship in the subsequent 1955/56 season .

In his position, however, with Dennis Viollet , Billy Whelan , John Doherty and Bobby Charlton, the number of his competitors increased significantly and so Busby Blanchflower moved back to the center runner position during the 1956/57 season. There he had to compete with the robust Mark Jones and the rather slight "Twiggy", as Blanchflower was jokingly called by his teammates, was in the starting eleven with a new role on the occasion of the 1957 FA Cup final against Aston Villa . After the early injury of goalkeeper Ray Wood he then had to - in a time when substitutions were not allowed - help out almost the entire season in the goal; he was guilty of the goals conceded in the 2-1 defeat. Although he was still an integral part of Busby's squad, he was left to the middle of the following season 1957/58 after the return of Jones mostly only the substitute role. He started the fateful trip to Belgrade in February 1958 at the last moment, having only recently recovered from an injury. On the return journey from Belgrade he was one of the seriously injured in the Munich plane crash . He broke his pelvis, arms and legs. In addition, his kidneys were badly affected and his condition was so life-threatening that he was already receiving the anointing of the sick .

He worked desperately to continue his football career and until June 1959 he was still under contract with Manchester United. However, the wounds were too severe and traumatized Blanchflower initially withdrew for a few years. His later attempts to find happiness in a different professional environment were crowned with little success and he operated a candy store, worked for a bookmaker at horse racing and then as a pub clerk and until 1976 as a printer. Afterwards he trained to become an accountant, but it was only his talent as a "dinner speaker" that finally filled him. His wife Jean, who was a successful singer in the Vic Lewis Big Band in the 1950s and began performing again in public three decades later, played a major role in this . He announced his wife's shows with wit and charm and the singing quickly turned into a "double event". He died of cancer at the age of 65.

Title / Awards

• English Championship (1): 1956
• FA Charity Shield (1): 1957

Web links

• Statistical data from the Post War English & Scottish Football League AZ Player's Database
• Profile on barryhugmansfootballers.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ponting, Ivan: Manchester United Player by Player . Hamlyn, London 1998, ISBN 0-600-59496-3 , pp. 22 .
2. ↑ Obituary: Jackie Blanchflower (The Independent)