Eighteen years ago, on this day (17th August), Blackburn Rovers lost their greatest ever supporter; Jack Walker.
The Rovers fan officially bought the club in 1991, whilst Rovers were playing in the old Division Two and his sole intent was to get Rovers back to the top of English football, something Rovers had not achieved since 1913-14.
In 1992 backed by Walker’s millions, Rovers hired former Liverpool & Celtic legend Kenny Dalglish as manager on their way to winning promotion to the inaugural Premier League via the playoffs after beating Leicester City on penalties at Wembley.
Following their rise back to the top tier of English football, after a 26 year absence, Rovers took the league by storm as they secured the signature of Alan Shearer, who would soon etch his name into Premier League history, from Southampton for – what was at the time, a British transfer record – of £3.6m.
Subsequently after their promotion to the Premier League, Rovers gate-crashed the top 4 in addition to breaking the British transfer record again in the process to sign Chris Sutton from Norwich for £5m, which increased Rovers’ firepower, as they ultimately achieved their aim in 1994-95.
Blackburn Rovers were once again Premier League Champions.
This was all down to the hard work that ‘Uncle Jack’ had put in off the field and it finally paid off as Rovers defied the dominance of Manchester United to claim the most coveted prize in English football.
Thank You Uncle Jack; you shall always remain in our hearts.
Rovers’ number one supporter.
Gone, but never forgotten.
