Writing a tribute about Sir Jack Hayward OBE should be the easiest task in the world for a Wolves fan like me.
Doing justice to Sir Jack Hayward at the same time is an entirely different proposition altogether.
For all the eulogies over the past fortnight about our most lovable owner of all, none seem to have hit the spot in quite the way he touched my heart.
While daily news snippets about his selfless, humble and generous nature are welcome, they say nothing that I didn’t already know.
Then there’s those endless reflections upon 2003, and a condensing of his entire legacy into one hazy Bank Holiday in Cardiff and a solitary season in the Premier League thereafter.
Maybe this will be Sir Jack’s enduring legacy. And if an epitaph has already been written, then maybe it will allude to that sunny day in May when his thumbs were in the air.
That’s not how I’ll remember him. No thanks all the same.
I’d been a Wolves fan for three years when Sir Jack Hayward stood on the South Bank terrace with us Lost Souls and embarked upon a journey to define my adolescent years.
Looking back, one year in the top flight for all he invested was absolutely criminal, so while a vision of his beaming smile in the Millennium Stadium will be conjured in the minds of many, it won’t mine.
When 17th placed PL finishes are celebrated like an FA Cup final win; when Phil Brown grabs a microphone to sing about such failure from the rooftops, Sir Jack Hayward always gave us something way more wholesome – however ill-fated so much of it became.
Sir Jack Hayward gave me aspiration.
During the time he presided over our once kamikaze club, impossible meant absolutely nothing as he instilled a genuine belief that we could eventually conquer the world. Isn’t that, above a trip to Cardiff or a season in the Premier League, what being a football fan is all about?
He appointed an ex-England manager, brought a colossus cult hero called de Wolf and even induced some (initially embarrassing) fist pumping between me and Dad at the school gates, when Dad ran through my throng of nonplussed friends to tell me we’d signed Don Goodman.
‘The Shit will be stewing over this one!’ Dad squealed.
When I think of Sir Jack, I think of these times and I smile with such blissful happiness that my eyes begin to water.
Dad and I would attend each and every Anglo Italian Cup game because they genuinely meant something back then. For a glimpse of David Kelly. For a look at our ‘Molineux Wear’ kit under lights.
We’d drive to Molineux to watch midweek league games on our ‘seamless’ video walls on some fangled technology called beam-back, from a vantage point so obscured in the freezing John Ireland Stand that we genuinely couldn’t see a thing!
Me and Dad even revelled in an Andy Ritchie-inspired thrashing at Oldham on Boxing Day (1-4) with 5,000 others, because we knew it was a hiccup. It would still get the nationals talking and we had a great day out!
Back then, every game, every detail and every movement that Sir Jack ever made mattered, because of his great intentions. We aspired. We dreamed. That it was an impossible dream made me love him even more.
Failure, as it emerged, would define my very character as much as a play-off final victory over Sheffield United ever did.
In my personal age of innocence, Sir Jack Hayward was my king.
He was selfless, humble, generous and displayed the very dispositions that Dad ordered me to reach for.
He wasn’t David Sullivan or Karen Brady or even Jeremy Peace…
Whether or not those three were ultimately more successful matters little to me.
As young person in his delinquency – never mind a football fan – Sir Jack Hayward enriched my life in more ways than a football club owner ever really had the right.
To say I’m grateful will never do justice.
God bless you Sir Jack.
Quite simply the most powerful and moving tribute I’ve read anywhere.
God bless Sir Jack and God bless you too Ben.
Great tribute, and I share the sentiment of it entirely
Great tribute Ben …
Whether one thinks that he didn’t do enough or even that he could have done more …..
NO-ONE could argue that he put life back into this FAMOUS club and saved us from the depths of despair during the dark times.
Those of us who had the privilege to see the team of the late 50’s and early 60’s will understand what we stood for and how far we had sunk.
IMO Wolverhampton Wanderers would not be here today but for him and his love for his boyhood club.
I often ask my friends and fellow bloggers why they follow WWFC when they don’t live here or even locally (DOOG, Clive, Brompton, Wolfstroker, Steve Showcase ….. and the many more) ..
The answer is always the same …. because they have been fallen in love with a truly great club .. they, along with many, many more ….HAVE GOLD AND BLACK BLOOD IN THEIR VEINS ….!
How fitting and such an honour for the people of Wolverhampton and his adoring fans that he should come back HOME to rest….
Twixfix,
I am often asked why I support Wolves, as I am an Oxford lad. Whilst I want to answer “who else is there worthy of my devotion”, nobody could uderstand the effect that my first visit to Molineux woulld have on me. Forty-five years later, the love is still burning. Like many faiths, I can’t explain why myself, one just has to except reality, embrace it and enjoy the ride. I am smitten, I am a hopeless case and I don’t care.
Nice one Jerry …
Hope you’re back on the mend too mate ….
Hi Jerryd
Good to have you back mate.
I was very interested to hear that you are an Oxford lad – so am I.
I used to watch them when they were in the old Southern League and Big Ron Atkinson and his brother played for them.
In fact I went to Wembley to see them in the play off final a few years back when they got back into the football league.
Everyone has their ‘other’ club they look out for.
But, like you, the Wolves grabbed me and they haven’t let me go in spite of my best efforts.
I think it’s terminal now.
Fine words about a great man. A brilliant piece, Ben. I particularly love how you capture that romance of the little things. Your story about your dad rushing up to tell you Don Goodman had signed reminds me of the day my Dad picked me up from school one day and revealed Delwyn Humphreys had signed for Kiddy Harriers from Bridgnorth Town. It was like we were both in a state of shock that a Bridgnorth player had made the ‘big time’ of the Vauxhall Conference, but we then made the trip to Aggbrough just to see him play and I almost wept when he scored and performed a double back flip in celebration.
Nice eulogy, brings back some random memories for me… In the season that Roberts put a hatrick past the sh1t, culminating in a 4-2 win for us and me having a mug for many more years with that scoreline emblazoned across it, we had the defeat against Crystal Palace away, where jinky smith scored his 1st and only goal for us (against the team he would later play for), that I had told the then Mrs before the game that I dreamt he’d scored prior to the game kicking off… She laughed it off until it happened… !
We sat with the many thousand other faithful watching what we thought was a fantastic picture (but thinking back it was piss poor really- but ground breaking for its time).
Without Sir Jack we would not have had the game beamed to so many wishful fans and I would not have sipped so many mugs of “Tay” from my 4-2 mug.
Sir Jack probably never really knew how much he had impressed on people’s lives, it’s just the little things sometimes, but all those little things add up.
Ben, that was perfect.
Thanks for your kind words everyone. It’s difficult doing justice to Sir Jack and even more challenging to quantify his legacy (not 2003 for me).
The Official Wolves twitter page gave me a retweet though so I must have come close!
That sense of magic is what I’ll miss most. Remember the FA Cup run in 1994? And again when we made the semi final (98?)
Those cup draws were special. We’d be ball number 41 – 45 if memory serves and I’d LOVE it!
Sir Jack gave me those heady emotions, irrespective of the ultimate failure that would eventually arrive.
I loved those days xx
Thanks Ben, very thoughtful and absolutely from the heart.
Sir Jack gave us all so much, including the new Molineux, such an iconic stadium and name, always to be so, the name instantly recognised by everyone in football.
The lasting legacy for me from Sir Jack is the pride in the club, by the worldwide family of wolves fans. How often on holiday in Europe or North America, (even in Houston with Clive!!) with me wearing my wolves waterproof, have people come up to me and say they were wolves fans as well. Proud to wear my gold and black, everywhere, all the time, proud to support our great club,
Nicely done Ben. Sir Jack is someone whom I admired greatly and I will be forever grateful for what he has done for my Wolves.
“Glad to have helped” – An understatement in the extreme but it shows how humble he was.
Lovely piece of writing Ben.
I remember walking onto the South Bank,which had once seemed so exciting,to see a derelict embarrassment and being heartbroken.
A few years later I emerged onto the newly-rebuilt, Sir Jack financed North Bank,yes,I am that old, and I again had hope.The rest of the ground was under construction but I can still conjure up that wonderful feeling of rebirth of my soul now and forever.
Anybody who thinks Sir Jack didn’t do enough hasn’t got a clue.
Forever grateful.RIP.
What can I say Ben?
I really enjoyed our chat at The Park View the other Saturday and You said then that you wanted to find the words to say what Sir Jack meant to you.
Well, you certainly found them mate.
A lot of us old lags have a story to tell about meeting the great man and how he was so willing to spend time chewing the fat with us ordinary fans.
How things change.
It’s a well worn cliche but we truly will never see his like again.
And the World is a poorer place for it.
Well put Ben.
Excellent eulogy…..
Brilliant Ben.
Some of my fondest memories as a Wolves fan are from the early Haywood years, which gave us so much hope and expectation. I remember discussing with my best mate recently how excited we were when we signed Geoff Thomas. We were sure we were going to do a ‘Newcastle’. Jack’s passion to succeed gave us reason to believe.
The first time I had a season ticket was Graham Taylor’s first full season in charge and even though it ended in sadly (I don’t think I have ever felt as gutted as a Wolves fan, walking back to get the bus back to Cannock after watching us lose that second leg to John McGinlay on the video wall at Molineux), I look back at that season which such fondness. The Sheffield Wednesday penalty shoot out (literally unbelievable), the resurgence of Robbie Dennison, Thommo penalties, Neil ‘Golden balls’ Emblen, Bully actually being given a chance of glory, that 5-0 win against Southend (a bloke sat behind me shouted ‘come on Walters, earn your money’, just as he smacked one in from 25 yards). That season of memories was a result of Sir Jack’s ambition and desire to put us back where we belonged.
The fact he kept coming back for more, despite our failings, just sums up who he was. A passionate Wolves fan, like the rest of us. Quite literally, as the South Bank sang against Blackpool ‘one of our own’.
Ben you said it all. Nothing more needs to be said.
Brilliant. Between this and the pic of him in the stands in 91, you have it all.
Nothing more to be said. Ben you are spot on with your piece.
A great man who was ‘Glad to have helped’. How all Wolves fans should be reatful for that.
Lovely, brought a tear to my eyes.
Well written Ben.
Like others I don’t need to add anything, because if your’e going to do something do it from the heart and you did that really well.
He was one of our own.
🙂
Thank you Ben.
I have a love for a man that I never met but feel like I knew. Trying to explain this feeling was awkward but after reading your article, I know there are people out there who hold Sir Jack in the same light as me.
Live Forever Sir Jack
Hear hear everyone..the selfless financial commitment to the Club not only to rescue it but to understand the real meaning of seeing where Wolves belong in the PL..
As much as it was short lived, I’ll personally never forget the thumbs up with a tear in my eye seeing the club promoted,thinking if ever there was a man who deserved to see this…
Ben,
I enjoy reading your articles, they always come straight from your heart. Welcome back to the blog, you have been missed.
Brilliant piece of writing !
Brilliant from the heart piece Ben. I’m currently on hols and it genuinely brought a tear to my eye – top notch mate!
Absolutely fantastic piece of writing. You know something is absolutely spot on when the message hits you right between the eyes. You are right that sir jack gave us all the chance to dream because he felt the same about wolves as we do. Well done Ben and thank you .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b05056tm
With absolutely no disrespect to Ben, Sir Jack or anyone else, I HAVE to share this with y’all.
It is actually related as Scooped is Ben’s Dad.
Scooped is now famous, and has his face all over the radio!
The link above is to Steve Wright in the afternoon non stop oldies, and was sent by Scooped.
Listen to the intro, then skip to about 1 hour into the show, immediately after the 3 o’clock news.
The last oldie of the lot is priceless for Wolves fans, and in my irreverent way, think it is fitting to be included in the blog tribute to Sir Jack, as he is one of our own.
Bless him, wherever he’s landed, hopefully once again watching the magic of those in old gold and black who went there before him.
Beautifully put Ben. Very moving.
Very well said Ben. I am so pleased that Wolves fans have given Sir Jack the recognition he deserves.
Lovely – thank you.