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About Jack Walker

Seldom has one football supporter influenced a Football Club’s history to the point that he was and is adored by his team’s supporters, not because of the money that he pumped into the club but because he was one of them, a working class supporter that brought their dreams alive. Jack Walker who had watched the Rovers from the terraces as a schoolboy, shared his dream of putting Rovers back on the football map with his fellow supporters, shedding tears of joy when his and their team lifted the Premier league championship in 1995 and tears of grief when Rovers was relegated in 1999.

Jack Walker, or Uncle Jack as he was to become known as, was a devoted fan who was prepared to dig deep in to his fortune, made from the sale of the family business Walker Steel to British Steel in 1989 in order to revive his beloved Rovers.

He and his brother Fred had built up the Blackburn based sheet metal works, founded by their father, in to the biggest steel stockholders in the world, before they sold it to British Steel, but Jack Walker wasn’t intent on retiring in his tax exile home in Jersey. He diversified in to other businesses and acquired Jersey European Airways, some say this was to ensure a seat for his pilgrimages to Ewood Park.

Even before the sale of Walker Steel, Jack Walker had indicated he was prepared to back the club financially, when in 1986, at the invitation of the then chairman Bill Fox, he donated the funds for The Walker Steel Stand, now known as the Riverside. However it wasn’t until 1991 that Jack Walkers influence on the club was to come into force when he set about completing the modernisation of the stadium and invited the former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish to become Rovers' manager, less than 12 months after Dalglish had resigned from Liverpool.

Although Rovers had flirted with the play offs under Don Mackay, they were still in the old Second Division and Jack Walker’s appointment of the high profile Daglish along with coach Ray Harford was the catalyst to acquiring star players and to getting Rovers promoted in to the proposed new Premier League.

With Jack Walker’s backing, Daglish got Rovers promoted through the play offs in his first season, with Rovers becoming a founder member of the Premier League and within four years, Rovers had won the Premiership title. During this period a new modern stadium had been erected at Ewood and Jack’s millions had enabled Daglish to attract international players such as Alan Shearer, Colin Hendry, Tim Flowers and names that made boyhood dreams come true.

After the Championship and the resignation of Daglish, there was a slow decline in Blackburns success which culminated in their relegation to the First Division in 1999. Yet on that night when the bottom had dropped out of the Rovers supporters world, they still showed their appreciation for Jack Walker as they chanted to a man, woman and child. 'There's only one Jack Walker.'

As the camera’s zoomed in that night, Uncle Jack stood there like every other supporter with tears running down his face.

Regrettably Uncle Jack passed away on the 17th August 2000, missing Rovers full fill his promise of a return to the Premiership the following May. Jack Walker may have put Rovers on a sound financial footing, but more than that he is remembered as Blackburn’s greatest supporter, who once said what every other supporter feels.

"If they don't win then I am bloody miserable on a Sunday."

Jack Walker, who had been suffering from cancer, died on 17 August 2000 at the age of 71, in Jersey where he had lived since 1974.

With the news of his passing away tributes came flooding in from far and wide and the fans contributed towards the statue of Blackburn’s Greatest Supporter that can now be viewed outside the Blackburn End Stand..