Jack of the Rovers

Walker: Took Blackburn to the Premiership

Jack Walker was every football supporters' ideal club owner. A devoted fan, prepared to put his hand in his very deep pocket to achieve success.

He made his fortune from the sale of the family steelworks in Blackburn.

Jack and brother Fred built up the family steel business

He and his brother Fred had built it up from the sheetmetal works founded by his father.

They sold it to British steel in 1989 for £330 million and Jack Walker diversified by buying Jersey European Airlines and acquiring various property interests.

From his tax exile home in Jersey, Jack Walker made plans for his enormous wealth.

The football club he loved, Blackburn Rovers, whom he had supported as a boy, was in a sorry state. It had not won a championship trophy since 1914.

Celebrating Premiership victory with Alan Shearer

In 1986, at the invitation of the then chairman Bill Fox, Jack Walker donated the funds for a new stand at the dilapidated Ewood Park. The WalkerSteel Stand duly rose. Then, in 1991, Jack Walker took the club over.

He set about completing the modernisation of the stadium and invited Kenny Dalglish to become Rovers' manager only eight months after he had left Liverpool.

Millions for the club

He put millions at the Scotsman's disposal and enabled him to buy such stars as Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton. Within four years, Blackburn had won the Premiership title, and Jack Walker's dreams had been realised.

But even Jack Walker's millions could not sustain success. Blackburn may have been rich, but they were not a big club, seldom attracting enough support to fill Ewood Park.

As the invasion of foreign players began, the lure of this small Lancashire industrial town was insufficient to attract the best. Even nearby Burnley has a bigger population and fan base.

Tears well as he watches his tean return to Division One

Under coach Roy Hodgson, team results began to decline. The gamble of appointing Brian Kidd as his successor, his first foray into managership, did not pay off.

As Blackburn faced a crucial relegation battle in 1999, he took the unusual step of walking on to the pitch with a microphone and exhorting the home fans to get behind their team.

But it did not work and tears welled in his eyes as he saw the team he had built go back to Division One. Nevertheless, Jack Walker put Blackburn Rovers on a sound financial footing and that legacy promises to live on.

His commitment to the club never wavered and he once explained how important it was to him: "You have to get pleasure out of it," he said. "It has put Blackburn back on the up and shown that if you believe in things they can be done.

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