TWIH: Jack Bowers Remembered

77 years ago this week, Jack Bowers scored in a League Division Two game against Bury.  What made this remarkable was the context within which this goal was scored.

As well as scoring against Bury, Jack scored in every other League and Cup game that month amassing six goals in five games.

Before that, following his transfer from Derby in November 1936, Jack had scored 14 goals in his first 11 games.  During this run, he scored twice in four games in succession followed by a hat trick in the fifth.    

What is even more remarkable is the impact his goals had on Leicester City’s season.

Jack was signed from Derby County for £7,500 by Leicester City’s new manager Frank Womack.

Frank, who had played over 550 games for Birmingham City, replaced Leicester’s previous manager Arthur Lochhead in October 1936.  During the four previous seasons, Frank had taken Grimsby Town from the depths of the old Second Division to an improbable 5th position in the top flight, so it was not surprising that Leicester City, who had been relegated in 1935, were interested in appointing him as their new manager.

When he arrived at Filbert Street, the Club were worried about relegation from the old Second Division as they were very near the bottom of the table.

However, Frank’s impact was immediate and phenomenal.

This was because, as well as signing Jack Bowers, he quickly signed Nottingham Forest’s left-winger Eric Stubbs (Leicester City’s only centenarion who died aged 100 in 2013).

Shortly before his one hundredth birthday, Eric talked to me about Jack.

He said: “Jack Bowers and I were quite friendly. Jack and I shacked up together when we travelled. We were two strangers coming to the Club at the same time

“When I arrived at Leicester they weren’t doing well, but we popped in a few goals and we gradually climbed to the top. We just got a crowd of players together who hit it off. The manager (Frank Womack) did well to build a winning team. It was a good club. The Directors were always good to the players, offering them £10-£20 for a win! We should only have had £2! The Directors gave us this extra money to encourage us.

“I was playing on the left wing. I put in a lot of crosses and Jack scored a lot of goals. We played to instructions. Outside right Danny Liddle would put the ball to the corner flag, and I swung crosses into the box. Jack, a big fellow, was at the far post, and bang....the ball and the goalkeeper would be in the back of the net! Three quick movements before their defence had time to recover. Danny Liddle was a real character in the Club. He was a comical Scotsman.”

Scunthorpe-born Jack had played for Derby County between 1928 and 1936. During that time he had been the First Division’s top scorer on three occasions. He was selected for the Football League and for England for whom he scored two goals (against Ireland and Scotland) in his three internationals.

He then suffered a serious knee injury. However, he still scored 12 goals for the Rams in the 1936/37 season before he signed for Leicester City.

A few years ago, I received a letter of an elderly gentleman called Bil Warner who well remembered the arrival of Frank Womack and Jack Bowers.

He wrote,

“Frank arrived late for his first match at Filbert Street, when the score was 0-0 in a game against Coventry City. Leicester won that game 1-0 and then went an unbeaten run of eleven games; a run that included six successive wins, until this run was ended in a 6-2 defeat at Blackpool on Boxing Day. Jack was the best header of the ball  I had ever seen other than the legendary Dixie Dean who had scored an incredible 60 goals for Everton in 1927/28, 40 of them with his head. Signing Jack was Frank Womack’s greatest achievement.

“Initially, the fans hadn’t expected much from Jack because of his suspect leg. The feeling was that he had been signed as a stopgap on the understanding that a younger and fitter man would replace him. This wasn’t to be. With many crosses provided by Eric Stubbs Jack added to his 12 goals for Derby earlier in the season by scoring an amazing 33 goals for Leicester in the 27 games left after he signed. His seasonal haul for Leicester included six braces, two hat-tricks and a four-goal spree against Burnley. When he scored two goals against Tottenham Hotspur at Filbert Street, in the last game of the season, Leicester finally made it to the top of the table, finishing Champions of the Division.

“The following season the Directors did not come up with the money to replace the veteran Bowers who soldiered on.  However, he still managed to score 19 goals in 52 games before Leicester were relegated again four months before the outbreak of ther Second World War.”

Jack’s scoring feats 77 years ago propelled the Club from the bottom end of the table to the top.

On the eve of Friday’s top-of-the-table clash against the Rams Jack’s goals remind us that, along with Peter Shilton and the incomparable Johnny Morris, he is one of that exclusive group of players who can be claimed as one of their true stars by both Derby County and Leicester City.

Pics:

Lead: Jack Bowers playing golf with Leicester City team mates

1. Jack Bowers

2. Frank Womack

3. Eric Stubbs

4. Jack Bowers (second from the left, middle row) in the 1937 title-winning team