Needless to say, the whole country and a good portion of the 100,000 fans packed into Wembley that day were behind the battered and bruised Manchester side. RIP Nat Lofthouse. These cookies do not store any personal information. My body became firmer and harder. The statue's pose was chosen by the club's fans as well as Nat Lofthouse's surviving family. Despite this, England won the game in a hostile country despite suffering physical battering. The next season, on Dec. 6, 1947 Nat Lofthouse married the love of his life, Alma Foster, to whom he would remain married until her death in 1986. The performance certainly cemented Nats place as Englands number nine and six goals for the Football League against the Irish League further underlined it. Pic courtesy of Mirrorpix. Two players were so injured they were never able to take to the football pitch again, and the final player, goalkeeper Ray Wood, was still recovering from injuries sustained. He later served as chief scout, caretaker manager, executive manager and as the clubs president from 1986. The Bolton boys launched another attack, ending with a Ray Parry shot on goal. Having played his first organised game as an emergency goalkeeper for his older brothers school team, conceding seven times and upsetting his Mum by playing in a new pair of shoes (he would later redeem himself by cleaning them as good as new), he quickly moved into attack his more natural position, due to his size, and established himself as the star centre forward for Castle Hill school. Quick off the mark, an ability to shoot with either foot, with strength and agility in the air an innate ability to be in the right place at the right time. Soon after Lofthouse's death a swell of support for a statue to be built in his memory started. Nathaniel Lofthouse OBE (27 August 1925 15 January 2011) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward for Bolton Wanderers for his entire career. A forceful player, he combined physical strength with a powerful shot in either foot or a strong header. [5], On 7 April 1993, he appeared as a special guest on the TV guest show This Is Your Life, in which the on-screen guests included Tom Finney and Harry Gregg, while others including Bobby Charlton, Gary Lineker and Ian Rush appeared on screen to pay tribute to Lofthouse as they were unable to appear alongside Lofthouse due to other commitments. Its capital cities, Berlin and Vienna, were also divided into four by the four Allied Powers (Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France). Like many aspiring youngsters one of Nats early jobs at the club was cleaning the boots of the senior pros and he always paid special attention to those of star forward Ray Westwood, one of the players he had cheered from the sideline when a star-struck spectator. He really was the complete centre-forward. In the 16 international matches played since November 1949, 10 have been won, and only two have been lost.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'historyofsoccer_info-medrectangle-4','ezslot_5',182,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-historyofsoccer_info-medrectangle-4-0'); From Englands perspective, it was necessary to note that Austria had defeated Scotland twice during this run and achieved a 2-2 draw at Wembley. Disappointing loss aside, Lofthouse scored the first goal of the match just 75 seconds in, meaning he scored in every round of the competition that season. He hit the ground before the ball went over the line, knocked out cold for one of the most famous goals of his career. By 1942, all males in the United Kingdom aged 18-51 (with a few exceptions) were eligible to be conscripted by the government into wartime service. The youngest of four sons, Nathaniel Lofthouse was born in Bolton on 27 August 1925. In 1953, it all came together. Our vision is to provide everyone in the world with a free and open-access education about the history of soccer with our online content compilation. To open the scoring, he swiveled on his right foot and hit a volley with his left foot. The stands were filled with British troops, who had remained stationed throughout Austria in the aftermath of the war. [3] Shoulder charging the goalkeeper was a legitimate tactic at the time, but Lofthouse later admitted that his challenge was a foul. A single man did not give up. Tensions between the two countries were still high politically, and this showed in the stands and on the pitch. Lofthouse once said of the Preston Plumber; He was that good he could cross the ball making sure the laces were facing away from my head.. His very style of football embodied Bolton, an appreciation for power alongside skill which is still part of the club today. Sculptor Sean Hedges Quinn will depict the captain leading his team onto the pitch and will be emblazoned with Nat's final words: "I've got the ball now, it's a bit worn, but I've got it.". He was the club's top scorer in 11 out of the 13 seasons between 1946-47 and 1958-59, with his highest tally in a season resting at 35 goals, attained in that final season of 1958-59. Lofthouse was consistently self-deprecating about his abilities his favourite maxim, borrowed from one of his coaches at Bolton, was that all he could do was run, shoot, and head but it slowly became apparent that by doing all three with a sort of relentless, irresistible energy, he needed little else. Around 200 fans stormed the pitch after the final whistle sounded, creating a fantastic scene. You just say Nat. Bolton were 3-1 up with just 22 minutes to go but their opponents, inspired by Stanley Matthews, stormed back to win 4-3. For a time it appeared that he might not re-sign with the club for the 1957-58 season but he eventually relented and stayed at Burnden Park. Unfortunately, Bolton were not able to right their sinking ship under the Lion of Vienna and at the end of the 1970-71 season (after Lofthouse had left the post), Bolton were in 22nd place and relegated to the Third Division (an all-time low until the 1987-1988 season). The evening of Saturday, 15 January 2011, Nat Lofthouse passed away at the Bolton nursing home. It was there that the conversation that would change his life forever took place. Everyone left with a scar or bruise.. NAT Lofthouse, one of the most famous of all Boltonians and the town's best-loved sporting son, has died at the age of 85. Lofthouse is rightly remembered as the archetypal one-club man, but to call him that is to do him a disservice. Half a century after Victory in Europe Day (VE Day), they were finally recognized as contributors to the war effort by Queen Elizabeth II. In July 1961, Lofthouse accepted a boot cleaner and assistant trainer position at Burnden Park. A year ago today, Bolton Wanderers announced plans to immortalize the Lion of Vienna with a statue in front of the Reebok Stadium. And so with that barge, Lofthouse won Bolton's fourth, and final to date, FA Cup, famously proud of his "110 team" that cost no more than each player's signing-on fee. An estimated crowd of 85,000 turned up at Burnden Park with fans climbing in after the gates had been shut. [12], Lofthouse died on 15 January 2011, aged 85, in a nursing home in Bolton. Speaking at Nat's "This Is Your Life" show, Bolton Wanderers' commercial manager at the time, Alf Davies shared just how crucial Nat Lofthouse's presence at the club was: "In 1982, we hit on some hard times and in 1982, we had just six weeks to live before the bank called time on our activities. Nat had the opportunity to take over as the licensee of the Castle Hill Hotel in the town and was keen to do so. When the goalkeeper tried to give Lofthouse the money for his pint, Lofthouse refused. After failing to score in the win over Scotland at Hampden the centre forward went on Englands 1952 summer tour. Lofthouse had made his Wanderers debut back in 1941 aged 15, scoring. Now they faced Austria, one of the worlds best teams, and one who had seriously threatened Englands precious unbeaten record at home to continental teams just one year before. All the while, he kept scoring for his country as well as for his club, finishing on an incredible 30 goals in 33 caps and taking the record as the national teams all-time top goalscorer jointly with Finney. A typical Saturday for Lofthouse involved getting up at 3.30am, catching the 4.30am tram to work, and working down the pit for 8 hours before the team bus took him to the match. (Subs) Franz Pelikan, Stotz, Koller, Dekkerif(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'historyofsoccer_info-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_11',185,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-historyofsoccer_info-large-leaderboard-2-0'); Gilbert Merrick, Alf Ramsey, William Eckersley, William Wright, Jack Froggatt, James Dickinson, Tom Finney, John Sewell, Nat Lofthouse, Edward Baily, William Elliott. The Lion of Vienna sleeps. A one-club man, he played over 400 games for Bolton Wanderers and earned 33 caps for England (as well as his famous nickname). He wasn't part of an illustrious academy early on, like those you see in the modern game. Please tick if you would like to receive information in this way. On 1 January 1994, he was appointed an OBE and on 18 January 1997, Bolton decided to name their East Stand at their new Reebok Stadium after him. Nat Lofthouse scored his last goal for the Three Lions on Oct. 22, 1958 in a 5-1 win over the USSR. he said to me always try to bang in one or two and remember, its goals that count. If that wasnt pressure enough, thousands of Tommies stationed in Vienna had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of their heroes for months, with many staking weeks of wages on the dim chance of an England win. In 1985, at the age of 60, Lofthouse became caretaker manager at the club again and became president in 1986. Ultimately, the Hungarians cruelly exposed Englands insecurities in May 1954 and November 1953 against Continental opposition. It was a typical Bolton team, and they won in a typical Bolton fashion: the measured combination of a bit of skill with a healthy helping of muscle. The plan was for the statue to be funded by public donations, with help from the club. Before becoming Bolton's chief scout, he became an administrative manager at Burnden. We are a registered charity; In the 83rd minute, Tom Finney tapped the ball to Lofthouse on the halfway line. On the morning of Saturday 6 December 1947 he married Alma Foster and in the afternoon scored twice as Wanderers beat Wolves 3-2. There is no doubt he gave everything to his club, and to the game. Bolton's new number 9, Eoin Doyle, whilst playing for League Two side Swindon last season. It was important not to strike the ball too soon. For England, the Austria game provided two firsts. Lofthouse had thunderous, crashing shots, coupled with a burning desire to get in the right place to unleash them. At the age of 11 in 1936, Lofthouse tagged along with one of his brothers to watch his older sibling play for the school that they both attended, Castle Hill. Yet, Lofthouse loved being on the field and was going to take every opportunity he had. With no club having shown an interest and his days of regular organised football coming to an end, it appeared that any chance he had of making it as a professional was over, before one of his final days at school where he was to be commended at the annual prize-giving ceremony. HE was nicknamed the Lion of Vienna. Lion Of Vienna Suite, a Bolton Wanderers community. Nat was always a big boy and because of that, often found himself in goal, acting as the last line of defense for whatever ragtag side he found himself playing on. Prior to Lofthouses arrival on the scene Wanderers had relied on former Spurs star George Hunt for the majority of their goals. Lofthouse is rightly remembered as the archetypal one-club man, but to call him that is to do him a disservice. Sources: Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, The Times, Daily Mirror, The Guardian, Daily Herald; Nat Lofthouse, Goals Galore, Nat Lofthouse. How many goals in total did Lofthouse score in the 33 matches he played for England? In response to penalty appeals, the referee awarded a corner. He scored a goal but was on the losing side in the famous 1953 FA Cup Final (aka 'The Matthews Final'), having previously scored in each round. The phrase Lion of Vienna will be forever associated with Lofthouse. Nat charged forward with the ball, in typical Lofthouse fashion receiving an elbow in the face and a tackle from behind. When remembering the menial jobs he was tasked with as youth team coach following his retirement, he reflected that they meant I could stay with Bolton Wanderers. The paradigm that would come to define a golden era in the history of one of Englands oldest clubs was now set in stone. When they won a late corner, they flooded forward, leaving Lofthouse alone with a single marker on the halfway line. Bolton Wanderers Beat Manchester United at Wembley: Bolton players chair their Captain and hero Nat Lofthouse with the cup, at the end of the match. It was a friendly against the old Yugoslavia, with Nat scoring both England goals in a 2-all draw. [10] He married Alma Foster in 1947 and they remained married until her death in 1985. [11] They had two children, a son, Jeff, and a daughter, Vivien. In addition to their colorful rosettes, red, white, and blue rattles, and chants of England, they instilled a carnival atmosphere around the stadium, evoking the atmosphere associated with an FA Cup match. As it transpired, Nats first day reporting to Burnden Park in 1939 was also Britains first full day at war with Germany. Caps:33 (30 goals) After a 2-0 away win at the Victoria Ground where Ray Westwood bagged both goals the second leg was played seven days later and tragedy struck. . That changed in the 1952-53 season. However, partially due to this, Nat Lofthouse did not always experience the utter adoration of the fans. In doing so he was elbowed in the face, tackled from behind, and finally brought down by the goalkeeper. Nat Lofthouse began playing football as a very young boy. Speaking as a Bolton Wanderers player, I must say we get the best of everything. please support us. Having seen off Blackburn Rovers, Liverpool and Middlesbrough, Bolton were drawn to play Stoke City Stanley Matthews and all in the two-legged quarter final. Nat was discovered by James Entwistle, the Mayor of Bolton at the time. From an early age, however, it was clear that as long as he or one of the neighbouring children had something approximating a ball, he felt natural and content. There was a tense atmosphere in both countries in 1952 when memories of recent misfortunes were mixed with a present sense of injustice and a zeal for spiritual and national renewal. He grew up without much in the way of material comforts; his first sight of Bolton Wanderers came after shinning up a drain pipe at the clubs Burnden Park home rather than paying the threepence for schoolboy admission. The key to his appeal, beyond his fantastic abilities on the pitch, was his humility. Lofthouse was chosen to represent Bolton schools against Bury. Not long after his retirement from football, Nat took control of the Castle Pub on Tonge Moor Road in Bolton. In the 11th minute, Melchior hit Eckersley with a shot that struck his arm. Lofthouse was a one-club centre-forward who dedicated his life to Bolton Wanderers. Any hopes of the Three Lions traditional end-of-season tour being a relatively sedate one had been dashed in their opening game, a frustrating 1-1 draw in Florence in which Englands Italian opponents had resorted to the dark arts on more than one occasion. Retiring from playing in 1960, he was made a President of Bolton Wanderers in 1986, a post he held until his death in 2011. I learnt to take hard knocks without feeling them. And, by today's standards, Nat Lofthouse would make his modern day equivalents look like little kittens. During his playing career, Nat Lofthouse was deservedly celebrated for his numerous on-pitch achievements. He started his countrys next 12 internationals scoring 13 times. As far as Englands league goalscorers are concerned, Nat Lofthouse is 37th all-time. He said: I would have an hour or two off to receive coaching from George and firmly believe that these private coaching sessions played a big part in my advancement. During the game, Nat was told to play in net, and being the kind of child that relished the opportunity to get on the field, didn't complain. The Lion of Vienna With the war over, the legendary Nat Lofthouse was finally able to start his career officially. He had been clattered by a defender as he shot and was carried from the field. There have been many claims that Lofthouse and Tommy Lawton went to the same school but in fact Lawton went to nearby Folds Road. Nat Lofthouse, the battering ram with a shrewd brain and heart of lion A one-club man to his boots, the Bolton and England striker dubbed the Tank by the Austrians, was a giant of the game. In 2003, Nat Lofthouse retired from Bolton Wanderers for a second time. This was the first time the team played behind the Iron Curtain, and it was also the first peacetime match in Continental Europe with a significant away following.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'historyofsoccer_info-box-4','ezslot_8',183,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-historyofsoccer_info-box-4-0'); As many as 1,400 tickets were assigned to British troops, although many more were obtained through the black market. The great Nat Lofthouse was born to humble beginnings on the 27th of August, 1925 to Richard and Sarah Lofthouse. Lofthouse, battered and semi-conscious, was taken from the field but returned as a passenger minutes later, still proving fit enough to shoot an effort 30 yards into the goal. In his 1999 book, Bolton Wanderers, Dean Hayes illustrated what a typical day looked like for Lofthouse: "Bevin Boy Lofthouse's Saturdays went like this: up at 3.30 a.m., catching the 4.30 tram to work; eight hours down the pit pushing tubs; collected by the team coach; playing for Bolton. Thompson would later write: I came away with the impression that Lofthouse was game and persistent, a fine footballer, but not quite an England leader. In a rare show of off-field bullishness, Lofthouse later remembered that he made it his sole purpose to make one particular writer eat his words even if he choked. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. The project, funded by the people of Bolton and fans of the club, is due to be completed on August 27, 2013, or what would have been Lofthouse's 88th birthday. That was the last moment of real glory for Lofthouse's playing career, and for Bolton as well. Read |Sir Stanley Matthews and the story of Englands humble wizard. The goal he scored when coming on as substitute for the injured Tommy Taylor against Finland in Helsinki was the 29th for his country taking him past Steve Bloomer as Englands all-time leading scorer. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The 1958-59 campaign provided a final high point in Lofthouses international career. Lofthouse was at his imperious best, plundering goals at a rate that even the sportswriters who had grown up watching the likes of, The England camp was tense as dawn broke in Vienna, Austria, on the morning of 25 May 1952. [3] There was a national wave of sympathy for United, who three months earlier had suffered grievously in the Munich air disaster. The first game finished 1-1 in Italy where Ivor Broadis got Englands goal and then came the match which earned that Lion of Vienna nickname. In September 1952, Nat Lofthouse scored six goals in an interleague game against the Irish League. That's the two words that go together and the thing about Nat was, as well, that you don't need to put his surname there, do you? Nats prolific strike rate in the war leagues left Wanderers in little doubt as to his abilities, but the cessation of the conflict and resumption of the football league ushered in a tough period of acclimatisation for club and player. Bolton won the game 20 with Lofthouse scoring both goals, the second of which was highly controversial and remains a talking point to this day. As he regretted later, I never saw the ball enter the Austrian net for the goal of my life.. Lofthouse was witness to a Bolton Wanderers golden age of top flight success throughout the 1930s and although the Trotters won three FA Cups in Nat's life time, he was too young to witness the 1926 and 1929 wins over Manchester City and Portsmouth. Friendly internationals then held an importance that has now all but vanished, and Lofthouse's winning goal, in a 3-2 victory against a powerful team, was lauded to the . By Henry Winter 16 January 2011 8:10pm They did not have a particularly tough path to Wembley facing mostly Division 2 and 3 sides, although they did knockout Division 1 champions of that season Wolverhampton in the quarter finals. In the swing of things and in its heyday, the stadium could hold up to 70,000 people (albeit in close quarters) so one boy without a ticket would not be easily noticed. The 285 goals he scored between 1946 and 1961 still make him Boltons top goalscorer. He ran a pub for a while, whilst still coaching at his one and only club but the lure of football proved too great. [7] A campaign, backed by Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association and former Bolton player, was started, aiming to get Lofthouse knighted. It was a close match, and neither side was shy about using force, a game far away from today's well-regulated affairs. It was much like the story told about the war that had now ended they were battered and bruised but had come out on top. He featured in the 1954 World Cup side. The United lost emotion on the whole game at the end. In the following Sundays game with Austria, England was widely considered as an underdog. Pushing the tubs made me fitter than I had ever been before. ], On 3 May 1958, almost five years to the day after losing the 1953 final, Lofthouse captained Bolton in the 1958 FA Cup Final against Manchester United. His devotion to Alma was matched only by his love of Bolton, and true to form, that Saturday Nat got married in the morning then played football in the afternoon at Burnden Park. Why was Nat Lofthouse called the Lion of Vienna? If anything, this inspired a more violent second half, with both sides desperate for a meaningful win. 16 January 2011 #1. Long after his star had ascended, he could still be found riding the bus from his nearby home to Burnden Park, delighting in surprising fans who were discussing his performances on the pitch unbeknownst of his presence. Following his first go at managing the club, Lofthouse took an administrative manager role at Burnden Park before being appointed as the club's chief scout. Even after he was conscripted to work in the nightmarish Lancashire coal pits as part of the war effort (many miners volunteered for the Armed Forces in large part to escape the agonising, doom-laden drudgery of their vocation), he could still consistently put opposition defences to the sword with a combination of rugged, raw power, superb aerial ability and a remarkable fearlessness. Despite that flirtation with a move to Spurs (they came back in for him a second time in 1954 but were again rebuffed) and an audacious attempt by Fiorentina to take him to Italy, Lofthouse remained a one-club man.