Walter Crook (28 April 1913 – 27 December 1988) was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and manager.

Career

Playing career

Crook, who played as a full back, played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

and

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

, making a total of 264 appearances. He holds the record for most consecutive Football League appearances by a Blackburn player (208 between 1934 and 1946). Crook also made one wartime international appearance for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1939.

Coaching career

Crook managed Dutch side

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

between 1948 and 1950, and again between 1953 and 1954. He also managed Sparta Rotterdam and English club sides

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete his ...

and

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

Personal life

Walter was born in

Whittle-le-Woods Whittle-le-Woods (commonly shortened to Whittle) is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England. The population of the civil parish at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 5,434. Whittle-le-Woods lie ...

, the son of Jane Parker and Alfred Crook. He was married to Doris Sutcliffe.

References

1913 births 1988 deaths People from Whittle-le-Woods English footballers England wartime international footballers English football managers Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players English Football League players AFC Ajax managers Sparta Rotterdam managers Accrington Stanley F.C. (1891) managers Wigan Athletic F.C. managers English expatriate football managers Association football fullbacks English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands {{England-footy-manager-stub