Jackie Blanchflower
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | John Blanchflower | ||
| Date of birth | 7 March 1933 | ||
| Place of birth | Belfast, Northern Ireland | ||
| Date of death | 2 September 1998 (aged 65) | ||
| Place of death | Manchester, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||
| Playing position | Half back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1949–1951 | Manchester United | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1951–1958 | Manchester United | 105 | (26) |
| National team | |||
| 1954–1958 | Northern Ireland | 12 | (1) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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John "Jackie" Blanchflower (7 March 1933 – 2 September 1998) was a Northern Irish football player. He graduated from Manchester United's youth system and played for the club on 117 occasions, winning two league titles, before his career was cut short due to injuries sustained in the Munich air disaster. He was also capped 12 times at senior level by Northern Ireland.
He was the younger brother of Danny Blanchflower, the captain of the Tottenham Hotspur side that dominated English football in the early 1960s.
Blanchflower's first appearance in a professional game was for Manchester United on 24 November 1951 against Liverpool, away at Anfield. He became a regular first team player in the 1953–54 season, when he played in 27 out of 42 league games and scored 13 goals as an inside-forward.
He helped the club win the league title in 1956 and again in 1957. Nicknamed "Twiggy" by his teammates, he was renowned for his versatility. He began his career as a left-half before the emergence of Duncan Edwards in this position, when he switched to the forward positions, but the Manchester United manager Matt Busby recognised his intelligent positioning sense and aerial power and chose to play him at centre-half by the 1955-56 season, with John Doherty and Billy Whelan now competing for his former position, although he faced fierce competition for the solitary centre-half place due to the presence of Mark Jones. He covered in goal in the 1957 FA Cup Final while Ray Wood received treatment for an injury suffered in a collision with Peter McParland, who scored both of Aston Villa's goals as United lost 2-1. Blanchflower also played in some of United's first European Cup fixtures.
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