Obituary: Ian Greaves

Jan 5 2009 by Mel Booth, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Ian Greaves, the last man to take Town into the top flight, dies at home aged 76

TRIBUTES have been swift and warm for Ian Greaves, the last manager to guide Huddersfield Town into the top flight of English football, who has died aged 76.

A minute’s applause was held before Town’s League I clash with Oldham Athletic (another of Greaves’s clubs) on Saturday, when his family were in the stands at the invitation of the Galpharm club.

Greaves – who won a Football League Championship (now Premiership) medal and was an FA Cup runner-up in his playing days with Matt Busby’s Manchester United in the 1950s – joined Town as a coach in 1964 and became manager in June 1968. He created one of the best loved Town teams of recent generations, winning the Second Division title in 1969-70 and spending two seasons in the then First Division with international players like Frank Worthington, Trevor Cherry and skipper Jimmy Nicholson.

Son-in-law Gerry Quinn, who was manager of Emley when they went to Wembley in the FA Vase final of 1988, revealed Greaves has struggled with several serious back problems over the last 10 years. He died at home in Ainsworth, near Bury, with his family at his bedside, on Friday – appropriately at 3pm – after deteriorating in the previous fortnight.

“He was such an outgoing, gregarious and larger than life character and it’s a shame that he’s not had the quality of life we would have wanted over the last few years,” said Quinn.

“The back injury which he suffered when he was a player has really plagued him over the last 10 years, he hasn’t been able to play golf and he’s been in a lot of pain really.

“While he’s been poorly for a while, he suffered a sudden downturn in the last couple of weeks, but I know he thought it was great that all the family (he was married to Vera and had grandchildren Paul and Louise) were with him at the end and, obviously, we will all miss him tremendously.

“It was a really nice gesture for Town to invite us all down to the game on Saturday and we were delighted the minute’s applause was so well respected by both sets of fans with his connections to both clubs.”