Walter Winterbottom

Before the advent of Sir Walter Winterbottom’s revolutionary training techniques, people thought great footballers were “born” and not coached. He proved otherwise, as he turned some good footballers into great ones.

Winterbottom was educated at Oldham Grammar School and then Chester Teacher Training College. He played football for the Cheshire League side Mossley when he was spotted by Manchester United and joined them as a centre-half in 1936. He played just 27 games for United before a spinal injury ended his playing career in the 1937/38 season. Having studied at Leeds Carnegie Physical Training College during his time at Old Trafford, Winterbottom became a physical education teacher before joining the Royal Air Force as a wing commander, where he was in charge of physical training for the Air Ministry

After World War II, Winterbottom was appointed the FA’s first director of coaching and also became the England team manager. Despite becoming the only man to lead England to four FIFA World Cup finals during his time at the FA between 1946-62, he did endure some embarrassing moments in the early part of his managerial career. The first was at the 1950 FIFA World Cup when a star-studded England team was beaten 1-0 by the United States. Three years later at Wembley Stadium, England were beaten 6-3 by Hungary’s “Mighty Magyars”. It was England’s first ever defeat on home soil by continental opposition. To make matters worse, when England went to Budapest in May 1954 to try and avenge that defeat, they were thrashed 7-1. Despite those setbacks, Winterbottom won 78 and drew 33 of the 139 matches he was in charge for.

Winterbottom was also in charge of the Great Britain team at the 1952 Stockholm Olympics, but that resulted in another disaster, as they were dumped in the qualifying round by Luxembourg.

After leaving the England job, Winterbottom worked for the Central Council of Physical Education, and was appointed executive director of the Sports Council in 1970, a post he held until his retirement in 1978. In 1985, Winterbottom was appointed chairman of a committee set up to review the development of karate in Great Britain.

Winterbottom was appointed an OBE in 1963, a CBE in 1972, and was knighted for his services to sport in 1978. He was inducted into the Football Association Hall of Fame in 2002.