 Rowley in 1963 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | John Frederick Rowley | ||
| Date of birth | (1918-10-07)7 October 1918[1][2] | ||
| Place of birth | Wolverhampton, England | ||
| Date of death | 28 June 1998(1998-06-28) (aged 79) | ||
| Place of death | Shaw and Crompton, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||
| Position | Forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Wolverhampton Wanderers | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1935–1937 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 0 | (0) |
| 1936 | →Cradley Heath (loan) | ||
| 1937 | Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic | 22 | (12) |
| 1937–1954 | Manchester United | 380 | (182) |
| 1954–1957 | Plymouth Argyle | 56 | (14) |
| Total | 458 | (208) | |
| International career | |||
| 1948–1952 | England | 6 | (6) |
| 1949 | England B | 1 | (3) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1955–1960 | Plymouth Argyle | ||
| 1960–1963 | Oldham Athletic | ||
| 1963–1964 | Ajax | ||
| 1966–1967 | Wrexham | ||
| 1967–1968 | Bradford Park Avenue | ||
| 1968–1969 | Oldham Athletic | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
John Frederick Rowley (7 October 1918 – 28 June 1998) was an Englishfootballer who played as aforward from the 1930s to the 1950s, mainly remembered for a 17-year spell withManchester United. He was nicknamed "The Gunner" because of his prolific goalscoring and explosive shooting, scoring 211 goals in 424 appearances for United. His younger brother,Arthur, still holds the record for the highest number of career goals scored inthe Football League with 434.
Rowley started his professional career in 1935 withWolverhampton Wanderers, although he never found a place in the first team. He soon moved on toBirmingham & District League clubCradley Heath, from where, in February 1937, he signed forBournemouth & Boscombe Athletic,[3] scoring ten goals in his first 11 games. His talent soon brought him to the attention of larger clubs and Rowley was purchased eight months later byManchester United for £3,000. Still only 17, his debut for the club came on 23 October 1937 againstSheffield Wednesday. In his second game, he scored four goals againstSwansea Town. By the time senior football was suspended due to the outbreak ofWorld War II in September 1939, he had played 58 times for United, scoring 18 goals and helping them win promotion back to theFirst Division in his first season.
Initially bought as anoutside left, he was to develop into a highly effective centre-forward inMatt Busby's first United team. He was part of the team that won theFA Cup in 1948, scoring two goals in thefinal, and the1951–52 Football League. He became one of the club's few players to have scored five goals in a single game, when in February 1949 he scored five goals in an 8–0 win overYeovil Town in anFA Cup tie.
Rowley is one of only four players in the history of Manchester United to score over 200 goals for the club, the others beingBobby Charlton,Denis Law andWayne Rooney. He left the club in 1955 to become player–manager ofPlymouth Argyle.[4]
He later went on to manageOldham Athletic, gaining promotion to the Third Division in 1963. From there, he went on to manage Dutch clubAjax for the 1963–64 season, before returning to Britain to manageWrexham andBradford (Park Avenue) F.C., followed by a second spell at Oldham, where he finished his managerial career in December 1969.
Rowley was also capped six times for England scoring six goals, four of which came against Northern Ireland on 16 November 1949
Rowley died in June 1998, at the age of 79.
| Club | Season | League | FA Cup | Other[5] | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic | 1936–37 | ||||||||
| 1937–38 | |||||||||
| Total | 22 | 12 | 22 | 12 | |||||
| Manchester United | 1937–38 | 29 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 9 |
| 1938–39 | 38 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 10 | |
| 1945–46 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | |
| 1946–47 | 37 | 26 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 28 | |
| 1947–48 | 39 | 23 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 28 | |
| 1948–49 | 39 | 20 | 8 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 48 | 30 | |
| 1949–50 | 39 | 20 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 23 | |
| 1950–51 | 39 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 15 | |
| 1951–52 | 40 | 30 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 30 | |
| 1952–53 | 26 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 31 | 16 | |
| 1953–54 | 36 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 12 | |
| 1954–55 | 22 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 8 | |
| Total | 380 | 182 | 42 | 26 | 2 | 3 | 424 | 211 | |
| Plymouth Argyle | 1954–55 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 2 |
| 1955–56 | 16 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 6 | |
| 1956–57 | 27 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 7 | |
| Total | 56 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 15 | |
| Career total | 458 | 208 | 44 | 27 | 2 | 3 | 504 | 238 | |
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Plymouth Argyle |  | February 1955 | March 1960 | 238 | 93 | 52 | 93 | 39.08 |
| Oldham Athletic | | July 1960 | May 1963 | 151 | 66 | 33 | 52 | 43.71 |
| Ajax |  | 1963 | 1964 | |||||
| Wrexham |  | January 1966 | April 1967 | 58 | 19 | 22 | 17 | 32.76 |
| Bradford Park Avenue | | March 1967 | September 1968 | |||||
| Oldham Athletic | | October 1968 | December 1969 | 57 | 16 | 14 | 27 | 28.07 |
Manchester United
Plymouth Argyle
Oldham Athletic
Not born in 1920, as stated in many history books.
Bournemouth had a new outside right, Redfern, from Cradley Heath, in place of Jones. Rowley, also signed from Cradley Heath during the week, was on the left wing.