Jack Walker
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- For other people, see Jack Walker (disambiguation)
Jack Walker (19 May 1929 - 17 August 2000) was an industrialist from Blackburn, Lancashire. Making a fortune in the steel industry, Walker's name is popularly associated with Blackburn Rovers, the local football club in which he invested tens of millions of pounds.
Leaving school at 14, Walker worked as a sheet metal worker and a conscript craftsman in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers before taking over the family business with his brother, Fred Walker. Together, they transformed the business into a steel stockholding concern, which, in 1990, Walker sold to British Steel for £360m, before retiring to St Helier, Jersey.
Rises in the fortunes of Blackburn Rovers attributed to Walker include the redevelopment of the club's stadium, Ewood Park, persuading Kenny Dalglish to come out of retirement to manage Blackburn in 1991 and twice breaking the British record for the most expensive transfer of a football player, signing Alan Shearer from Southampton for £3.3m in 1992 and Chris Sutton from Norwich for £5m in 1994. And in the 1994-95 season, Blackburn Rovers won the Premiership title.
