With Darragh Lenihan heading for Middlesbrough and Ryan Nyambe on his way out of Ewood this summer; also lost is the possibility of those players spending their whole careers with Rovers.

The two defenders have made 252 and 201 appearances respectively for the club, although Lenihan also had a short loan spell with Burton Albion in 2014/15, which arguably would have excluded him from a true one-club list anyway. Lewis Travis will lead the way next season on 154 appearances in terms of remaining potential “one-club men”.

In the eyes of the truly dedicated supporters, the one-club man is probably the most revered. It is the ultimate Badge of Honour, combining loyalty and longevity bonded together with a huge slice of talent. In fact, this rare breed is a mirror image of the best type of supporter, always there through thick and thin, in sickness and health etc.

So having decided to research what I assumed would be a substantial number of players fitting this category, I sat down with pen and a new notepad. Hours later, I realised that the back of a postage stamp could have easily replaced the pad because only one name was written down. And that had slightly dubious legitimacy, although he is arguably the greatest name in the history of this great club.

I had originally set the bar for a one club man at joining from school, playing for a whole career and retiring, having completed a couple of hundred or so games at minimum. Bob Crompton joined the club at 16, played 530 games and apart from the 1915-16 season where he captained Blackpool because the Rovers opted not to play in the Wartime Regional League, he never played anywhere else as an adult. Fortunately wartime games are classified as unofficial, so he is the one certainty.

Prior to studying the facts and figures, I thought the likes of Ronnie Clayton and Bryan Douglas would have immediately qualified, but I forgot the former played for Morecambe and then Great Harwood on release from the Rovers and Duggie also turned out at Harwood.

I even suspected that the likes of Derek Fazackerley and Stuart Metcalfe would have been there, again forgetting that Faz had played as a pro at Chester City, York City and Bury with even a stint at Kuusankosken Kumu in Finland’s Premier League, adding another 113 games to his gargantuan record-shattering haul of 596 in Blackburn. It had also slipped my mind that Mecky had played a season at Carlisle United on first leaving the Rovers at the age of 30.

And surely the great Jimmy Forrest, England’s first ever professional international, a Blackburner through and through, must never have left his beloved club for another. But not so, he played his final season at Darwen in Division 2.

I then decided to change the criteria for inclusion. Now it is never having played a game for a professional club prior to joining, starting at least 100 games (the total being lowered to accommodate those from the early years when there were far fewer games per season) and only playing non-league football or retiring from the game on being released.

Name	Dates	From	To	Games	Goals	Caps
Nat Walton	1884–93	Witton	Nelson	110	37	1
Harry Chippendale	1891–97	Nelson	Retired	134	50	1
Bob Crompton	1896–1920	Local Football	Retired	529	14	41
Sam McClure	1899–1906	Black Diamonds	Died	144	12	-
Arnold Whittaker	1899–1908	Accrington Stanley	Accrington Stanley	250	57	-
Billy Bradshaw	1903–20	Accrington Stanley	Rochdale	386	36	4
Arthur Cowell	1905–20	Nelson	Retired	279	0	1
Eddie Latheron	1906–17	Grangetown Athletic	Killed	256	94	2
Harry Healless	1915–33	Local football	Retired	360	12	2
Arnold Whiteside	1932–49	Junior football	Wigan Athletic	218	3	-
Eric Bell	1945–57	Blythe Shipyard	Retired	323	9	-
Bill Eckersley	1947–61	Local football	Retired	406	20	17
Ronnie Clayton	1949–69	School	Morecambe	581	15	35
Ken Taylor	1950–64	North Shields	Morecambe	200	0	-
Bryan Douglas	1952–69	Ground Staff	Gt Harwood	438	101	36
Tony Parkes	1970–82	Buxton Town	Retired	350	38	-

The list contains some famous names in terms of post-war English football at Ewood Park. Douglas and Clayton are the stand-out Rovers players since the Second World War (along with Alan Shearer). Other English internationals are three one-cap men who all coincidentally achieved the honour against Ireland, the inside forward Walton, the goalscoring right winger Chippendale, and Crompton’s full back partner Cowell.

Bradshaw, an attacking wing half, was a member of the two title winning sides of 1912 and 1914 alongside Latheron, a fluent inside forward who was killed at the peak of his career at the battle of Passchendaele. Harry Healless captained the 1928 FA Cup winning side from right half and Bill Eckersley was England’s regular international full back, a member of the 1950 World Cup squad. The Cumbrian-born centre half Sam McClure never played international football but he died tragically. An ear infection spread to his brain, causing his death at the age of 28.

The remaining five may go down in the annals of football history as journeymen professionals, but they all made massive contributions to the club. Whittaker, who was at the then non-league Accrington Stanley pre- and post-Rovers, was a right winger who loved to score goals and Whiteside, who finally moved on to the top Lancashire Combination side Wigan Athletic, was an integral part of blue and white line-ups at wing half for so long in a career massively interrupted by World War 2. Bell was also a wing half, a Northumbrian who came south to carve out a long and successful career. There was always competition for the right back slot throughout the fifties and early sixties from the likes of Gray, Suart, Smith, Bray, Whelan and Newton, but Taylor, another with a Geordie accent, hung around long enough to make 200 appearances.

Finally, what do I say about Tony Parkes. He arrived from Buxton in the Northern Prem as a goalscoring inside forward, but made his name as Metcalfe’s midfield partner throughout the seventies. A master of keeping possession of the ball, he then became one of the country’s greatest temporary managers. It speaks volumes that in spite of rescuing the club on six separate occasions, he was always overlooked when a permanent appointment was made. He finally left the Rovers 34 years after arriving, when Mark Hughes brought in his own backroom staff in 2004/05.

It is 40 years since Tony was forced to retire from playing because of a career-ending injury and since that time there has been no other one-club man at Ewood Park. The reasons are multivarious. Much more social mobility, often caused by car ownership and improved transport systems generally have impacted on all areas of life since then. There are footballing reasons such as the increased size of squads, industrial legislation such as the Bosman Ruling, much shorter contracts and loans and let us not forget the greed of agents. Each time one of their clients makes a move, their bank balance increases.

Michael Hodkinson is the author of the book ‘No Nay Never’, celebrating the Rovers v Burnley rivalry.

No matches found...