I used to steal the Soccer Star, a football magazine with pictures and stories about the teams and players of the day, when I was a young lad. The title “Quicksilver Eddie Quigley” made my friends and I giggle since, although Eddie had many qualities, “quicksilver” may not have been one of them. There was a picture of Eddie Quigley in one issue, with the Rovers inside on the left.
Although Quigley was undoubtedly the most accurate football passer I have ever seen, it would be more accurate to describe Eddie’s frame as big and robust rather than designed for comfort. He was just the ultimate technician, whether it was a short pass or his signature 40/50-yard ball that he could land on a tanning bed.
Quigley began his career as a full back for his hometown team Bury, but he made his name as an inside forward and center forward. The club forced him to switch positions, and it paid off right away as he scored five goals on his debut against Millwall. But Quigley’s dominant presence as a developing creator from a deep-lying position gave him the ability to dictate what happened on the field of play and to deliver those eventually iconic passes that were always an inch off. It was art in the truest sense.
When Sheffield Wednesday paid Bury £12,000 for Quigley’s services in 1947, they broke the British record transfer fee. Quigley’s skill set soon earned him the acclaim he so desperately needed. In 78 League games when he was at Wednesday, he scored 50 goals. All was not well, though, as Eddie had to make a transfer request (which would not be his last) after Quigley, a licensed electrician, was denied permission to work part-time at his profession. Preston North End, who also had a part-time tradesman on their books, pounced, breaking the British Record Transfer Fee for the second time in December 1949 with Quigley’s transfer to Deepdale. This time, the fee was £28,500. Strangely, Johnny Morris, Eddie Quigley’s nephew, broke the record when he was moved from Manchester United to Derby County in March 1949.
Quigley was ecstatic about the transfer since it allowed him to work with the legendary Tom Finney, whose connections would undoubtedly help Eddie earn international recognition. Quigley, regrettably, had a lackluster tenure at North End; his collaboration with Finney came to an abrupt end, and with it, any prospects of earning an England cap.
Quigley’s savior was only ten miles away, having filed multiple transfer requests to leave Deepdale. In November 1951, Rovers Manager Jackie Bestall paid £20,000 for Eddie’s services, and the club’s chairman, Fred Wood, completed the deal at Deepdale, shattering the previous record transfer fee for the club. Quigley’s signing completed Rovers’ transfer expenditure of almost £50,000 for five players: Alec Glover, Willie Kelly, Albert Nightingale, and Reg Elvy were all acquired by Rovers. Quigley’s debut was extremely memorable as he made his debut on November 17, 1951, at Ewood against Birmingham City, scoring the game’s lone goal.
Given that Quigley scored 92 League goals in 159 games during his five-year tenure at Ewood, it was undoubtedly one of the most inspirational signings in the club’s history. They created so much havoc for defences with that incredible goal scorer Tommy Briggs that they became the most productive goalscoring duo for the club. Rovers scored 112 League goals in the 1954–55 season, with Briggs (33) and Quigley (28), scoring 61 of those goals. Interestingly enough, Quigley was already having a falling out with his club when Briggs signed for the Rovers in November 1952, thus it’s possible that the pairing never happened. This time, it was about finding Blackburn acceptable housing. It was an all too familiar pattern: Quigley had once again lodged a transfer application, with the club anxiously searching for such accommodation. Thankfully, things got better, the Rovers located Eddie a house in the town on Colenso Road (which Matt Woods eventually moved into), and the transfer request was rescinded.
Eddie Quigley was a valuable member of the Rovers team. He was a unique craftsman who could dictate play patterns and unlock defenses with his endless supply of slide-rule passes or his explosive shooting, which the local press frequently referred to as a “guided missile.” Quigley served the team well. He was equally valuable to the team as the leading schemer and the opportunist. Roy Vernon was the most similar person I have seen to Quigley, wearing a blue and white shirt and having many of the same traits. Quigley taught Vernon a lot, and Vernon was kind enough to admit it.
As we’ve already seen, Quigley was a vital part of the 1950s ‘fantastic five’ forward line. Together with Frank Mooney, Eddie Crossan, Tommy Briggs, and the legendary Bobby Langton, they personified their manager Johnny Carey’s philosophy of optimism and pure entertainment.
Ewood and other places saw an abundance of goals, but none more so than the 1954–1955 season, during which they scored over a century. It was perhaps fitting that Eddie Quigley was the one to hit the century in the ninth minute of the 34th game of the season.
After sending Langton off down his flank, Eddie initiated the move. He then collected the winger’s cutback and “aimed an accurate ground shot from the edge of the penalty area well to the goalkeeper’s left.” An extended period of ovation after the goal, lasting several minutes.”
On April 30, 1956, Eddie Quigley made his Rovers debut in a 3–3 tie at Ewood versus Rotherham United. Eddie returned to his original club, Bury, in August 1956. In his ten subsequent appearances, he scored three goals.
It was expected that Quigley would join the coaching and management ranks because he was always a deep thinker of the game, visionary, and tactically aware—though occasionally dogmatic. Before joining Bury as the Youth Coach and Scout in 1962, he spent six years in his first management position at non-League Mossley. During his time at Bury, he discovered the abilities of Colin Bell and Alec Lindsay, among other people. In 1966, he assumed leadership at Stockport County, but in 1967, the chance to return to Ewood was too good to resist. It wasn’t an easy task, as it seemed to be with all of Eddie’s club affairs. Eddie Quigley returned to the Rovers to help Jack Marshall after insisting he be made assistant manager, in charge of all coaching affairs. Eddie Quigley took over as manager following Marshall’s resignation in February 1967, following a stint as interim manager.
Quigley was an excellent player for the Rovers, but his time as manager turned out to be very lackluster; a lot was promised but not much was accomplished. For whatever reason, he was unable to organize a coordinated Rovers comeback, and the team was no closer to returning to the First Division than it had been after being demoted. Quigley was sidelined and placed in charge of youth development and administration, replacing Johnny Carey, who returned to the Rovers manager post.
Regretfully, Rovers’ standing and the relocation were destined to fail, which was unfortunate for Mr. Carey, Eddie Quigley, the players, and the fans. For the first time in their existence, the Rovers were demoted to the Third Division at the conclusion of the 1970–71 season, and Eddie Quigley and Johnny Carey were fired. This era in the club’s history served as a crystal clear reminder that there were no guarantees or fast cuts to success on the field, even with two of Rovers’ greatest players at the helm. It also likely summed up the financial restrictions that the club was starting to apply internally.
Eddie Quigley took over as Stockport County manager for a short while again, but there was still time for him to return to Ewood when Quigley’s great-aunt Howard Kendall named Eddie Chief Scout. He had a brief stint as a scout for Blackpool before quitting football in the early 1980s. He tragically passed suddenly on April 18, 1997, at the age of 75.
Eddie Quigley is without a doubt regarded as one of the greatest Blackburn Rovers players of all time in any history or analysis on the team.
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