Former Wolves owner Sir Jack Hayward dies in Fort Lauderdale aged 91

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/13/jack-hayward-owner-passes-away-wolves

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The Wolves chief executive, Jez Moxey, says the club’s former owner Sir Jack Hayward saved the club from possible extinction.

Hayward, a Wolves fans since boyhood, died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday aged 91.

He bought the club in 1990 after they had returned to the second tier following a triple relegation which had led Wolves to tumble into the Fourth Division in 1986.

Hayward sold Wolves in 2007 to the current owner, Steve Morgan, for £10 in return for a £30m investment in the club.

Moxey believes Hayward may have stopped the club folding after pumping in around £60m during his ownership.

“It may not be here at all is the honest answer, certainly not in its current patronage in terms of restoring Molineux and investing in the team,” Moxey said. “He perhaps regrets investing the money in the team in the way he did but he kept funding it.

“I’m not sure we will see the likes of Sir Jack again but not just because of football, because of philanthropy, what he did for the country and Wolverhampton. We’re compiling a list – he just never stopped caring about others. The world of football has been blessed by what he did.

“His first game was when he was five. He lived in Whitmore Reans, a stone’s throw from Molineux, and used to climb under the turnstiles to watch his heroes. He went on to fulfil a lifelong dream of owning the club. It was a tremendous story.”

Hayward appointed Moxey as chief executive at Molineux. “I was at Stoke City as chief executive and I first met Sir Jack when we played here,” he said. “And 14-and-a-half years ago, Sir Jack brought me from a flat at Molineux to introduce me as his chief executive.

“I owe a great debt of gratitude to him personally. Since he passed the club on to Steve we have remained incredibly close.

“Me and my family were only with him in the Bahamas last summer. He was a great figure, for me a mentor and a friend. We’re really sad.”

Matt Murray was in goal when Wolves won promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 2003. They beat Sheffield United 3-0 at the Millennium Stadium to realise Hayward’s dream of seeing the club regain top-flight status.

“This club is the club it is today because of him,” Murray said.

“My biggest memory is playing in the play-off final, we were 3-0 up and we still felt there was a bit of tension. We thought ‘this is Wolves here, we can still mess it up’.

“Then Sir Jack appeared on the big screen with a big smile, put his thumbs up and I think it just reassured everybody in the ground - the players and all the fans - and the place started rocking.

“But on reflection everyone will look back and say he has left a legacy, and what a great, great guy.”