Farewell Jimmy Dugdale

By Bill Howell on Feb 27, 08 10:19 PM

I was genuinely saddenened to hear of the passing of Jimmy Dugdale.
I had met him some years ago, at a book-signing at West Brom. What a lovely chap.
Life was certainly not kind to him in later years, but he continued to smile and never grumbled.

I remember talking to him about the how he had lost his first leg.
An industrial accident- he had kept a pub- and the injury led to complications. Nowadays that would lead to a quick call to the lawyers and to a hefty pay-out.
But that wasn't Jimmy's way of looking at it.
I had kept in touch from time to time, the most recent chat was last year when the Mail put together their 50th and 25th anniversary pull-out of the 1957 and 1982 successes.
His memory of current events was a little shady. But take him back to his glory days and he was as sharp as a button: that epic FA Cup Final for Albion against Preston... that monumental Final three years later for Villa when he marked Manchester United's Tommy Taylor out of the game.
How much truth there was in it, I don't know, but he told me that United wanted to sign him up not long after that game.
Doug Ellis phoned me tonight, just to ask when the great man's funeral will take place.
Apparently Doug has been asked by an American-bound Randy Lerner to represent him.
I know that Neil Rioch and the Former PLayers' Association were marvellous to him- working together with the PFA to get his bungalow adapted at a time when he had sadly lost his second leg.
That's great. When the stars of today earn so much it just makes you wish that just a fraction could have been set aside to make Dugdale's last few years all the more bearable.