Nat Lofthouse(1925-2011)

Undoubtedly Bolton Wanderers most famous player having scored 255 goals in 452 appearances during his time at Burnden Park. Born in Bolton he began his footballing career prior to the outbreak of the Second World War whilst combining his sport with work down a local mine. He became a key player for Bolton for over 20 years and was a regular in the England team notching up 30 goals in 33 games for the Three Lions including two in the 1952 match against Austria which earned him the nickname the Lion of Vienna. He took part in the 1953 FA Cup Final against Lancashire rivals Blackpool which became the "Matthews Final" due to the performance of the legendary Stanley matthews who set up the four Blackpool goals which included a hat trick for Stan Mortensen. Nat was a scorer for Bolton that day but they lost the game 4-3 having led for 3-1 for most of the contest. In 1958 he was an FA Cup winner scoring both the goals for Bolton in their 2-0 success over arch rivals Manchester United, who where in recovery after the tragic Munich air disaster the same year. One of his goals saw him bundle United's Northern Irish goalkeeper Harry Gregg into the goal, a goal which was allowed to stand and an incident that is still talked about to this day. He also won the Charity Sheild contest whilst with Bolton and is the only player at Bolton to have won the Footballer of the Year award. In 1960 he retired from the game as a player but in 1968 he took over from Bill Ridding as the Bolton manager. His time in the managerial seat was not as successful and he stood down in 1970 to become general manager of the club, standing in breifly as caretaker manager in 1971 and 1985 respectively.