THE BRAIN OF BURNLEY

Another rave from my childhood was wondering how Burnley could possibly have won the First Division League Championship (in those days the top division) in 1959-60, pipping Wolves by one point, when there were so many other great teams.

Dominant teams in the late 1950s were Wolves, Champions in 1957-8 (in front of Preston) and again in1958-9 (with Man Utd second) and of course Manchester United (1955-6 by 11 points) and 1956-7 (by 8 points). So Burnley's success was a bit of a surprise.

In that team was Jimmy McIlroy, the Brain of Burnley, a Northern Ireland international, who played as an inside forward, appearing 497 times, scoring 131 goals for the modest Lancashire club.
Born in 1931 in  Lambeg, Antrim, he played for Glentoran in 1949 and then was transferred to Burnley in 1950 where he stayed until 1962.

He was very much an influence during Burnley's remarkable First Division win, under the care of manager Harry Potts, and the Clarets FA Cup Final appearance in 1962, when they were beaten 3-1 by an in form Tottenham.
In that season Burnley also got to the Quarter-final of the European Cup, losing to Hamburg 5-4 in a two leg tie.

In 1962 he went to Stoke City, a club signing on some well respected professionals at the twilight of their careers, including Stanley Matthews, Jackie Mudie and Dennis Viollet. The Potters won the Second Division in 1962-3 and McIlroy stayed with Stoke until 1965 playing nearly 100 games. In 1964 he appeared in the League Cup Final, losing 3-4 to Leicester City. His final game fro Stoke was against Burnley on December 27th 1965.
He then had a short playing spell at Oldham until 1967, latterly as player-manager and then he had a very short spell with Bolton.

In 1958 he was part of the successful Northern Ireland team that reached the Quarter-final of the Swedish World Cup, losing to France 0-4. Overall he played 55 times for N. Ireland and scored 10 times.

He ignored approaches and lucrative wages from Sampdoria in Italy and River Plate in Argentina, choosing to stay in Britain! He was given the Freedom of Burnley Borough in 2008 and the MBE in 2011 for his services to Charity.
There is a stand at Turf Moor named after Jimmy.
He died on August 20th, an anniversary of the Foundation of Professional Football.
http://www.claretsmuseum.com/wallmcilroy.html