CHARLTON, HURST AND COHEN-alive

The titled three are the remaining members of the 1966 World Cup winning squad still alive. Today we learn that Ron Flowers, at 31 years old, who was England's oldest member of the 1966 World Cup-winning squad and Wolves legend, has died at the age of 87. 

Flowers played for the Black Country club between 1952 and 1967 and helped them to three First Division titles and the FA Cup in 1960, beating Blackburn Rovers 3-0 at Wembley. He played 49 times for England, scoring 10 goals and featured in 40 consecutive international matches between November 1958 and April 1963, which included the 1962 World Cup in Chile. In 1966, he was very much part of the squad but did not play one minute. Following the 1966 triumph, only the 11 players that ended the game received winners' medals, but Flowers finally got his medal following an FA campaign and was awarded it by Gordon Brown in 2009.

Flowers' Wembley success came in the twilight of his career and the following year (1967) he left Wolves for Northampton Town, where he player-managed, before departing for Telford United and Wellington Town (later known as Telford Utd). He retired in 1971.   

Away from football, Flowers also served in the RAF and was an Aircraftman Second Class at Padgate before being transferred to Hednesford. 
Flowers' death follows the passing of Liverpool legend and 1966 team-mate Roger Hunt, who died in September this year.   

Flowers began in the Doncaster Rovers academy, where his father played semi-professionally. Whilst he flourished on the pitch at Belle Vue, he also trained as an apprentice at the Doncaster rail sheds, at his father's insistence that he learn a trade outside of football. Released by Doncaster he joined the Wolves' nursery side, Wath Wanderers, where he soon came to the attention of the highly successful Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Stan Cullis. Within a year, he was moved down to Molineux  and soon broke into the first team as a half back, making a scoring debut against Blackpool on 20 September 1952.  In total, he made 529 appearances for the club, scoring only 37 times. 

On retiring he ran a sports' shop in Wolverhampton. His sports shop "Ron Flowers Sports" is still successfully trading on Queen Street in the city centre.