Borough Life Winter 2006: Whelan the Freeman
Mayor of Wigan Cllr Eunice Smethurst presents Dave Whelan with an illuminated script to mark his freedom of the borough.
JJB and Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan has become the borough’s latest freeman. At an emotional ceremony in Wigan town hall he told councillors: “It is just wonderful for your home town to say we are giving you the freedom of the borough… I know my mum and dad would be so proud.” Borough Life looks back at the highlights of an extraordinary life that has put Wigan on the international map.
Dave Whelan’s father, Jimmy Whelan, was a cabaret singer who went by the stage name Tony Rigaletto, and was performing in Bradford at the time of Dave’s birth in 1936, which explains the birthplace.
This minor blip aside, he’s a Wiganer through and through, educated at Poolstock Primary School and Highfield Secondary Modern school.
After leaving school at 15, he took up a job as a mining engineer at Worsley Mesnes Iron Works. An exceptional young footballer, the 16 year-old Whelan was spotted playing for Wigan Boys Under 18 team, and was offered a trial for Blackburn Rovers, for whom he signed professionally, aged 17.
Whilst playing for Blackburn, he did two years’ compulsory national service, and was picked for the British Army team alongside Bobby Charlton, Duncan Edwards and Dave Mackay. He won promotion with Blackburn to the First Division in 1958, and the following season the team reached the FA Cup Final at Wembley. But a blossoming career was cut short when he broke his leg during that first and last Wembley appearance.
While injured, Whelan used his time to open a market stall selling toiletries, household goods and other discounted products, and in a few years he had opened up permanent stores all over the North West.
Whelan’s Discount Stores was a big success and he sold the business to Morrisons supermarkets in 1978. Weeks later, he purchased JJ Bradburn’s sports shop on Market Street, which had carried the JJB brand since 1903.
He kept the well-known name but changed the sales philosophy, making sports goods far more accessible. “Rather than lock everything away in cabinets, I brought everything out into the open. If you encourage a kid to hold a football, or a cricket bat and play with it in the store, he won’t let it go again.”
Soon JJB ‘megastores’ were popping up all over the land and the company has continued to grow, employing 12,000 people at hundreds of branches.
Whelan bought Wigan Athletic and its Springfield Park ground in February 1995, when the club was languishing near the bottom of the Third Division and was in serious danger of going out of business.
He proclaimed his ambition to take his home town team all the way to the Premiership. A decade on, and the journey was complete. But it’s not just about football. Whelan has always been a rugby league fan and stood on the terraces at Central Park from a young age.
In 1998, Wigan Rugby League was in danger of going into liquidation, and the shareholders voted in favour of Whelan’s proposal to buy it and develop Central Park. When Whelan did eventually purchase the club that year, he decided he would have to build a new ground – at his own expense.
The JJB Stadium, a £30 million, 25,000 capacity all-seater home for Wigan Athletic and Wigan Warriors, opened in 1999, and has since transformed the face of Wigan sport.
Council leader Peter Smith said: “In everything he’s done Dave Whelan’s pride in his home town shines through. The freedom of the borough is the highest honour we can bestow and Dave Whelan is a worthy recipient.”