1963-1965 Jack Edwards
Birth Date
6th July 1929
Birthplace
Risca, Monmouthshire
Occupation
Manager
Biographical Text
Jack Edwards was the out-of-the blue appointment who guided Exeter City to promotion in 1964. A former Crystal Palace full-back, he left St James' Park within a year of his success and later managed Torquay United before returning to Exeter as trainer and caretaker manager.
Hailing from Risca near Newport, he made his Crystal Palace debut as a twenty-year-old in 1949 and over the following ten years made in excess of two hundred appearances for the Selhurst Park club. After two seasons with Rochdale, he returned to the south-east to play for Ashford Town where he turned down the player-manager's job to return to the Football League as Exeter City's trainer in 1962.
With the Big Freeze of 1963 wreaking havoc with the fixture list, and results not going City's way before the snows came, manager Cyril Spiers - who had known Jack Edwards from South Wales football and had brought him to St James' Park - stood down. Paving the way for Mr Edwards to take charge on a temporary basis in February 1963, City's results improved immediately and he became manager on a permanent basis in May 1963.
Adding just three players to a squad that had recently finished 17th in Division Four, the surprise appointment then transformed the Grecians into the "surprise package" that finished 4th in 1963/64 to clinch City's first-ever promotion based on a solid side and eighteen goals from Alan Banks.
But the momentum couldn't be maintained and, as the Grecians struggled to come to terms with life in the third tier, Mr Edwards was unimpressed by the appointment of Ellis Stuttard as chief scout without his consultation. Possibly feeling in danger of being usurped by the presence of the former Argyle manager, Jack Edwards resigned his position early in 1965.
After working as assistant manager at Torquay United, he took charge of the Plainmoor club between 1971 and 1973 during which time the team suffered relegation to Division Four following a heady six-year stay in the third-tier.
And, in what increasingly appeared to be a game of "musical chairs' with Mr Edwards and Mr Stuttard moving between the Devon clubs, Jack Edwards returned to St James' Park to work with both John Newman and Bobby Saxton prior to following the latter to Home Park in January 1979 after briefly performing the role of caretaker-manager pending the appointment of Brian Godfrey.
Jack Edwards died in Plymouth in May 2014 aged eighty-four.
Hailing from Risca near Newport, he made his Crystal Palace debut as a twenty-year-old in 1949 and over the following ten years made in excess of two hundred appearances for the Selhurst Park club. After two seasons with Rochdale, he returned to the south-east to play for Ashford Town where he turned down the player-manager's job to return to the Football League as Exeter City's trainer in 1962.
With the Big Freeze of 1963 wreaking havoc with the fixture list, and results not going City's way before the snows came, manager Cyril Spiers - who had known Jack Edwards from South Wales football and had brought him to St James' Park - stood down. Paving the way for Mr Edwards to take charge on a temporary basis in February 1963, City's results improved immediately and he became manager on a permanent basis in May 1963.
Adding just three players to a squad that had recently finished 17th in Division Four, the surprise appointment then transformed the Grecians into the "surprise package" that finished 4th in 1963/64 to clinch City's first-ever promotion based on a solid side and eighteen goals from Alan Banks.
But the momentum couldn't be maintained and, as the Grecians struggled to come to terms with life in the third tier, Mr Edwards was unimpressed by the appointment of Ellis Stuttard as chief scout without his consultation. Possibly feeling in danger of being usurped by the presence of the former Argyle manager, Jack Edwards resigned his position early in 1965.
After working as assistant manager at Torquay United, he took charge of the Plainmoor club between 1971 and 1973 during which time the team suffered relegation to Division Four following a heady six-year stay in the third-tier.
And, in what increasingly appeared to be a game of "musical chairs' with Mr Edwards and Mr Stuttard moving between the Devon clubs, Jack Edwards returned to St James' Park to work with both John Newman and Bobby Saxton prior to following the latter to Home Park in January 1979 after briefly performing the role of caretaker-manager pending the appointment of Brian Godfrey.
Jack Edwards died in Plymouth in May 2014 aged eighty-four.
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