Dennis Sydney Viollet (20 September 1933 – 6 March 1999) was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and Stoke City as well as the England national team. He was famous as one of the Busby Babes and survived the Munich air disaster. After his retirement as player, he became a coach and spent most of his managerial career in the United States for various professional and school teams.
Club career
Manchester United
thumb|Viollet (sixth from the left) lines up for the [[Busby Babes' final match in February 1958.]]
thumb|Manchester United F.C. in 1960 – from the left, standing: [[Maurice Setters, Bill Foulkes, Ronnie Cope, Harry Gregg, Albert Scanlon, Bobby Charlton. Front row: Warren Bradley, Albert Quixall, Dennis Viollet, Shay Brennan and Joe Carolan.]]
Viollet joined Manchester United on 1 September 1949. He came through the junior ranks at United and turned professional in 1950. His first competitive game for the first team came against Newcastle United on 11 April 1953 and he was a key part of the United teams that won back to back First Division titles in 1956 and 1957. One of his most notable games came on 26 September 1956, in the second leg of United's European Cup preliminary round tie against Belgian champions Anderlecht, in which he scored four goals in a 10–0 win that remains United's biggest competitive victory. In February 1958, Viollet was flying back from a European Cup match in Belgrade via Munich; attempting to take off in bad weather, the plane crashed, killing 21 people, including seven Manchester United players, in what would become known as the Munich air disaster. Viollet survived, suffering only injuries to his head and face, and he returned to action before the end of the season, less than three months later. He played in the 1958 FA Cup Final against Bolton Wanderers, which United lost 2–0, and less than a week later, he scored the equalising goal in a 2–1 win over Milan in the first leg of their European Cup semi-final; Milan won the second leg 4–0 to deny United a place in the final.
After scoring 21 goals in 37 league appearances in 1958–59, Viollet had his most prolific season to date in 1959–60, scoring 32 goals in 36 league appearances, a club record. In recognition of his scoring exploits, Viollet received his first call-up to the England team in May 1960; after being left out for a 3–3 home draw with Yugoslavia and a 3–0 away defeat to Spain on 15 May, he was named at inside left for a 2–0 away defeat to Hungary a week later. Despite missing three months of the 1960–61 season, he still scored 15 goals, behind only Bobby Charlton and Alex Dawson as Manchester United's top scorer, and in September 1961, he was called up to the England squad again for a 1962 World Cup qualifier at home to Luxembourg; Viollet scored England's second goal in a 4–1 win. In January 1962, Matt Busby surprisingly sold the 28-year-old Viollet to Stoke City for £25,000 after scoring 179 goals in 293 appearances for United.
Stoke City
He joined a team being re-built by Tony Waddington, containing experienced players such as Stanley Matthews, and Jackie Mudie and also emerging talent such as John Ritchie and Eric Skeels.
Coaching career in the United States
thumb|right|upright|Viollet in 1975
In 1974, Dennis Viollet became the first head coach of the Washington Diplomats of the North American Soccer League. The team did not achieve a great deal of on-field success during his three-year tenure as the coach, only reaching postseason play once (1977) where they were eliminated in the first round. After being replaced in Washington, Viollett accepted the invitation of his former United teammate, Noel Cantwell, to serve as his assistant with the expansion New England Tea Men. After three seasons in the Boston area, the team relocated to Jacksonville, Florida, where Viollet continued on the coaching staff for the now Jacksonville Tea Men. Before the 1983 season, the financially struggling club was sold to an owner whose plan to turn around their budget woes included moving down to the second division American Soccer League, and Cantwell decided to move on. Viollet assumed head coaching duties for the ASL version of the Tea Men and led that squad to the 1983 ASL title, bringing the city of Jacksonville its first ever professional sports championship. He stayed on for one more year as the team moved to the ASL's successor, the United Soccer League, but the Tea Men were still losing money and folded after the 1984 season. In 1985, Viollett became the coach of the varsity boys soccer team at St. Johns Country Day School located in Orange Park, Florida. He also coached the Jacksonville Knights, a professional indoor soccer team, in 1989. In 1990, Viollet took the reins of the Jacksonville University Dolphins, where he stayed until 1995. Jacksonville University and their primary rivals, the University of North Florida, compete annually for the Dennis Viollet Cup. He then took the USISL Richmond Kickers to the 1995 American Double (USISL Premier League and US Open Cup titles). He stayed with Richmond for 2 seasons, then served as coach of the A-League Jacksonville Cyclones before his death from cancer on 6 March 1999, aged 65, in his adopted home of Jacksonville.
He married Barbara Mavis Southern at St Edmund's Church, Manchester, in 1951, when he was 17 years old. Their daughter Stephanie was born later that year, and they later had two sons, Roger (born 1957) and Malcolm (born 1961), and another daughter, Deborah (born 1958). They divorced in 1969, and in June that year, Viollet married Helen B. Greeph; they were married until his death nearly 30 years later. Their daughter Rachel (born 1972) became the British number one ranked tennis player when she reached the second round of Wimbledon in 1996. During her tennis career, she won one ITF singles tournament and one ITF doubles tournament.
Viollet died in March 1999 after a two-year battle against cancer, with a brain tumour first being diagnosed during 1997, despite treatment and surgery during that time to combat the illness.
In 2010, Viollet was inducted into the Washington, D.C. Soccer Hall of Fame. Viollet was also inducted into the first class of the United Soccer League Hall of Fame in 2002. The annual University of North Florida/Jacksonville University soccer match has been contested for the Viollet Cup since 2001. The Dennis Viollet Soccer Training Center was dedicated in 2006 and located at the Complete Soccer Academy in Longwood, Florida.
Career statistics
Club
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
|-
!rowspan="2"|Club
!rowspan="2"|Season
!colspan="3"|League
!colspan="2"|FA Cup
!colspan="2"|League Cup
!colspan="2"|Europe
!colspan="2"|Other
!colspan="2"|Total
|-
!Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="11"|Manchester United
|1952–53
|First Division
|3||1||0||0||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||0||0||3||1
|-
|1953–54
|First Division
|29||11||1||1||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||30||12
|-
|1954–55
|First Division
|34||20||3||1||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||37||21
|-
|1955–56
|First Division
|34||20||1||0||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||35||20
|-
|1956–57
|First Division
|27||16||5||0||colspan="2"|—||6||9||1||1||39||26
|-
|1957–58
|First Division
|22||16||3||3||colspan="2"|—||6||4||1||0||32||23
|-
|1958–59
|First Division
|37||21||1||0||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||38||21
|-
|1959–60
|First Division
|36||32||3||0||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||39||32
|-
|1960–61
|First Division
|24||15||1||0||2||1||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||27||16
|-
|1961–62
|First Division
|13||7||0||0||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||13||7
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!259!!159!!18!!5!!2!!1!!12!!13!!2!!1!!293!!179
|-
|rowspan="7"|Stoke City
|1961–62
|Second Division
|13||5||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||13||5
|-
|1962–63
|Second Division
|37||23||1||0||1||0||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||39||23
|-
|1963–64
|First Division
|32||10||3||2||6||1||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||41||13
|-
|1964–65
|First Division
|34||13||3||2||3||1||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||40||16
|-
|1965–66
|First Division
|32||6||1||0||5||1||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||38||7
|-
|1966–67
|First Division
|34||2||1||0||1||0||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||36||2
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!182!!59!!9!!4!!16!!3!!colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||207!!66
|-
|rowspan="3"|Baltimore Bays
|1967
|NPSL
|12||4||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||12||4
|-
|1968
|NASL
|22||3||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||22||3
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!34!!7!!colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||34!!7
|-
!colspan="3"|Career total
!475!!225!!27!!9!!18!!4!!12!!13!!2!!1!!534!!252
|}
International
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
|-
!National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="2"|England
|1960||1||0
|-
|1961||1||1
|-
!colspan="2"|Total!!2!!1
|}
Managerial statistics
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|-
!rowspan=2 width=120|Team
!rowspan=2 width=120|From
!rowspan=2 width=120|To
!colspan=5|Record
|-
!width=30|G
!width=30|W
!width=30|D
!width=30|L
!width=40|Win %
|-
|align=left|Crewe Alexandra
|align=left|1 August 1971
|align=left|1 November 1971
|-
|}
Honours
Manchester United
- Football League First Division: 1955–56, 1956–57
- FA Charity Shield: 1956, 1957
- FA Cup runner-up: 1957–58
Stoke City
- Football League Second Division: 1962–63
Linfield
- Irish Cup: 1969–70
Individual
- European Cup Top Scorer: 1956–57
- Football League First Division Top Scorer: 1959–60
References
External links
- Dennis Viollet official site