Dennis Viollet

Manchester United

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…

On 22 May 1960, at the end of his record-breaking season with Manchester United, Viollet won his first full England cap in a 2–0 friendly defeat to Hungary in Budapest. His second and final appearance came on 28 September 1961, in a qualifying game for the 1962 World Cup at Highbury, in which he scored in a 4–1 win over Luxembourg.

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…

Viollet was born in Fallowfield, Manchester, in September 1933, the youngest of three children born to Charles Sydney Viollet (1890–1961) and Hannah Tomlinson (1893–1992); he had two older sisters, Vera (born 1917) and Audrey (born 1930). He grew up as a Manchester City supporter. 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…