Sports Then and Now

Nat Lofthouse scored 255 goals in his career for the Bolton Wanderers.

It was a very sad day for Bolton Wanderers and English football fans with the announcement of the passing away of the great Nat Lofthouse, one of the greatest centre forwards England ever produce. He was 85 years old when he died on January 15th.

Lofthouse spent his entire playing career at Bolton Wanderers and by the time he had played his last game for them in 1960, he had turned made 452 appearances scoring 255 goals. He made his debut in fact for Bolton as a 21 year old in August 1946 and scored twice despite being on the losing side against Chelsea.

These days Nat would be described as an old fashioned Centre Forward who in his day would have the ability to terrify defenders with his physical presence, his shooting instincts and his incredible ability to attack the ball with his head. In those days of course, a football was a far cry from what they are today and players risked head injury and head lacerations when heading the ball. Nat Lofthouse was one of the great headers of the ball however, scoring many of his goals with his and becoming easily one of the best ball attackers in the world.

Whilst a Bolton player, Lofthouse played in two FA Cup finals, losing the first one in the famous 1953 ‘Stanley Matthews’ Blackpool final where he still managed to score the Bolton goal and created a record that year by scoring in every round of the competition. He was also named 1953 footballer of the year. Read the rest of this entry →