Blackburn Rovers
In 1986, at the invitation of the then chairman Bill Fox, Jack Walker, then a vice president at the club, donated the funds for a new stand at the dilapidated Ewood Park. The WalkerSteel (now known as the Riverside) Stand was built. It is also thought that his money was used to pay for the acquisition and wages of Ossie Ardiles and Steve Archibald in the 1987-88 season.
He took full control of the club in January 1991, having backed the club on a regular basis for five years previously, and within the first three years he spent £25 million on new players, twice breaking the British record for the most expensive transfer of a football player, signing Alan Shearer from Southampton for £3.3million in 1992 and Chris Sutton from Norwich for £5million in 1994.
In the early stages of his ownership of Blackburn, he also tried to bring England internationals Geoff Thomas and Gary Lineker to the club, but bids for both players failed.
The Ewood Park ground was reconstructed at a cost of more than £20 million to give it a capacity of just over 30,000, with a new Jack Walker Stand providing a lasting tribute.
When he bought Blackburn, the 1990-91 season was half completed and they were just above the relegation zone. Manager Don Mackay initially used Walker's funds to make signings which helped ensure Blackburn's survival that season, and built the platform for a promotion challenge in 1991-92. Walker declared his ambition early on that Blackburn would return to the top flight, establish themselves as a top side in England and eventually go on to compete with the very best clubs in Europe. At this time, the ones likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United were generally regarded as the nation's top clubs, while the European scene (with English clubs having only recently been re-admitted following a five-year ban as a result of the Heysel disaster) was being dominated by AC Milan, Inter Milan, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Kenny Dalglish became manager in October 1991, and by May, Blackburn had been promoted to the newly formed Premier League through the play offs. In the 1994-95 season, Blackburn Rovers won the Premiership title. In 1995, Blackburn Rovers manager Kenny Dalglish had expressed interest in signing both Zinedine Zidane and Christophe Dugarry, to which Walker reportedly replied, "Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?"
Although Blackburn qualified for Europe on three occasions during his ownership of the club, they failed to make the same impact in the UEFA Cup or European Cup that they had done in the Premier League.
Away from Blackburn Rovers, Walker also invested his money in property development in and around the town of Blackburn. He also sponsored First Tower United, a Jersey based football club. His sale of Walkersteel had proven to be a less successful investment for its new owners, as the steel market entered a steep slump as a result of the Early 1990s recession.
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