November 1972

Clubs as Player:

Manchester United (Youth)
Bury

Donald Wilson was born in Heywood, Bury on 4th June 1930 and signed professional for his home town club in May 1951 this after he had begun to show talent with a football while he was at school and went on to play with Manchester United Colts from 13 to the age of 18, when he joined the RAF.

When his national service was over, he was soon back on the soccer pitch, this time as a professional wing half with Bury FC. He played for the Shakers for nine years, before taking the brave decision to train for teaching. A clever yet tough wing half Wilson went on to make 63 first team appearances for the Shakers between 1952 and 1959.

He joined Mossley under Eddie Quigley in August 1962. Quigley resigned in November 1962 and Wilson was put in charge of the team but not team selection through to the end of the season. In August 1962 he was appointed player-manager of Mossley and became the Lilywhites longest serving manager remaining until November 1972.

He rebuilt Quigley's ageing team with the 1966 signing of inside forward Lennie Dickenson being his master-stroke. Wilson's occupation as a Heywood schoolteacher gave him a methodical approach to his team and after a couple of hit and miss seasons Mossley started to become a force in the Cheshire County League.

Wilson had all but retired from playing by the 1967-68 season and then followed Mossley's best spell for many years. From 1967 to 1970 the team got better and better and in the 1969-70 season Mossley finished as League runners up, their best position since 1920, reached the 1st round proper of the FA Cup for the first time since 1949 taking Stockport County to a replay, and reached the quarter final stage of the inaugural FA Challenge Trophy competition.

It was an exhilarating spell of the club's history with Wilson pulling the strings off the field and Dickenson on it. Twin brother strikers Bruce and Gordon Birtwistle were an absolute menace to defences whilst the half back line up of Kevin Burke, Mike Batty and Jimmy Dowthwaite was as good as any in non-league football at that time.

The successes of the late 60's weren't repeated in the early seventies but Wilson remained as manager as the Lilywhites stepped up into the Northern Premier League in August 1972. In November of the same year he tendered his resignation stating that he had led the team as far as he could. Wilson then had spells in charge at Radcliffe Borough, Stalybridge Celtic and Rossendale United before retiring from football management to concentrate on his teaching career.

He spent the whole of his 28 year teaching career at Moorclose High School in Middleton, specialising in PE and Maths. His involvement with adult education in Heywood began when he was asked to run keep fit classes at the former Bamford Road gym. Interest mushroomed and Mr Wilson was asked to develop a wide-ranging further education programme for Heywood . He was the town's adult education principal from 1970 until his retirement in 1988. He was a member of the professional business club Probus in Heywood and was its president in 2000. He was a keen golfer and was a member of the Manchester Golf Club at Slattocks.

Don Wilson sadly died on 11th October 2003 after a long illness.