Born in Bury on 13 July 1921, Edward 'Eddie' Quigley joined his home town club as a full-back in 1941, but through necessity was converted to an attacker. Although on his debut as a centre-forward he scored five goals, his best position turned out to be inside-forward, where he was able to control the attack, lying deep and having the ability to split defences with inch perfect long passes.
In October 1947 he joined Sheffield Wednesday for £12,000 and he scored 50 goals in 76 League appearances at Hillsborough. In December 1949, Preston North End paid a British record transfer fee of £26,500 for him. Quigley found goal-scoring at North End more difficult, but while at Preston he won a Second Division championship medal and represented England 'B' twice against Holland and Italy.
A two-year spell at Deepdale ended when a struggling Blackburn Rovers paid £20,000 for his services. In his five years at Ewood Park, he netted a remarkable 92 goals in only 159 appearances, but with the club failing repeatedly to win promotion, the presence of ageing players was used as a possible cause.
As Quigley was 35, it was a surprise when he was placed on the transfer list at £2,500. After the Football League reduced the fee to £l,000, he re-signed for Bury in August 1956 where he only made ten League appearances before retiring from League football at the end of the 1956-57 season with a Football League career record of 180 goals from 337 appearances. He joined Mossley as Player-Manager in the summer of 1957. It was Quigley's first attempt at football management and his first season couldn't really have been worse. Mossley finished bottom of the Cheshire League winning only seven out of 42 games. Quigley himself scored 10 goals in 44 games.
The following season 1958-59 saw Mossley climb to 15th position and Quigley netted 19 goals in 42 appearances and the side also reached the final of the Manchester Intermediate Cup. Quigley scored twice but Ashton United netted six and Mossley lost. The 1959-60 season saw Quigley's side climb to 8th place and the now veteran inside forward netted 10 goals in 41 appearances.
Season 1960-61 saw Mossley's best performance since the War, finishing 4th in the Cheshire League and winning the League Cup beating a strong Tranmere Reserve side 6-3 in the final at Hyde United's ground. Quigley scored 9 goals in 29 appearances. Quigley's last season at Seel Park came the following term as Mossley finished in 8th place and won the old Ashton Challenge Cup for the last time beating Ashton United 5-1 on aggregate in the final. Quigley made 31 appearances scoring seven goals and retired from playing age 41.
Quigley then returned to Bury yet again, as youth team coach, demonstrating his talents by unearthing, amongst others, Colin Bell and Alec Lindsay. Although Bert Trautmann had been appointed Stockport County's administrative manager' from October 1964 and continued to be general manager' until 1966, in October 1965, following the departure of Trevor Porteous, Quigley was offered his chance to manage a League club. Over a 12-month period at Edgeley Park, Quigley put together a side that would end up Fourth Division champions, success being based upon his signings of the vastly experienced central defenders Matt Woods and Eddie Stuart. In October 1966, he was offered the assistant manager's job at Blackburn, and when Rovers manager, Jack Marshall, left in February 1967 Quigley took over.
Other than in that season, Rovers hardly threatened to make a serious promotion challenge and, in October 1970, with the Ewood club heading for relegation to the Third Division for the first time in their illustrious history, Quigley moved sideways to become general/administrative manager, but was sacked a little over six months later.
In May 1976, he returned to Edgeley Park and, for a short time. it looked as if he could repeat his success of ten years earlier. County won five of their first six matches and were in third position at Christmas before an appalling run saw them slump to a miserable 14th place and before the season had finished he was sacked. In 1979 he went back to Blackburn Rovers as chief scout but following Bobby Saxton's appointment as manager in May 1981, Eddie Quigley was again dismissed before moving to Blackpool in a similar capacity.
Eddie Quigley died in Blackpool in 1997 age 76.
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