24 Facts About Dennis Viollet

Dennis Sydney Viollet was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and Stoke City as well as the England national team.

Dennis Viollet was famous as one of the Busby Babes and survived the Munich air disaster.

Dennis Viollet came through the junior ranks at United and turned professional in 1950.

Dennis Viollet's 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.

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.

Dennis 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.

Dennis Viollet joined a team being re-built by Tony Waddington, containing experienced players such as Stanley Matthews, and Jackie Mudie and emerging talent such as John Ritchie and Eric Skeels.

Dennis Viollet's signing was viewed as a coup for Stoke as at 28 Viollet was still in his prime.

Dennis Viollet continued to play for Stoke until the summer of 1967 when he announced his retirement after scoring 66 goals in 207 matches for the "Potters".

In 1974, Dennis Viollet became the first head coach of the Washington Diplomats of the North American Soccer League.

Dennis 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.

Dennis Viollet 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.

Dennis Viollet coached the Jacksonville Knights, a professional indoor soccer team, in 1989.

In 1990, Dennis Viollet took the reins of the Jacksonville University Dolphins, where he stayed until 1995.

Dennis Viollet then took the USISL Richmond Kickers to the 1995 American Double.

Dennis Viollet stayed with Richmond for 2 seasons, then served as coach of the A-League Jacksonville Cyclones before his death from cancer on 6 March 1999, aged 65, in his adopted home of Jacksonville.

Dennis Viollet became an influential member of Orange Park Soccer Club in the early 1980s, helping to organize the club and volunteering to coach a number of youth teams.

Dennis Viollet ran youth soccer camps every summer in Orange Park at St Johns Country Day School, where he would invite players from teams he managed, such as the Tea Men or Jacksonville University, to act as instructors.

Dennis Viollet coached and mentored numerous local youth players who later succeeded at various college and professional levels.

Dennis Viollet was born in Fallowfield, Manchester, in September 1933, the youngest of three children born to Charles Sydney Dennis Viollet.

Dennis Viollet married Barbara Mavis Southern at St Edmund's Church, Manchester, in 1951, when he was 17 years old.

Dennis 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, Dennis Viollet was inducted into the Washington, DC Soccer Hall of Fame.

Dennis Viollet was inducted into the first class of the United Soccer League Hall of Fame in 2002.