Born in Preston on the 18th of December 1921, Joan Whalley’s childhood dream was to play for the Dick, Kerr Ladies. She made her debut for the famous team in 1937, aged 15. Her debut match was in celebration of King George VI’s coronation, on the 12th May 1937, at Roundhay Park in Leeds. Joan even took the day off school for her debut! Joan was a formidable player, with much of the team’s tactics built around her.
In later life, Joan became the first British female football player to feature in a high-profile advertising campaign after an invite from Nike in 1996. The ethos behind the campaign and Joan’s inclusion was to encourage and inspire women to ‘get out there’ and play the sports they wanted to, rather than do what society expected of them. It’s quite clear how and why a figure like Joan Whalley and indeed the whole of the Dick, Kerr Ladies fits into this against the backdrop of the FA ban on women’s football in 1921.
Joan was eager to join Nike’s advertising roster of other sporting greats, which also included basketball’s Michael Jordan and footballers Eric Cantona and Ian Wright. Gail Newsham provided enough information for Nike to create a replica Dick, Kerr Ladies shirt and loaned Lily Parr’s boots for the photograph’s authenticity.
Joan cuts an impressive figure in the advert, but she strongly disliked the image – a copy of which can be found in the Pride of the Pitch exhibition at Lancashire Archives, which looks at iconic players, teams, and moments of Preston’s football past – including the Dick, Kerr Ladies, Tom Finney, and the Invincibles team.
It is open until October 2024 and has been produced by the National Football Museum in collaboration with Lancashire Archives, Michael Barrett (PNE Communities and Education Team) and Gail Newsham. The caption for the advert reads as follows:
‘Boots like lead, jeering crowds and an FA ban couldn’t stop Joan playing. What chance did defenders have? Nothing could keep Joan Whalley off the football pitch. Or stop her on it. Preston Ladies’ star right winger scored in virtually every game she played. And she played in plenty, hardly missing a game in twenty years. Joan believes you need three things to succeed – commitment, commitment, and commitment. Achieve your goals. Just do it.’
Before her impressive playing days, Joan was a student at Deepdale Modern School at the same time as Tom Finney. They became close friends and would often play football together on Waverley Park. Both Tom and Joan’s childhood dreams of playing football were eventually realised, with Tom making 600 appearances for Preston North End and 76 for England, and Joan becoming a skillful right winger for the Dick, Kerr Ladies.
Tom and Joan can be looked at as parallels of one another, both playing skillfully on the wing and being referred to as Preston’s greatest wingers. Their tactics and skills were most likely similar from their childhood games, learning from one another as youngsters. Tom Finney’s status amongst Prestonians is legendary, and he has, rightly and justifiably, been memorialised as one of the game’s greats nationally and beyond, and was awarded an OBE, CBE, and knighthood. Joan was, unfortunately, not afforded the same recognition and attention for a long time.
After her retirement from football, Joan became a conductress on the Ribble Buses. She became a familiar face, ferrying fans to matches and keenly sharing her love of football and her memories of playing with the Dick, Kerr Ladies with the public.
Another parallel between Tom and Joan is that they had other careers off the pitch. Tom Finney ran a successful plumbing business, and Joan, along with many other Dick, Kerr Ladies players, worked at Whittingham Hospital as a nurse. The team’s manager Afred Frankland often recommended players for jobs at the hospital, where playing sports was encouraged amongst staff and it was easy to swap shifts to attend matches. Newspapers often sent reporters and photographers to cover the side’s matches, as they were regarded as the best women’s team in the world at this point.
Recounting her career to Gail Newsham in her book A League of Their Own, Joan recalls a match that she was unable to take the day off for whilst working at Whittingham. Adamant that she hadn’t missed a match yet and wasn’t about to, she risked taking the day off anyway. Fortunately for the team, they had a fantastic match and Joan scored 6 goals!
Unfortunately for Joan, this match was one that had been heavily reported on by reporters. Come Monday morning, there was a glowing report in the local paper about Joan’s brilliant performance. The matron was informed of this via an anonymous tip from one of Joan’s colleagues, but she decided not to punish Joan as she vehemently disapproved of the anonymous tip off! Joan goes on to explain that this was quite uncharacteristic as the matron was quite a foreboding character and she had spent a nail biting few days worrying that she’d lose her job!
The other passion in Joan’s life was caring for animals, and over the years her home became a sanctuary for stray animals and pets that families could no longer afford to keep. Running a menagerie of dogs, cats, rabbits, and even budgies, Joan became a bit of a recluse. Some came to her in various states of illness and injury after families could not afford vets fees, and her nurse training was incredibly handy as she bandaged up paws, beaks, and tails. At one point nine dogs, six cats, seventeen kittens, one tortoise, two budgies, and two rabbits all called Joan’s house a home, and she would often write large notices in an attempt to rehome the animals once they were fit and well again.
As her reclusive nature grew, Joan looked to remove herself from society and find what she called ‘her mountain.’ Moving in 1975 to an isolated, derelict spot at the top of the Belmont Moors near Bolton, Joan left society and many ordinary home comforts like hot water and heating behind in favour of her new home in relative wilderness. She named her new home ‘OLCOTE Animal Sanctuary’ with OLCOTE being an acronym for Our Little Corner of the Earth, where she remained until 1988 after a serious hip injury.
In those 13 years she spent many happy but undoubtedly difficult winters dragging provisions up from the road on a sledge, sawing logs of wood for fire, and smashing ice in the water trough outside when her cold-water taps froze up.
Unfortunately, Joan passed away in January 1998 after a cancer diagnosis, but not before her reunion with old pal Tom Finney in 1997 at the launch of the second edition of In a League of Their Own, by Gail Newsham. Joan was delighted to see Tom again after all these years and referred to him continuously as her idol. The feelings were mutual, with Tom displaying great respect for Joan.