Jack Vitty, who died last month at the age of 98, was a pioneer during his time as a Workington Reds professional.
The Reds left-back and skipper was one of the first professionals in the country to go into schools and coach young pupils.
He was encouraged to do it by legendary Workington manager Bill Shankly who quickly appointed him captain when he joined the Reds in 1954.
The photograph was taken at Whitehaven School, probably around 1955, and was in Jack’s personal photo album which was given an airing in the Shankly Bar at Borough Park on Tuesday night.
It had been brought over by Jack’s granddaughter Hannah, when she and her husband were guests at the Reds home game with Bootle.
Following Jack’s death they had been invited over for the game when Reds held a minute’s silence before they played Prescot Cables, but had a previous engagement.
They were free to travel this week and actually stayed overnight in the town.
The album proved to be fascinating viewing with the quality of some 70-year-old photos quite remarkable.
One of the team photographs, from the second season in League Three North (1952/53) was particularly interesting.
It is not one of the standard team photos from the pre-1960s and several Reds fans, and the club historian, had not seen it before.
As well as identifying the players on the photo, a localised hunt is on for the youngsters on the school coaching picture from Whitehaven.
If any of the lads recognise themselves with Jack on that photo please get in touch with Cumbria Crack at [email protected]
After their stay, Hannah sent the following message: “It was lovely to meet you all and receive such a warm welcome from everyone at the club. It was also fantastic to see my grandad on the wall in the Shankly Lounge.
“Thank you to everyone who made that possible.
“The team played great and I think if they’d had the wind behind them in the first half they’d have definitely won.”
