Late Premier League winning coach Tony Parkes broke down in tears during a heartbreaking interview about his battle with Alzheimer’s disease
Blackburn Rovers legend Tony Parkes broke down in tears during an interview about his tragic battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Parkes sadly died on Thursday at the age of 76, with his former club paying tribute to him. Known as ‘Mr Blackburn Rovers’, the Ewood Park side said they were ‘devastated’ by his loss and would pay a special tribute to the man who represented the club as a player, coach and manager across four decades.
In 2020, Parkes and his daughter Natalie conducted a heartbreaking interview with BBC Sport about the Rovers legend’s battle with the horrible disease. Both of them were left in tears as they bravely spoke about how Parkes’ life has been affected.
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His daughter Natalie said: “Things are a lot different now for my dad. We’ve had quite a few big changes over the last couple of years. It started slowly but it’s very apparent now – he recently had a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
“It’s changed a lot of things for my dad, his independence being the big one. He now no longer feels comfortable doing things by himself. He likes to be with me a lot.”
Natalie admitted it felt like she had “lost her dad”, causing Parkes to well up with tears. He revealed that he got frustrated when he couldn’t remember a particular match he was involved in, adding: ‘I like to go on walks. That’s my big thing and we have lovely times.’
His daughter added: “He looks fine – but it’s when you try and have a conversation the words aren’t always there, the memories aren’t always there.
“It’s sad really. We’re watching these matches on the TV and he can’t always remember all the details like he used to be able to. He used to remember everything, every little thing about his time at Blackburn and his time when Kenny [Dalglish] was there.
“On every away match they used to always be playing practical jokes on each other, normally Alan Shearer would be doing something, making the coach driver eat ridiculous amounts of cream crackers at one stage.
“It’s hard now because those memories have gone. It’s things like (entering) the Hall of Fame (at Blackburn), his friends who are trying to keep those memories alive for him and trying not to let everything completely slip away.
“He likes to have his set routine. For my dad it’s finding the words. I think the memories are still there but he can’t always process what’s being asked and he can’t always respond in the way he wants to.
“He doesn’t get angry, he gets upset because he knows what he wants to say, it’s very apparent how difficult it is. A lot of people are now very aware of Alzheimer’s disease but they don’t actually realise until they’re dealing with it the impact of it. It is horrendous.”
Messages of support from those who knew Parkes came flooding in, with former Blackburn striker Alan Shearer, who won the Premier League alongside Parkes, posting: “So sad to see Tony suffering. Our Rovers dressing room loved him.”
Shearer paid tribute to Parkes again on Thursday after his passing was announced by Blackburn, he wrote: “RIP Tony. A great man”
His strike partner in the triumphant 1994/95 season Chris Sutton also said: “Really sad news to hear of Tony Parkes passing away. Tony was a great player and coach for Rovers with a wonderful sense of humour. He was Mr Blackburn and will be sorely missed. Thoughts and prayers go out to Natalie and the Parkes family.”
Parkes played and managed Rovers across three different divisions having first joined the club in 1970 from non-league Buxton Town for a fee of just £5,000. He went on to play 409 times for Blackburn, scoring 46.
After hanging up his boots in 1982, Parkes joined the coaching team and stood in as caretaker manager six times, with the last in 2004.
Parkes later became assistant manager at Blackpool in December 2005 and helped the club win promotion to the Championship in the 2006/07 season.