Quintessentially a footballer of Sheffield, born almost within sight of the Hillsborough Stadium, Derek Dooley was halfway through his second season for Wednesday when he suffered the injury that ended his career as a player.

In his first full season for Wednesday he had scored the remarkable tally of 46 goals, an effort that had been instrumental in propelling the club from being second division strugglers into the first division. He had added 16 goals in his second season, and was being talked of as potential England material when, on February 14, 1953, in an away league match against Preston North End, he went for a 50-50 ball with the Preston goalkeeper advancing from his line. In the ensuing collision Dooley's right leg was broken.

In Preston Royal Infirmary, where he was taken to have it set, gas gangrene developed and it became evident that the leg would have to be amputated above the knee. It was a brutal termination to a promising career. Remarkably, however, Dooley was to recover from this disaster to have a managerial career first with Wednesday and then - a thorough-going case of Owl turning Blade - with their bitter rivals Sheffield United, with whom he was to end his career as chairman.

Derek Dooley was born the son of a Sheffield steelworker in 1929. He left school at 14 and found work in a hearing-aid factory, playing amateur football at the same time for Sheffield YMCA. At 15 he joined Lincoln City as an amateur, playing a handful of first-team matches and scoring three goals before being spotted by a Sheffield Wednesday scout, and being recruited by the Owls.

There, once he had made the first team, he made an impression at centre forward for his courage and the strength of his bulky 6ft 3in frame rather than for his skill, and was regarded as being controversial for his bullish approach to goalkeepers. But National Service was to claim him in March 1950, and he did not return to Hillsborough until October 1951, by which time Wednesday were languishing in the lower reaches of the second division. His first outing, at home against Barnsley, produced two goals.

Though he was never likely to be admired for finesse, Dooley's fearlessness and his ability to hit goals from any angle silenced critics of his physical methods, as a stream of goals in subsequent games, including five, in a 6-0 win against Notts County and all four in a 4-0 result against Everton, began to haul Wednesday inexorably through the ranks of the second tier. By the end of the 1951-52 season, with Wednesday top of the table, Dooley had contributed almost half the Owls' goals, 46 in just 30 games.

If there were any doubts about his ability to replicate this success in the top flights, they were silenced as he powered his way to 16 goals in 20 games by February 1953.

The St Valentine's Day disaster cruelly transformed his prospects. With a wife of six months, little education and nothing in the way of a trade, he now had to come to terms with his disability. His huge local popularity saved him from immediate financial worries. Wednesday put on a testimonial match, a combined Sheffield XI against a team of internationals, which included Stanley Matthews, Tommy Lawton and John Charles, which attracted 58,000 spectactors and £7,500 - a large sum in those days. Local newpapers promoted a fund which realised a further £2,700.

After various local jobs, including some scouting for Wednesday, Dooley was put in charge of the club's youth team. Then, in 1962, he was asked to run the club's newly established fund-raising operation, a job he made a conspicuous success of over the next nine years. Finally, in January 1971, with Wednesday again near the bottom of the second division, and it having run through a number of managers in short order, Dooley was asked in February 1971 if he would fancy the job. He seized the opportunity - but it was to be a short-lived one. Results were not immediately forthcoming, and in December 1973 a new board of directors abruptly dismissed him.

Bitter about his treatment, Dooley resolved never to return to Hillsborough. He spent some months working as a rep for a footwear manufacturer when, in 1974, the rival Blades came to his rescue. Impressed by the job he had made of Wednesday's development fund, United asked him to join them as commercial manager. Thereafter his career lay with the Bramall Lane club, and he went on to become managing director and in 1999 chairman of the board, retiring in 2006.

By that time he had made his peace with Wednesday. After declining many times, in 1992 he accepted an invitation from their chairman to attend a match between the two clubs at Hillsborough and was given a full-blooded ovation by the supporters of his old club and those of his new one.

Dooley was appointed MBE in 2003 for services to football. That year he was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Sheffield Hallam University.

Dooley is survived by his wife, Sylvia, and by a son and daughter.

Derek Dooley, MBE, footballer and manager, was born on December 13, 1929. He died on March 5, 2008, aged 78