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''This page is about the English footballer and television personality. For other uses, see Jimmy Hill (disambiguation)''
'Jimmy Hill' 'OBE' (James William Thomas Hill) (born July 22, 1928 in Balham, London and currently resident in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex) is an English football personality. His career has taken in virtually every role in football, including player, union leader, coach, manager, director, chairman, television executive, presenter, analyst and even match official.

Contents

Football career

Coventry City

Broadcasting career

Directorships

Legacy

Image

References

Football career

He first came into football as a fan, regularly watching football at local club Crystal Palace, but, despite this, he started playing in 1949 with Brentford, before moving to Fulham in 1953, for whom he played over 300 games. He scored five goals for Fulham in an away match against Doncaster Rovers and was part of the team that gained promotion to the First Division.
In 1957 he became chairman of the Professional Footballers Association, and successfully campaigned to have the Football League's £20 maximum wage scrapped, which he managed to do in January 1961.

Coventry City

After retiring as a player, in 1961 Hill became manager of Coventry City. During his tenure there he formed a good partnership with Chairman D H Robbins, and the club enjoyed unprecedented success, including winning the Division Three championship in 1964, and the Division Two title in 1967. However, Hill quit the club shortly before the start of the 1967-68 season.
Hill's time at Coventry was marked by great changes to the club, nicknamed "The Sky Blue Revolution". He changed the home kit's colours to sky blue, coining the nickname "The Sky Blues". He also penned the club song "The Sky Blue Song", sung to the tune of the Eton Boating Song. Among his other innovations were the first fully-fledged match programme in English football, and organized pre-match entertainment to encourage fans to arrive early. His partnership with the chairman also led to a redevelopment of the stadium, Highfield Road, with 2 new stands being built.
Despite his surprise departure as manager, Hill returned to the club as managing director and then chairman, and is still considered a legend by Coventry fans. When Coventry City played their last ever match at Highfield Road in 2005, he received a post-match hero's welcome from the capacity crowd, and led them in a rousing chorus of "The Sky Blue Song". In 2007, fans voted for a bar at the new Ricoh Arena to be named "Jimmy's" in his honour.

Broadcasting career

After leaving Coventry in 1967, Hill moved into broadcasting, acting as technical adviser to the BBC's football-based drama series ''United!'' before becoming Head of Sport at London Weekend Television from 1967 to 1972. He also fronted their World Cup 1970 coverage which, at his suggestion, used the first panel of football pundits.
He was briefly LWT's Deputy Controller of Programmes, before joining the BBC to present ''Match of the Day''. Hill racked up 600 appearances on the show, and became a television icon, instantly recognisable and often caricatured for his long chin and distinctive beard. As a presenter or analyst, he worked on every major international championship from 1966 to 1998.
In 1999, Hill moved from the BBC to Sky Sports,where he featured on ''Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement'', a weekly discussion show between Hill and three football journalists conducted over a Sunday breakfast.

Directorships

In 1975, Hill returned to Coventry City as managing director and then chairman.
Following a spell as chairman of Charlton Athletic, he became chairman of Fulham in 1987, helping his old club survive near-bankruptcy, and blocking an attempted merger with Queens Park Rangers
Jimmy Hill is a trustee of the Stable Lads Association. Like Roger Swinfen Eady, 3rd Baron Swinfen and Allen Parton and Endal, Hill is a patron of Labrador Rescue South East and Central.^[1]
He is currently the President of non-league team Corinthian Casuals

Legacy

He has a reputation as an all-round innovator in football - as well as helping to get rid of the maximum wage, he commissioned the first all-seater stadium when at Coventry, and has been credited with the invention of the 3 points for a win system, which was pioneered by The Football Association in 1981.

Image

Jimmy Hill has become a cult figure, with many British comedy shows parodying his personality and prominent chin. He was a regular character called 'Knobchops' in the comedy series ''Stella Street'' (impersonated by Phil Cornwell).
He was also spoofed in ''The Goodies'' episode "''2001 and a Bit''".
To non-football-watching Americans, Hill may be best known for his self-parodying appearance in Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Jimmy Hill has been immortalised in the Scottish football chant "We hate Jimmy Hill, he's a poof, he's a poof". He had become unpopular with Scotland fans better known as the Tartan Army for describing David Narey's goal against Brazil in the 1982 World Cup as "a toe-poke" during the BBC's live coverage.
The term "Jimmy Hill" is also often used to describe someone as not telling the whole truth.
It is likely the linking grew from people suggesting someone is not telling the truth by scratching their own chins, and from the distinct chin feature of Jimmy Hill. An often used phrase is "Jimmy Hill reckons" followed by "Itchy beard!"

References

1. Labrador Rescue South East and Central LRSEC Staff


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