25 Facts About Jimmy Hill

1.

Jimmy Hill's career included almost every role in the sport, including player, trade union leader, coach, manager, director, chairman, television executive, presenter, pundit, analyst and assistant referee.

2.

Jimmy Hill began his playing career at Brentford in 1949 and moved to Fulham three years later.

3.

Jimmy Hill completed his national service as a clerk in the Royal Army Service Corps in which he attained the rank of Corporal and was considered a potential candidate for officer training.

4.

Jimmy Hill first came into football as a fan, regularly watching football at local club Crystal Palace.

5.

Jimmy Hill set a club record by scoring five goals for Fulham in an away match against Doncaster Rovers in 1958 and was part of the team that gained promotion to the First Division.

6.

Jimmy Hill was one of many signatories of a letter to The Times on 17 July 1958 opposing "the policy of apartheid" in international sport and defending "the principle of racial equality which is embodied in the Declaration of the Olympic Games".

7.

In November 1961, after retiring as a player aged 33, Jimmy Hill became manager of Coventry City.

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8.

Jimmy Hill changed the home kit's colours to sky blue, coining the nickname "The Sky Blues".

9.

Jimmy Hill co-hosted their 1970 World Cup coverage which, at his suggestion, used the first panel of football pundits.

10.

Jimmy Hill was briefly LWT's Deputy Controller of Programmes, before joining the BBC to present Match of the Day.

11.

Jimmy Hill made 600 appearances on the show, and became a television icon, instantly recognisable and often caricatured for his long chin and distinctive beard.

12.

In 2004, Jimmy Hill defended fellow pundit Ron Atkinson over racist comments Atkinson had made, believing his microphone was off, which were broadcast live in the Middle East.

13.

Jimmy Hill's comments were described as "mind-boggling" by the then director of Kick it Out, football's anti-racism group.

14.

Jimmy Hill went on to say: "Jimmy Hill's comments are as offensive as Ron Atkinson's".

15.

When Coventry played their last match at Highfield Road in 2005, Jimmy Hill received a post-match hero's welcome from the capacity crowd and led them in a rousing chorus of "The Sky Blue Song".

16.

Jimmy Hill was a trustee of the Stable Lads' Association, and a patron of Labrador Rescue South East and Central.

17.

Jimmy Hill married three times, having three children by his first wife, Gloria, and two by his second, Heather.

18.

Jimmy Hill wrote Striking for Soccer in 1963 and Tips from the Top, a football coaching book, in 1970.

19.

Bryony Jimmy Hill published a memoir in 2015, My Gentleman Jim, detailing her husband's illness.

20.

Jimmy Hill is credited with writing the words to Arsenal's 1971 Top 10 hit "Good Old Arsenal".

21.

Jimmy Hill had a reputation as a moderniser and all-round innovator in football: as well as helping abolish the players' maximum wage, he commissioned the first English all-seater stadium at Highfield Road, lifted a ban on media interviews, introduced the first electronic scoreboard in 1964, the first colour matchday programme and in 1965 Coventry were the first club to show a live match via CCTV on four giant screens.

22.

Jimmy Hill has been credited with the introduction of the three points for a win system, pioneered by The Football Association in 1981.

23.

Jimmy Hill was credited with the idea of using a panel of football pundits for the 1970 World Cup.

24.

Jimmy Hill was a qualified referee and had been at Highbury that day as a spectator.

25.

Jimmy Hill quickly donned a tracksuit before stepping in for the injured Drewitt.

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