Jimmy Hill

29th November 1961 – 13th October 1967

In retrospect Jimmy Hill was the club’s finest manager in terms of achievement but arguably their worst chairman who, although forever innovative, alienated the fans with the all-seater stadium and sales of popular players.

The period of his managerial reign remains the most spectacular and momentous era in the history of the club. Nothing before or since, with the brief exception of the few weeks around Wembley 1987, can compare to those marvellous days which came to be known as the Sky Blue era.

Born in Balham, South London on 22 July 1928 he was first spotted by Reading manager Ted Drake whilst playing for his regiment whilst doing National Service in 1948. He never made the first team and in 1949 joined Brentford after being released where he soon got a first team chance as a centre-forward. Converted to a wing-half he spent three years at Griffin Park making 87 appearances before making the short journey to Fulham, then a first division club.

He spent nine happy years at Craven Cottage before a knee injury ended his career and was a wholehearted and enthusiastic member of the team that almost reached Wembley in 1958 and won promotion in 1959. During his time there he became the chairman of the Professional Footballers Association and was instrumental in the abolition of the maximum wage for players in 1961.

When chairman Derrick Robins offered him the City managers job he only agreed to join if he had complete control – the first City manager to have such power. A 2-1 home FA Cup defeat by Kings Lynn was the catalyst for change, although he had been offered the post a week earlier.

Hill made enormous changes, in came a new continental-style Sky Blue strip, out went the complete back-room staff including loyal servants such as Alf Wood and Ted Roberts. The club was never out of the limelight and his innovations were admired nationwide. He introduced the Sky Blue train, pre-match entertainment, the Ryton training ground and the Sky Blue song as well as developing the ground into a modern, well-equipped stadium.

His great attributes however were his ability to deal in the transfer market and the strength of his convictions and he was never afraid to make what were, at the time, unpopular decisions and see them through. The sale of top scorer Terry Bly in 1963 was a case in point. The fans were in uproar when he was sold but within weeks it proved to be an inspired decision as Bly’s career tailed off and his replacement, George Hudson, became the most idolized player in the club’s history. Three years later there was further hullabaloo when Hudson was sold but a year later when promotion was secured to Division One Hill’s judgement was proved correct.

In his first full season in charge the FA Cup run to the quarter-finals put them back into national view and although they missed out on promotion from Division Three they made it the following year as champions. A season of consolidation in Division Two was followed with a narrow miss in 1966, before in 1967, a thrilling campaign saw Hill’s team go 25 games unbeaten and clinch the championship with a memorable victory over closest rivals Wolves in front of a record Highfield Road crowd of 51,455.

He resigned on the eve of the next season to take up a job with London Weekend Television and says now that if the club had met his request for a ten-year contract he would have stayed. After the impact he had on the club, many feel that it was a tragedy that Jimmy never took the opportunity to test his abilities at the highest level. Whether he would have been a success or not will never be known.

Joined: 29th November 1961
First game: 2nd December v Northampton Town, home, Third Division, won 1-0

Left: 13th October 1967
Last game: 7th October 1967 v Sheffield Wednesday, away, First Division, lost 0-4

288 games as manager

	Lge	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Win %	Pos
1961-62	Div 3	26	10	4	12	36	39	24	38.4	14th
1962-63	Div 3	46	18	17	11	83	69	53	39.1	4th
1963-64	Div 3	46	22	16	8	98	61	60	47.8	1st
1964-65	Div 2	42	17	9	16	72	70	43	40.4	10th
1965-66	Div 2	42	20	13	9	73	53	53	47.6	3rd
1966-67	Div 2	42	23	13	6	74	43	59	54.7	1st
1967-68	Div 1	11	2	4	5	17	25	8	18.1	18th
Totals		255	112	76	67	453	360	300	43.9

League Cup: 16 games (8 wins, 2 draws, 6 losses)

FA Cup: 17 games (8 wins, 4 draws, 5 losses)