The Club was saddened to learn of the death of former player Jimmy Hill, who died on 19 December 2015, aged 87. After starting his professional career at Brentford, he also played for Fulham and managed Coventry City before a successful career in broadcasting.
James William Thomas Hill was born in Balham on 22 July 1928. He attended Henry Thornton Grammar School in Clapham. Jimmy didn’t take the conventional route into professional football and did his national service working as clerk in the Royal Army Service Corps.
Playing for Folkestone Town by this time, he was spotted by Reading manager Ted Drake and played on trial at Elm Park in the spring of 1949. It was in a reserve team match against Brentford at Griffin Park that he caught the eye of The Bees coaching staff and after Reading passed the opportunity to sign him up, the Club offered him professional forms in May.
He made his Brentford debut in a Second Division match against Leicester City on 3 September 1949 after scoring a hat-trick for the reserves as an inside forward earlier that week. Jimmy was then converted to the successful half-back role alongside Tony Harper and Ron Greenwood, which helped Brentford rise up to the Second Division promotion places in the first half of the 1951/52 season.
A 1951 Boxing Day dressing room row with Greenwood and manager Jackie Gibbons after a defeat to Southampton left The Bees centre half transfer listed. Jimmy supported Ron’s case and was also placed on the transfer list, leaving for Fulham in March 1952 in a swap for Jimmy Bowie plus £5,000 transfer fee. He made 87 appearances for The Bees in nearly three years at Griffin Park.
His time at Craven Cottage was a successful one, scoring 41 league goals in 276 appearances for The Lilywhites. In 1957, he became chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) and fought to have the Football League's £20 maximum wage scrapped, which was achieved in January 1961. Today’s footballers owe him a great debt.
Retiring in 1961, he became Coventry City manager in November that year and revolutionised the fortunes of The Sky Blues, who until that point had been relatively unsuccessful. He led them from the basement division to the top flight before quitting in 1967. The Sky Blues song written by Hill is still sang today by their supporters.
On one occasion in 1972 he even ran down from the commentary box and took the lineman’s flag for a First Division match between Arsenal and Liverpool when the scheduled official became injured. Hill by then had turned to broadcasting after his departure from Highfield Road, becoming a familiar face on television, firstly as TV executive, presenter of Match of the Day and analyst. He would stay in industry until his retirement in 2007.
Jimmy answered an SOS call to become Fulham’s Chairman in 1987 with the Club facing deep uncertainties over their future. Ten years later with the Club in better health and their tenure of Craven Cottage secure, he passed the baton on to Mohamed Fayed. He was awarded the OBE for his services to football in 1995.
He was lampooned for his features and opinions in some quarters but Jimmy remains to this day one of football’s visionaries. A minute’s silence was held before Saturday’s match with Huddersfield Town.
The Club sends its deepest condolences to Jimmy’s family and friends at this time.