Jimmy Hill: A Man for All Seasons

There is one great story. In fact, I was thinking about it in the car.

England had been beaten at the semifinal of the World Cup in 1990.

Somebody asked Terry Venables, who was there,

what's the criteria for the new England manager?

Jimmy says, "I'll tell you.

"I'll tell you what the criteria is.

"Must have played at the highest level,

"must have been a manager at the highest level,

"must have been a director at the highest level,

"must have the respect of the Football Association,

"must have the respect of the press and the media,

"must have the respect of the supporters."

And Lynam went, "Jimmy, who on this planet

"has got all those qualifications?"

Jimmy went, "Me!"

And it wasn't a joke.

He spoke with more conviction and more self-confidence

than any other person I've ever met in my life.

It's a goal! Jimmy Hill!

It's hard to describe anyone that has given football as much

in so many different areas as Jimmy Hill.

I would like to be a dictator.

How can I describe him without being too much over the top?

He was like a Messiah to Coventry.

A bearded wonder!

Remarkable character. A complete one-off.

He always used to wear that bowtie

and get up the Scots fans' noses a bit!

He was a cartoonist's dream, wasn't he?

He had the perfect face for the caricature.

It feels almost as if I'm touching a bare lady's bottom.

Be quiet, will you?

He was always going to fill up lots of time.

He had lots of opinions.

The biggest problem with Jimmy was shutting him up!

Did he change football? The answer is yes.

It was Jimmy who got the three points for a win.

Started all-seater stadiums.

Talk about a man for all seasons, he was a man for everything.

A man who revolutionised the way the professionals were paid.

A charmer. He was a good guy.

There's no question Jimmy Hill leaves a legacy in football.

Which is the most important part of it, I don't know,

but the fact that there are so many

probably makes him completely unique.

When he died last December,

there was no better place than here

to celebrate 87 years that had burst with life.

This was a place he loved and that loved him in return.

The heart of the City of Coventry.

Because Jimmy Hill was once the beating heart of Coventry City.

I think for me, he was a great innovator, pioneer.

The legacy of many of the things that he introduced

are the things we take for granted today.

We're actually saying goodbye

to someone who has played an enormous part in English football.

That's why I think so many people

from the top end of football are here today,

to pay our respects to him in this way.

I caught the end of a phone-in

asking who was the most significant person ever

from the City of Coventry?

I was shocked to hear Dad had come second to Lady Godiva!

LAUGHTER

He was Mr Football and a real-life Roy of the Rovers

with a brain and with a chin.

The recurring themes in Dad's action-packed life

seem to have been football, charity

and wives.

It was overwhelming when he passed away,

the kindness and the admiration and the affection for Jimmy

that came across so openly and so incredibly.

It was heart-warming and bewildering and overwhelming.

I will treasure and cherish those messages forever.

# ..Oysters or anyone

# They shan't defeat us... #

I thought it was a really moving tribute to Jimmy.

Quite emotional, but fun as well,

and passion, which are the things that Jimmy had in abundance.

I just wish he could have been alive to see it

because he would have loved it.

My memory of Jimmy was somebody who cared,

who loved life,

enjoyed the good things of life and was prepared to work for them.

When you separate the celebrity from the person,

he was the son of a milkman, from south London,

and he came an awful long way.

Well, they were very happy days, although my mum particularly had

a rather sad life in some ways because her first husband was killed

in the First World War and left her with two children, one of whom,

a girl - Irene was her name - played cricket for England.

But she was killed as a result of a motorcycle accident in 1935

and my stepbrother, her brother, was killed in the last war.

So, really, it was a very unhappy time for my mother,

but she was indomitable.

She had a great spirit and she rose above all that.

And I was the only child of her second marriage to Mr William Hill.

Never went to university, was a chimney sweep,

became a young footballer at Brentford, which was my club,

and he ended up changing football and then changing broadcasting.

When he first came to Fulham, he started off a wing half

and then they converted him into an inside forward.

And we scored a lot of goals as a team,

but Jimmy got more than his fair share of goals.

It's a goal! Jimmy Hill has equalised!

I think he had a good career as a player, actually, at Fulham,

by the time of Haynes and Bobby Robson,

a lot of really good players.

They had a pretty good team at the time, Fulham.

I knew Jimmy Hill very well. I played with Jimmy Hill at Fulham.

Nothing wrong with Jimmy Hill.

His big thing was his stamina. He ran all day. I mean,

tremendous energy. You could rely on Jimmy to give you 100% everything,

he would be running when everyone else was exhausted

and he'd still be going.

He'll try to tell the referee his job and no doubt will be spoken to

by the referee for that bit of nonsense from Jimmy Hill.

Jimmy was that front man, if he walked into a room,

he had presence. He had his beard. He was swashbuckling, as a player.

Perfect for him to be leading the PFA.

When he became chairman of the Players' Union,

he didn't have to go far for his first political scrap.

Rumours that Haynes is seeking a transfer have made headlines,

and today he went to Craven Cottage for talks with the management.

Is it true you are going to leave Fulham, Johnny?

It was all about scrapping the maximum wage.

Footballers could be paid 20 quid a week and no more.

Johnny Haynes was the cause,

and his Fulham team-mate was just the man to fight it.

-# I need money

-That's what I want... #

Footballers should get paid more,

because the amount of money that goes into the game...

But why do you think they should be paid more just for playing a game?

Well, thousands go to see it, so we really should be paid.

They pay money to see us, so we should get what comes out of

the gate, if you understand?

Jimmy, of course, he had a personality to not worry about

who he was fighting against. He was fighting for every English player.

All I can see at this moment is the beard

and the most glorious overcoat that I'd ever seen.

He was six foot-plus and he had the stature, and he was a leader of men.

Because of the character that he had, he was prepared

to stick the chin out all the time, with a beard or without it.

This is Jimmy Hill, Fulham's famous bearded inside right,

shaving with the new Remington, the world's fastest shave.

It was more a Walter Raleigh beard...a little... It was...

You could see him as d'Artagnan.

Why don't you go on strike

if you've got all the players in your union?

It isn't our intention to go on strike because there's a phrase,

"softly, softly, catchee monkey", which is perhaps our maxim.

It was fighting to open the doors. You know, where are we going?

You can't keep limiting us to £20 a week because your clubs are earning

more money than that, why aren't we being successful?

We are the players. We produce.

And why can't we have more money?

Well, this is a theme that has come up and up and it's really stale.

You see, a footballer does very well, a star footballer.

First of all, he gets £20 a week,

he gets £17 a week when he's not playing...

Directors in these days, it seemed to be old owners who owned a club

for 100 years or something, you know? And I think that was

the way football was in these days. But if he was to deal with some of

the directors today, I think he'd make a different opinion of it.

At meetings in Birmingham and London, the stars have never been

so militant or outspoken as they are today.

If the four main points raised today

are not brought about by the management committee,

I honestly think strike action will be demanded.

Jimmy, the union has been negotiating for better conditions

ever since there's been a union, and that's 60 years.

Football league clubs have done nothing yet to suggest they are even

-prepared to meet you halfway.

-We must face the possibility

that in a month's time, there will be complete deadlock.

These players today have faced it,

but nevertheless, they instructed us to issue this resolution

from the meeting, and it was passed unanimously.

So you would be satisfied with a promise in the next month?

Well, it isn't our committee. We would put it back to the players

and say exactly what had been promised and stated by the league.

Then it's up to them to see whether they are going to be

satisfied or not.

The club owners gave in.

The maximum wage was scrapped.

The near-striker celebrated the goal...with restraint.

Well, I wouldn't say we have achieved it all. I don't think

we'd ever have settled it if we achieved everything, there would

have been a strike and I don't know what would have happened.

But I think we've achieved, more or less, the things that are going to

benefit football, which is the important thing.

I mean, he had that greatness about him.

And he was outspoken. He was outspoken.

I think that was the pivotal moment in his life.

What did you start, Jimmy?

Johnny Haynes became the first £100-a-week player.

They earn that per second now, but at the time...

Yes, an iconic day, that's special.

You can tell by the smiles on the faces that they've been successful.

I am sure that will be one of the best dinners they ever had.

No strike, solidarity, players union, well-established,

and a basis for the future.

And instead of it being the demise of the game,

which a few against it had predicted,

five years later, we won the World Cup.

He would have had no idea the implications and the repercussions

of that change in the law. And every time he read the paper

and he saw a six-figure or seven-figure number

of another player getting this, that and the other, he said,

"That can't be true." I said, "It's in the paper, James, it's true!"

When you look back, the bearded wonder pulled it off!

# I'm going up the country

# Baby, don't you wanna go? #

His playing days were over.

And having just won his first trophy as a union leader,

he now quit politics, too.

He was leaving London and heading for the Midlands.

The familiar beard is still there, but today, Jimmy Hill is building

a new career on the opposite side of the fence

as manager of Third Division Coventry City.

Good job, well done! Five goals and a corner! Come on, Reggie.

You're stood there dithering.

When Jimmy came along, it was very much a down at heel club.

It was a dump, basically. The whole place had really sort of gone

to seed and it was Jim that came in like a whirlwind, I think,

and just inspired the whole city, just dragged it up by its bootlaces.

When I came here, I came with a tracksuit. I put it on within

half an hour of arriving at the club and, really,

all I thought of was making them play better and getting results.

He was a man that you just stood and admired.

But his enthusiasm and his movements of his body,

they never seemed to coordinate.

And we used to laugh at him a little bit,

with that passion and commitment that he had.

Everybody knows he was innovative, but he was so far advanced,

you just couldn't keep up with the man at times.

And not only did he build a very good team,

but he had all sorts of ideas. You know, the Sky Blue train

that used to take the fans to an away game.

And the song that they still sing, the Boating Song.

He was up to every... I was going to say "gimmick",

but probably would be fairer to say "development"

that he could lay his hands on.

Coventry are still on top of the Second Division

and favourites for the Championship.

THEY LAUGH

They are just fabulous. All they sing about now is the Sky Blue,

-Monday morning, at work...

-In the shops, everywhere you go,

in the shops, everything is Sky Blue.

It's only since Jimmy Hill came here.

There's a lady over, fainted. Would you pick her up off the floor?

Number 134...

is the winner of this wonderful automobile, made in Coventry.

Didn't he also introduce the first-ever colour programme

that you get? And the list is absolutely endless.

Jimmy was just miles ahead of anybody.

He brought the city up, it wasn't just the football club,

he brought the whole city up.

This thing about "shoulders back, chest out",

that's something that Coventry maybe as a Midlands kind of city

doesn't do all the time. But I think Jim got it.

He was like... How can I describe it

without being not too much over the top?

He was like a Messiah to Coventry.

All these changes were happening. I think that you've got to remember

that there was a big liberation after the war.

The '60s became an absolute new world.

You had the Beatles, George Best, you had a completely different

happening, and Jimmy was part of that, you know?

How would you think, if you were going to take 18 players,

three players to a car,

and you were going to start in Coventry and you were going into

Belgium, you were going into Austria,

you were going into Germany and you were going all over Europe?

Because that's what we did in Rover 2000s.

# Baby, you can drive my car

# Yes, I'm gonna be a star... #

Well, Jimmy, Sky Blue footballers and sky blue motorcars,

what is it all about this time?

Well, we've been touring Europe for a few years now

and we've never made any money. In fact, we've always lost money.

So this year, we wanted an idea to make money in Europe

so we approached the Rover car company and said,

"You take us there and we will help you sell your cars."

So it's a sort of football tour to help the export drive.

We can't believe it. We all take turns to drive.

We are going down these autobahns at 60, 70, 80mph,

handing over water, pop, you name it.

And not only that, we played games as well.

And it was just unbelievable.

# Beep-beep'm beep-beep, yeah... #

Well, Jimmy, the very best of luck both with your football results

and your export figures.

Well, thank you very much, Frank. And if we get promotion on the way,

we will really sell some cars in Europe, so cheerio!

# Beep-beep'm beep-beep, yeah... #

The city was buzzing.

Not only with the football, but industry was going well,

the car factories were turning out thousands of cars every week.

But then again, Jimmy encompassed that by taking the players

round to the car factories, to bring the players to the public.

The only time that you didn't want anything from Coventry

with the car service was on a Friday afternoon.

Because everybody was talking about football.

After the Sky Blues had won on a Saturday,

production of cars the following week

would be a lot more than if we had lost.

Jim had this saying that you can beat a club,

but you can't beat a club in a city.

The people in the car factories and so on, they can actually see

a synergy there between themselves and the football club

and that was ground-breaking at the time.

How significant is the football club to the Coventry car worker?

I think it plays a big part in his or her life.

I've never worked on an assembly line myself,

but I have watched them and I imagine that at the end of a day

you want something to lift you up, and a weekend away supporting

the Coventry City Football Club, I think, gives them that lift.

He did everything for the game, everything he was into.

I mean, the publicity on the shirts,

he wanted to call Coventry Coventry Talbot because of the car,

at the time. He was ahead of the game all the way through.

I talked to Bill Shankly, the old manager of Liverpool,

and he said, "It's a bloody circus!"

I said, "It's not, he's brought life to Coventry.

"He revitalised everything."

He knew what he wanted to give us for what we had given Coventry,

and that was promotion to the First Division.

# I thought love was only true in fairytales... #

Oh, it's a goal!

If you think what he did in that time,

people needed a lot of persuading.

In those days, everything was black and white,

and for Jimmy to persuade so many people,

certainly in charge of football,

to persuade them that these ideas that he was having would be radical,

they would be brilliant, must have took some doing.

# Not a trace

# Of doubt in my mind... #

Derrick Robins, chairman of Coventry City Football Group,

enjoying the fruits of success.

With his manager, Jimmy Hill,

Robins has taken a depressed Third Division club and transformed it.

Together, they've achieved an extraordinary partnership

with their supporters, who have come back in their thousands.

Commercial awareness allied to a love of sport has guided

Coventry City into the top flight for the first time.

ALL: # Let's all sing together

# Play up Sky Blues

# While we sing together... #

He brought his mum and dad into the football club,

he brought them up from London and everybody came together.

So there was Mr and Mrs Hill, his mum and dad, behind the bar,

there was a lady that did all the cooking,

and JH would come and sit with us, so we were a big family.

-ALL:

-# They can't defeat us... #

He celebrated...

-ALL:

-# We'll fight till the game is done... #

..and he left.

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

Jimmy, you have shaken Coventry City rigid today by this decision.

Now, why are you leaving Coventry and what are you going to do?

Well, why? I am leaving Coventry because I have decided to give up

football management.

CHEERING AND SINGING

He took us into the boardroom, sat us all down

and it was straight talking. He just said,

"Well, lads, I am fed up of 11 people trying to keep me in a job

"every Saturday afternoon."

# We'll fight till the game is won... #

I think there was a genuine feeling of disbelief. There was

almost this godlike figure that had dragged them up

from the Third Division, Cup runs, the Sky Blue Revolution

and all that sort of thing, and he's gone.

We didn't have our leader any more.

He was Jimmy Hill, simple as that.

He decided to get out of management. He was shrewd enough to get out

of management, cos it's a hard business.

JH decided he was going and he went into television

and he was controlling his own life.

And what a success he made, what a success!

Television had its way, back then, of doing football.

Perhaps it was time for a bit of a shake-up.

You remember when you used to have the sport on a Saturday

and it was Kenneth Wolstenholme.

Coventry City had their moments of glory against Manchester United,

as you can now see.

He was obviously a professional,

but Jimmy brought something different, you know?

He had a lot of style about him, Jimmy.

I think that that's why probably television went for him, you see.

I think he was the perfect fit for television football.

Jimmy Hill went to London Weekend to be Head of Sport.

I mean, he had no background in it at all.

It was a very brave decision by somebody.

You wouldn't do it today, would you?

But he got the job as Head of Sport, and was a very good Head of Sport.

Jimmy said to me, "I've never heard anyone call you Richard."

I said, "No, they don't. They call me Dick or Dickie."

And he said, "Then I think you should become Dickie Davies."

It took me by surprise,

and I told my wife, and she wasn't very happy with it.

But I became Dickie Davies.

It made such an incredible difference.

DD - it was easy, it was friendlier. That was very good thinking.

And, of course, Brian Moore and Jimmy

were the partnership that looked after football on ITV in those days.

If it's an ex-player on there all the time

talking about the way that you play, about the way somebody else plays,

somebody who's actually been and done it,

and then if you factor in coaching, managing,

all those kind of things, Jimmy basically ticked every box.

He got the whole thing. He got the whole thing about debate.

He got television.

Well, Bob, that was a wonderful match.

Jimmy was one of the architects

of the great ITV World Cup panel in 1970.

That might be the first World Cup

where ITV were the talked-about channel

because they put together a panel of experts

that fired opinions,

and Brian Moore and Jimmy stoked them up.

Jimmy said to me,

"Brian, I wonder if you fancy climbing a mountain with me."

Now, I found that irresistible.

He said, "I want you to be a commentator,"

that we would have a panel with a difference.

We wanted one or two extroverts.

Jimmy had thought about this, and he thought,

well, I can get all these really good managers and nice blokes

and they'd all sit there and they'd all agree with each other.

He said, so I'll get these three or four blokes who are full of angst,

some of them probably didn't like each other,

one or two were slightly arrogant,

and it was absolutely fantastic telly.

MUSIC: The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy

The clan, as we used to call them. They were marvellous.

And they were so successful.

MUSIC CONTINUES

I think Derek Dougan was quite prevalent, Cloughie...

Paddy Crerand might have been on there.

Tactically, we're better.

But as a team to watch, we're a complete bore.

But why are we technically better in Europe?

Because we play against peasant teams who play in primitive ways.

Germany and Italy... play with a bloody sweeper!

Malcolm, we've had a lot of letters.

You'll get the yellow card in a minute from Romanians and Hungarians.

I'll tell you what, Jim. I couldn't care less tonight.

Dear Mal Allison, who's only got one lung,

he loved his champagne.

They all loved champagne.

We haven't cleaned up in Europe because they don't know how to play!

It was fun to be with them, because they enlivened everything so much.

And Jimmy in the middle of it all.

-You mean peasants in that respect, in the football term?

-Yeah.

-We'll make that quite clear.

Everybody was arguing, and there was pandemonium, really.

He'd give a red card to anyone that didn't behave themselves!

Or went too far.

They go and play with a sweeper system.

This is why we won in Europe.

The red card, Malcolm.

No-one had ever seen a red card before, and it was brilliant!

The time I really got to know him was in 1973, when all of a sudden,

David Coleman ceased to introduce Match Of The Day

and they brought Jimmy in from London Weekend.

He was a star on ITV, and he came across to the BBC

and became a bigger star.

But in front of the nation.

MATCH OF THE DAY THEME PLAYS

Jimmy, of course, has made his name as an analyst

rather than as a presenter.

But he now sort of almost did both in one go.

The thing about Jimmy was, he was so incredibly versatile.

If you gave him something to do,

or you told him something perhaps he couldn't do,

"Oh, I can do that!"

He would immediately find a way

of getting around that particular issue, which he did.

Well, good evening, and welcome to Match Of The Day

for the start of the 1973-1974 season,

a vital season for English football,

as England, Scotland and Wales

desperately fight to qualify for the World Cup.

He looked different,

he had lots of energy and enthusiasm.

And he presented Match Of The Day which, at the time,

was getting 10 million, 12 million people every week.

Jimmy was very famous.

Yeah, he's buzzing, Jim, of course.

He started off where he left off last season.

Keep your eye on him.

MUSIC: Jimmy Jimmy by The Undertones

Jimmy Hill's the biggest star connected with Match Of The Day.

He was there for the longest period.

It sort of all revolved around him. It was his show.

I would say he was the biggest fish in it.

Those of you who have white cards,

when I say, "Three, two, one, up," they'll all go up.

And...up!

Terrific.

I think that's pretty conclusive.

He used to walk into the studio invariably late

because wherever he had been round the country at a Match Of The Day,

he used to go straight back to Notting Hill for dinner.

He had a pipe, and that's when you could smoke in the studios.

And he had all the newspapers from the Sunday morning

and he used to pick up a newspaper and say,

"Right, let's have a look and see what I said tomorrow."

And that got everybody going.

Jimmy had an excellent command of the English language,

and a lot of times

the football community can get their words wrong,

you know, and the names wrong and the sentences wrong,

but never Jimmy.

Jimmy, whether it was off-screen or on-screen...

I admired him for that as well, because it's live television.

-Jimmy was like, just there.

-HE SNAPS FINGERS

You know, hit it.

Camera goes on him and he was off and running.

-Cue Jimmy.

-Good evening, and welcome to Match Of The Day

on the last Saturday of the football league season.

..And a commentator speaks for 90 minutes,

of which only 30 gets on the air.

Sometimes, that may unbalance the view you get of his commentary.

So, today, for the first time in television history,

we're getting a commentator to evaluate his own performance.

-Barry Davies...

-Well, it's funny, Jim,

people always say to you before a match,

I suppose to all commentators, "Give us a good report."

And I always say, "It's what happens down there, not what I say."

He was great company. Great company.

You struggled a bit to get a word in sideways, but he was great company.

..From the commentator, and thank you very much for that,

maybe the viewers will understand a bit more

the commentator's point of view in the future.

I remember one time,

he used to kind of do the presenting and the analysis,

which is truly remarkable, really.

Ask yourself a question! He'd do this analysis bit.

As far as I can see, they're fulfilling their promise to attack more

and are creating chances.

But for a variety of reasons, they're not converting them.

I think we could have probably stuck with that

and got rid of all these pundits

and just make it that the presenter does it.

But only Jimmy would come up with that,

and it was unquestionably his idea.

That's a talent, you know, and it really is a talent.

The presenting in itself is a serious talent,

and the way he could switch and adapt

from being a pundit and giving his views...

to presenting, but still giving his views!

-BLARING IN BACKGROUND

-Before we leave that match, I think you'd enjoy a moment's fun,

and it occurred at the end of Ron Saunders' interview

with Alan Parry at Villa Park.

Sorry about the noise.

Brilliant, but then Jimmy was brilliant in ridiculous situations.

It was raining all night here, and it's been raining all day.

And, indeed, we've had a little bit of a problem

inside our hut here today, haven't we, Jim?

-Yes.

-But I believe the BBC brains,

the technical boys, have got onto it.

Well, yes. Tomorrow's World have got an idea, I understand.

LAUGHTER

How many times have you been in and out with that bucket now?

Stand by, Jimmy.

What's happening now, then? Play the music!

Good evening, and welcome to a very busy Match Of The Day.

Welcome back to Match Of The Day and to football league action.

Sensational, wasn't it?

For the fanatical support of their fans alone,

a neutral would surely select this game as the perfect Cup Final.

Your commentator - John Motson.

I was a bit in awe of him at first,

cos when I started doing the Cup Final,

he was already a huge personality.

But he was extremely nice in the sense that,

because he was so aware, in the nicest possible way,

of his own sort of personality,

a lot of people would want to talk to him

about all sorts of different things,

and it could have been quite irritating.

But he always found time to stop...

And, obviously, he stopped to espouse the Jimmy Hill view.

You had to live with that.

He could certainly tell a story.

He was a frustrated toff, I think.

He liked fine food and he liked nice tableware

and proper knives and forks

and riding to the hunt and, "Hello, hello!"

A little stirrup cup.

He was out of his time in many ways!

I can remember going to a match in London, and it was in the '70s.

It was Liverpool-Arsenal.

20 minutes into the game, the linesman was injured.

And who should the emergency linesman be? Jimmy Hill.

The man who's put referees and linesmen

under the spotlight for so long

now is truly under the spotlight himself, and the crowd know it.

The whole Kop went,

# He's here, he's there # He's every...where, Jimmy Hill! #

Can you imagine, these days?

And he was the linesman for the rest of the game.

And Jimmy really turned that round...

Oh, hold on, Jimmy, hold on!

Nobody in my world of sport has been a bigger doer, go-getter,

nice person, than Jimmy.

He rode to the hounds. Not fashionable with some.

He was a good horseman.

Jimmy Hill is a man of action. He needs to be fit.

There's not much talk of football among the hunting folk,

so he gets away from it all

when he joins the North Warwickshire in the field. He does it well.

There was one occasion he was in this hunt

and he was running along,

trotting along on his horse with about two or three ladies with him,

and so he reined his horse back so the ladies could go first

and, as they went through, Jimmy's horse farted!

HE LAUGHS

So, he said, "I'm terribly sorry."

And she said, "I thought it was the horse!"

What I really want to know is are you as sick as a parrot?

I'm what they call OTM -

over the moon and all the bloody fences!

Come on, come on!

He was a nine-handicap golfer. He was a dancer.

He wasn't a great singer, but he loved to lead a sing-song.

He and Gracie Fields, bless her,

they would have got on like a house on fire.

Or even Dolly Parton.

Steady! Steady, boy!

He didn't do steady when it came to himself, not really.

He was too busy talking.

You stop the goalkeeper coming up one way and, in the end,

he makes him kick it off his weak foot.

-See, he makes the goalkeeper...

-Oh, I see that!

They're mostly right-footed, players.

I didn't understand that strategy, but, see,

that shows you you have to have brains, doesn't it?

Cos it is an exciting thing.

If the women knew what the hell they were doing,

they'd be down here watching this game and enjoying it,

watching all these lovely men doing wonderful athletic things.

I think she's wonderful, don't you? I think all the girls are wonderful.

There were three or four different ladies in his lifespan

and everything else, but that was JH.

I just have to shrug my shoulders and smile. I can't say any more!

He married three times,

had five children -

Jamie is the youngest.

He was always on the run, Dad.

Well, you name it - from having Bruce Forsyth on holiday

to getting to see some fantastic football. It came with benefits.

The strangest thing was, when he wasn't at home,

I had a big cardboard cut-out of him,

life-size, in the room, which was almost like having him on telly.

I guess the thing I can say is that when I went to school

people always knew who I was because your dad was on telly.

The man on the telly went back to Coventry as a director

and started recruiting.

Terry Yorath, for example - head-hunting the Jimmy Hill way.

Jimmy arranged to meet my dad in a service station.

It was supposed to be a secret meeting.

My dad pulled in to the service station

and a white Jaguar pulled in

and he couldn't see Jimmy Hill in the car

and he thought, "This is all very strange."

It was all very cloak-and-dagger.

And then, slowly, the boot opened and Jimmy Hill got out of the boot,

and he'd been hiding in the boot all the way to the service station.

He was so paranoid about being seen approaching a player

that potentially he shouldn't have been talking to at that time.

My dad was either managing director or chairman

come back to help out Coventry.

The big signing was Terry Yorath.

It was all secret, so he came to the house.

But part of the deal was that Terry's wife, Christine,

wanted the house, so we moved round the corner to Fairlands Park

and the Yoraths were given

19 Cannon Hill Road as part of the deal.

So, when we moved into Jimmy Hill's house,

they had a dog called Sally, who was a tiny little miniature poodle.

She didn't want to leave the house so when they moved up the road,

she kept coming back and visiting the house,

and eventually we adopted her, to the point where,

when we moved to Vancouver Whitecaps,

she then got moved to my grandparents

and then they looked after her for the rest of her days.

So, yeah, Jimmy Hill's Dog -

it was a nice house-warming gift, to get a dog with the house!

Yeah, fond memories.

We spent a lot of time in the garden kicking a ball around.

This is the only house that's been altered or split.

The neighbours' house is still exactly the same.

Yeah, it's remarkably untouched.

I was five years old and we moved into Jimmy Hill's house

because he bought my dad at a club.

To me, you know, as a kid, he was my dad's boss.

It was later on in life I learned that he was a lot more

than just the chairman of Coventry City.

Have you booked your seat yet?

Enjoy all the thrills of First Division football

in comfort and safety from your very own seat

at the new Coventry City all-seater stadium.

Call the Sky Blue Link Line.

-BUZZING

-Coventry City?

Yes, we have. We've got plenty of tickets for this evening.

When Jim came back to Coventry in the mid-'70s,

perhaps that little knack of knowing what the public wanted

had kind of diminished a bit

and then the all-seater stadium at the start

wasn't the biggest success in the world.

We lost probably about 25% of the fanbase

that we had that really didn't come back.

That period was very difficult, I think, in Coventry's time

and he just wanted to be on board to see

if he could change their fortunes again in as much as he could

with his broadcasting career and everything else.

More details have emerged about the rebel football tour of South Africa.

Today, Jimmy Hill, chairman of Coventry City...

The magic touch seemed to have deserted him.

He had to apologise for his part

in leading the rebel tour to South Africa.

So many ideas, but not all of them brilliant.

He was a visionary.

He took the game to the Americas, took it to the Middle East.

Jimmy and the club made the mistake of going into America

and lost money, but 99% of Jimmy's ideas did go well

and were hugely successful.

I think it was Jimmy, more than anybody else,

who got the three points for a win.

Because it had to be passed by committees

and all this type of thing, but I think it was Jimmy that said,

"Oh, that would make the game a lot more entertaining,"

and he was absolutely right because, suddenly, teams weren't always

playing for a draw, they were playing for TWO extra points.

Everyone was saying, "Why? The game's good enough."

"No, no, if you keep drawing, you're not going to get any excitement.

"You're not going to get anything at all for what football needs today."

He got his way, and it became like it is today -

three points for a win and one for a draw.

And that was Jimmy Hill - he did that, he did that himself.

He pushed and pushed and pushed until it was done.

Jimmy was a very, very good man to have on a committee, in my opinion,

because he was inquiring, he asked questions, he saw things.

He saw reasons why you COULD do things,

not reasons why you couldn't do things.

I saw this ad in the paper, which said,

"BBC TV sports personality with dog seeks super-efficient PA."

Well, I can't type, I don't know anything about sport,

but I do love dogs,

so I rang the agency and said, "Who is it for?"

They said, "Oh, it's Jimmy Hill." I said, "Sorry?"

"Jimmy Hill, you know - beard, football, whatever."

And I thought, "Well, I need the work."

He was sitting in his office, busy on the phone,

I think it was to Elton John - name-drop, name-drop!

He was charming and lovely and charismatic

and much taller than I thought he was going to be -

he was six foot tall, cos you only see this much on television.

And I'm very pleased I was given the job. He worked round my limitations!

The rest is history, as it were.

There was always this sense that - how to put it -

upheaval was never far away.

It came next in his television career

when he was moved out of the presenter's chair.

Not that he went far.

Well, Jimmy will be running his experienced football eye

over tonight's matches as he will throughout this cup season

and passing a comment or two...or three.

I've got a different style to Jimmy.

Everybody's got a different style to Jimmy!

And he's also looking after my cough mixture. Right, Jim?

-Large or small one?

-No ice.

Obviously, Jimmy was actually a presenter himself,

but when Des came in, Des had that kind of charm, didn't he,

and I think he could bring out the best in Jimmy

and bring out the cheeky side in Jimmy.

I think Jimmy was one of those pundits that would make you think.

You'd either massively disagree with him,

or categorically agree with him.

There was no middle ground with Jimmy.

He lifted his foot up and let the ball come

so he dummied his own goalkeeper.

He wouldn't have let that go on purpose there, Jim. There's no...

-You saw it as well as I did.

-No, but I don't think he let it go.

People used to say, "Cor, that was great last night!

"You don't like him, do you?"

You'd get in the taxis and the cab driver would say,

"You don't like Jimmy Hill, do you?"

I said, "Yes, I do. I do like Jimmy Hill."

He's not going to let it go. He misjudged it.

What is taking your foot out of the way a bit, then?

No, I don't think he did.

I said, "I'm not having anyone say anything about him," sort of thing,

so he said, "Do you really?"

I said, "No, I don't like him. You're right."

He said, "I told you you didn't like him!" So, it got me in the end.

Terry, of course, worked with Jimmy on the England games

and they were quite friendly,

and Jimmy was demonstrating how a particular player

had done something, and Terry was nudging me and laughing,

cos Jimmy was saying, "Well, you do it that way

"and I could have done that!"

Meaning that what the player had done wasn't that remarkable.

"I could have done that!"

And all the way home and for years later,

Terry Venables used to say,

"Do you remember that time we were at Fulham

"and Jimmy was telling us, 'I could have done that'?"

And if you put your arm up, you risk having a penalty.

If I had been the manager...

And all of a sudden, with Gascoigne looking

as if he'd been rejuvenated...

He had an opinion.

And damn right, he had one!

I'm very happy about that.

Nevertheless, it is a foul.

The attention is to the ball.

'For me, it was also the first stages of being a pundit -'

at least to have an argument about things...that was good.

Liverpool played Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup third round

at Ewood Park.

Yesterday we certainly had the let-off of the season,

and perhaps any other season, with Liverpool just escaping

and staying in the cup.

And Liverpool equalised in the last minute,

because the ball boy, as it would seem, Blackburn ball boy,

had been kind enough to throw the ball back quickly.

So Jez just throws into the air.

"Did you spot anything yesterday, Jimmy,

"that might have caught people's eye?"

"What about the ball boy at Ewood Park?"

This was the goal.

The point that I picked up was the alertness of a ball boy

and the fact that, really, his naivety...

And when this ball goes out,

and Blackburn Rovers are under pressure,

just watching the moment,

the ball boy - it is a ball girl, in fact - doing her duty,

picks it up, gives it back quickly,

before Rovers can recover.

They're still trying to get back in position.

She was doing her job very well.

She's not part of the tactics of the game.

That's how near Liverpool were to being out.

It were a bit like...

it hadn't sunk in, sort of thing.

It can't be me, really,

until I'd seen everybody out on the street

and everybody else had seen Match Of The Day.

You said if she threw the ball back

and they were not able to get back...

They were perfectly placed

-and you normally would deal with that...

-What went wrong, then?

I went to school and every lad in the school year

followed me all the way around.

"She's here, she's here!" "You shouldn't have done that!"

I got a phone call at school,

where my parents had to come and pick me up

and take me to Ewood Park, because it obviously had hit the press...

and that's when it all sort of hit home as well.

So now, Jimmy has got us on the front page of every newspaper

on the Monday.

"You're a telly twit, Jimmy!"

I think he got more name-calling than me!

"Hill climbs down." That's where he's admitted

that he's gone a bit far and apologised.

"Ball girl Gillian Maynard won a special award

"for her honesty and a big apology."

He was supposed to turn up on the Monday evening to do the live match.

He turns up late.

Why does he turn up late? Because he's found the address

of the little girl and said sorry.

And that is Jimmy.

I remember, I was at Norwich and...

it was Cantona,

and I think Jimmy had called the tackle despicable,

which it probably was.

MUSIC: Bloody Well Right by Supertramp

Alex called him a prat.

And...

Jimmy would have loved it!

It was Jimmy back in the headlines again.

He loved being in the headlines.

Jimmy just adored being in the headlines.

Mr Ferguson, as he was then,

afterwards was very generous in his apology to Jimmy.

And Jimmy was equally gracious

in his acceptance of the apology and said,

"Let's finish that bottle of whisky when we next meet."

If you had an incident like that

then, the next time, he'd have a spring in his step

and he'd be coming up with the next idea, the next big idea,

and what he was going to say

and how he'd get the public on his side.

It would have to be Lynam that would have to rein him in.

Des Lynam was the only one that could rein Jimmy in.

He was easiest of all the pundits to work with, in the sense

that he was going to fill up lots of time - he had lots of opinions.

The biggest problem with Jimmy was shutting him up!

Jimmy Hill - see-all, hear-all and know-all.

LAUGHTER

An expert on this, an expert on that, and an expert on the other.

I always felt, we've got lot of nice guys,

we need a little bit of a villain in there.

Who said, "I am the greatest, I am the best"?

BELL

I think it was me, and even if it wasn't, it should have been.

Des would occasionally come out of the hut

that was built at the back of the stand as a presentation studio

and the crowd would cheer,

and then Jimmy would come out to get some fresh air

and they'd boo. It was like one of those weather things

that went like this.

Big cheer for Des, big boo for Jimmy.

And Jimmy didn't mind.

# Are you watching Are you watching

# Are you watching, Jimmy Hill? #

I remember him saying about the Irish team,

"I think we're just going to the Euros to make up the numbers,"

which, of course, they took great delight in proving him, and rightly,

that he was wrong.

# Are you watching, Jimmy Hill? #

He instigated conversation and debate

with his views and his statements,

and he had a brilliant relationship

with, particularly, the Scottish football fans.

I think we all remember Jimmy Hill

and the David Narey "toe poke", as he called it,

which upset the Scots somewhat.

Toe poke!

Absolutely!

I mean...

This is Souness. Looks for Wark.

Narey is coming through from right-back.

'Yes, Narey had hit an absolute bullet

'from about 30 yards or something.'

Jimmy described it as a toe poke!

But that was classic Jimmy.

He'd just do something slightly provocative.

Which drove... Which drove the Tartan Army beyond despair!

They were going crazy!

This Braveheart, who was about six foot two,

wearing a kilt and a sporran, the whole dress, said...

-"BLEEP

-toe poke, was it, Jimmy?"

And Jimmy went, "Well," he said, taking the pipe out of the mouth,

"when I was playing, you see, a toe poke was a skill.

"Let's have a drink."

'He persuaded them that toe poke - that was an old-fashioned view

'of how he actually hit the ball.'

That was Jimmy.

I sat there with Jimmy and Jimmy did qualify it,

and he did say it was certainly one of the greatest toe pokes

that he'd ever seen!

I mean, he always used to wear that bow tie,

and sometimes an England bow tie,

and that used to get up the Scots fans' nose a bit.

But he didn't bother about that.

He probably quite enjoyed

the bit of heckling he got from the Scottish fans, I suppose.

I've got my hand on my heart -

I can remember singing songs about Jimmy Hill, you know.

One song for Bobby Moore, maybe two for Bally,

about eight for Jimmy! And we used to sing...

# We hate Jimmy Hill! He's a... #

HE HUMS

# He's a...

# We hate... #

And that used to go on relentlessly for about 20 minutes in each half.

But, as I say, it was all done in great taste and Jimmy loved it!

The Scottish fans...

He says, "When I go to Scotland, they're always great."

I said, "That's the Scots people.

"If you go up there and you're on your own, they'll be great to you.

"Try getting off the bus at Hampden and see how you are treated."

MUSIC: Jimmy Jimmy by The Undertones

It didn't matter if people hated him,

because he felt that was recognition.

You know? "Love me or hate me. But don't ignore me."

If he'd allowed McManaman a freer role in the centre,

he'd have opened up his options for Fowler,

because Fowler was in the best position...

Jimmy, be quiet, will you?

EXPLOSION

# Jimmy Jimmy... #

Also, Collymore could break through the Spurs defence.

THEY LAUGH

-WOMAN:

-'Stop recording.'

You won't get it better than that if we did it 109 times.

# Jimmy Jimmy

# Jimmy Jimmy... #

You know, he was forever getting scripts autographed,

balls autographed, shirts autographed.

He'd have an auction for this, an auction for that -

he'd do the auction for this or he'd do other auction for that.

Jimmy was in demand, but Jimmy was a very kind-hearted man

so he'd turn up for everything.

Oh, it was boundless. It was hard work keeping up with him sometimes,

because it wasn't just one event during the day.

Sometimes it would be two or three. And more.

If he was asked to do something, he'd look in his diary and say,

"OK, I think I can do you between so-and-so and so-and-so."

Off he'd steam with the appropriate paperwork or clothes and things

and he'd do that. He just couldn't say no.

He was very generous with his time.

-Are you nervous?

-Yeah.

-I thought you were.

I have never done anything like this before.

What, you mean, sat as close as this in the car?

-No, given away £5,000.

-I know.

"Sir, may I present on behalf of the gold-diggers, sir,

"a cheque for £5,000?"

The only maddening thing is you've got to dish it out!

-Yes.

-There's a badge that goes with it.

-This is...

-It's unusual. GD?

-GD.

-Gold-digger.

-Gimmy Dill.

Gimmy Dill?! I like that.

-Thank you very much for coming along.

-Thank you.

-Well, I thought that was great.

-I enjoyed that.

-Lovely place.

-Isn't it?

-Beautiful place. I've had worse gigs than this.

-Yes, yes.

-I'll tell you.

'Now that we've discussed entertainment for a moment,'

what about changing place with Edward Heath

and running the country?

I will, when I have finished with Saudi Arabia,

Coventry City and BBC Sport.

I did learn a lot off him. Um...

The one big thing is,

you can be dramatically right or dramatically wrong.

Don't be mundane and be in the middle, because that doesn't work.

Jimmy is interesting, because the public loved and hated him

in equal measure, I think,

but they hated him with a sense of friendliness.

And I remember telling him one day

that there'd been a newspaper survey and he had finished top, first,

as the most favourite sports presenter in the country.

He was absolutely delighted. "Lovely."

I said, "There's a bit of bad news as well, Jim,

"because you've also finished

"least favourite sports presenter first."

He said, "Lovely as well.

"The place not to finish is in the middle of those bloody things!"

And he was right! He was right.

Yes, I remember this great debate

when the Romanian team dyed their hair

so they were all blonde.

And Jimmy had a theory that this actually was to their advantage.

-Do you know, that is not an idiotic idea, I don't think.

-What?

-For them all to go blonde?

-I mean...

Just listen. Just listen.

The other members of the panel were almost in hysterics,

but it was a point of view.

You need a bright shirt to pass to, and your vision is that much better,

-right? And a light head...

-LAUGHTER

A light head... You can laugh as much as you like.

You couldn't knock him down with a demolition ball, honestly.

He was irrepressible with a capital I.

A fantastic character.

Flicked glance, you see a head and lay the ball to it.

-Brilliant!

-The tiniest 1% advantage in this game gives you a result.

He knew what he was doing, Jimmy.

Jimmy was a very, very clever man, as I say, and a very likeable man.

Football people were critical of him.

The fans were critical of him, and sometimes dismissive of him.

But I would think they laughed with him more than at him.

The '98 World Cup was the one, really,

where people thought, "Goodness me, he's been going for ages,

"do you think perhaps now is the time?"

Cos, of course, it was 30 years

since he had started with Brian Moore on The Big Match.

We had a really special time, particularly in France '98.

He hated missing anything, whether it was a half of lager,

or a conversation, or a game of golf, a chat about football,

a lunch, dinner -

Jimmy was the first name on the list and that was the way he wanted it.

You know, he hated - he hated - not being in the gang.

People used to come up to him in the street and say,

"You look younger in real life."

He said, "You must have a very old television!"

But he was always making fun of himself.

And I think, you know, he had been in people's living rooms

for 25 years with Match Of The Day, I think he did, and beyond.

So, he was part of the wallpaper.

25 years of night work ended, Jimmy just started again,

part of the brunch brigade.

I think what you have to appreciate, when Jimmy Hill joined Sky,

we were still very much a fledgling company.

And I'd get a phone call every other day,

"Oh, Mark, I've got an idea. We can go and do this and we can do that."

And I think it was that infectious enthusiasm

that Jimmy, even then, still had in him.

As a player, Jimmy never had his name taken,

only Michael Aspel was able to book him.

Ladies and gentlemen, forgive the interruption.

I can't reach you very well, but Fulham chairman, a man for all seasons, Jimmy Hill,

-this is your life.

-APPLAUSE

Irrepressible, indestructible.

Of course, he couldn't be.

He was never knowingly wrong, but things could go wrong,

As they did in the early 1990s.

I mean, I'm not very comfortable talking about it now, although I want to talk about it,

cos I want to say to people, "It isn't the end of the world

"if you get cancer."

You know, the surgeons are marvellous

and there is help out there.

So, you know, get yourself together,

let them do their stuff and you might win a match or two.

BOTH LAUGH

"I'll be back in a week, maybe sooner than you think.

"The weather for hunting isn't kind,

"maybe then, I'll change my mind.

"Thank you for a happy time. In consequence, this little rhyme."

-HE CHUCKLES

-When his time with Coventry finished,

he would always be aware of what was going on and be very involved.

He would look at the results every Saturday and Tuesday

to see how Coventry did before anything,

before Fulham even and Brentford.

Of course, he loved his golf, he loved riding.

It was perfect for him and it was a very happy period in his time.

Coventry City were changing again,

they were moving home.

And Jimmy had to be there.

The celebration of the wonderful Highfield Road.

And Jimmy was out there on the pitch,

that's where he made Jimmy Hill great.

He made Coventry City great.

And he watched that game with a tremendous amount of emotion.

A great celebration, cos we'd won the game.

But...he was very emotional.

He knew that it was the end, the closure of Highfield Road.

A little bit eerie.

It's sad to think it was once a football ground.

I'd have been watching from over there,

and what I always remember about the pitch as a young kid

is if it got beyond the halfway spot, watching from that side,

you could only see the players from their knees up

cos, the pitch, there was always a little bit of a drainage curve on it.

The away support would have been down there.

You'd hear the odd choice word. "Jimmy Hill's a..."

fill in the blank spaces.

But, yeah, he had very, very thick skin,

and...you know, was more than able to cope with it.

And that kind of rubbed off on the family. You just got used to it.

Yeah, this is the centre circle

that I used to stare at at the start of every game,

Mick Ferguson and Ian Wallace kicking off.

Those are what I'd take from standing here

more than anything else, those happy times.

I mean, it's a housing estate, isn't it, now?

CROWD CHANTS

Footballers never look back and say,

thanks very much for something, like, 25 years ago.

He fought for things that he believed in.

And, erm, he beat them when it came to the maximum wage.

And... And a lot of footballers should be thankful for that.

Players of today have to be grateful

for that transition from abolishing the maximum wage

that Jimmy Hill was involved in to where they're standing today,

very wealthy young men.

Very, very wealthy young men.

They can raise their hat to that man because of that.

I don't think there was ever a person in football that I met

that loved the game more than Jimmy Hill.

It was just nonstop, relentless, to improve everything about the game,

on the pitch and off the pitch.

And there's not many people about like that.

MAN SHOUTS OUT INDISTINCTLY

His last public appearance was a tricky one to organise,

because he was then under the effects of Alzheimer's.

But you wouldn't have known that

when the unveiling happened and the crowd started singing.

And he knew the song, he knew the words,

and he was cheering and just

getting the crowd to sing even louder.

And he was singing at the top of his voice and he was so happy.

And tears pouring down his face, it was a very emotional time.

And I'm very... I'm thrilled that that last appearance was in Coventry with the statue,

because it was a fitting end to his public appearance,

if you like, his public life.

-ALL:

-# We will never lose

# They can't defeat us! #

I did my very best to help,

and, you know, one or two of the things that I did,

I've just realised, they're OK!

HE LAUGHS

APPLAUSE

He loved the people, he loved the enthusiasm,

the gentleness of the people, I think,

and his heart really was in Coventry, very much so,

and it always will be.

In fact, I might do a wobble,

but I'm taking a few of his ashes up to Coventry

to be scattered in the memorial garden, so he can be there.

APPLAUSE

We're here to reverently place

the earthly remains of Jimmy Hill in this special place,

near this home ground for the football club

and for the city which Jimmy loved.

APPLAUSE

You know, it's almost like he's going to walk back in.

In fact, when we were at the cathedral,

he was such a powerful personality, you wonder, "Hang on a minute,

"I'm not finished yet, I'm coming back." But, no, it's a fitting tribute.

And here he is, still standing.

The completely one-off Jimmy Hill.

Gone...but only into football legend.

I'm sure somebody else has told this story, but my favourite is when...

You know, I was there that day when the crowd started singing.

And me, Jim and Des Lynam were inside having a coffee.

Anyway, Jimmy goes out, in front, "Come on, let's go."

Me and Des are up, we're hoping that no-one sees us.

He's up the front, three yards in front of us...

Mr Hill and I walking around the ground

and the whole... 30,000 people started chanting

and not quite in his favour.

And the chant went...

# Jimmy Hill, you're a... #

A banker, or words to that effect.

-# Jimmy Hill's a...

-WHISTLE

-# Jimmy Hill's a...

-WHISTLE

-Jimmy Hill's a... Jimmy Hill's a...

-WHISTLE

Des, Terry and myself looked anywhere but the Kop,

Jimmy just put his chin out and said...

"That's fame for you."

"Well, that's fame for you."

"Well, that's fame for you." That was a bit more Bruce Forsyth than Jimmy Hill, but they're similar.

He said, "See, they love me here."

He didn't realise they were having a go at him.

He said, "I may be, but I always get the last laugh."

HE LAUGHS