Having a Gas Rovers’ legend lives
Founded 54 years ago, a Fishponds sports shop is run by the son of a Bristol football legend. Mark Taylor speak to Gary Hillard about how his dad’s legacy lives on at Doug Hillard Sports
TALKING to Gary Hillard in the back of his Bristol sports shop is a genuine trip down footballing memory lane.
Not that it’s that easy to hear him speak thanks to the background noise of phones ringing, sewing machines whirring and newly oiled cricket bats being “knocked in” with wooden mallets.
The name above the shop door on Fishponds Road is still that of Gary’s Bristol Rovers legend father Doug Hillard, a full-back who made 318 appearances for Rovers between 1957 and 1968.
Along with the likes of Alfie Biggs, Geoff Bradford and Ray Graydon, Doug was one of the big names of the time when Rovers played at the old Eastville stadium that’s now home to Ikea.
“It was the time when they used to win games,” laughs lifelong Gashead Gary, 59, in reference to the team’s poor start to the season.
His father originally opened the sports shop on Stapleton Road in 1967, a year before he was released by Rovers.
He then played for Taunton Town, who he went on to manage until 1973 before returning to Bristol to manage Mangotsfield through to 1978.
After that, he worked full-time in his shop, which relocated to Fishponds Road in 1978 after a fire badly damaged the original store close to Stapleton Road railway station.
Doug tragically died in 1997, aged just 61, after suffering a brain aneurysm.
Since then, Gary has run the shop himself with his wife Judy, and several members of staff. He also gets ‘advice’ from his 82-yearold mum Janet, who still lives in the family home near Yate.
“I started working as a kid on Saturdays at the Stapleton Road shop when I was about 12,” says Gary, who was an engineer by trade, having done his apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce.
“But I didn’t start working for dad until I was 25. After my apprenticeship I went travelling for seven years.
“I did all sorts of different jobs. I worked as a ski instructor in Switzerland and then went to Australia for a couple of years and worked on oil rigs, sugar cane farms, gold mines and fishing boats.
“But by the time I was 25 I wanted to settle down a bit and wanted to work with dad.
“I had 10 years working alongside him full-time which was brilliant. I’m glad that I did it because he passed away at 61 which was no age at all.”
Stuffed with all manner of sports equipment, teamwear, boots, shirts and accessories, Doug Hillard Sports is a traditional sports shop and not trying to compete with the big high street chains.
“Basically everybody does everything here and that’s the way it has always been,” says Gary, who played for Rovers as a youth alongside the likes of Ian Holloway, Gary Mabbutt and Gary Megson.
As the son of a Rovers legend, the shop has always been something of a destination for Gasheads and fans
often used to make the pilgrimage to Fishponds Road to meet their idol.
“In those days, players were local heroes,” says Gary.
“In the era my dad played, it was all local lads in the squad. My dad lived in Stapleton and Ray Graydon lived in the same street. His mum lived on the same street as George Petherbridge.”
As a small boy, Gary used to spend much of his time hanging around the ground at Eastville.
“I was a bit of a rascal but they all knew me down there so I had the run of the place. I’d go down to the ground once or twice a week to see my dad and I’d be running through the dressing rooms, climbing under the old wooden stands.
“I can still remember the old kit room with the piles of team shirts and old exercise bikes.
“I used to watch the games with my mate Gary Mabbutt and our mums with a flask of tea. We had to sit there and watch the match but when you’re seven or eight you get bored easily so we would just run around.”
In those days, Rovers used to command huge crowds at Eastville and Gary often had to push through the fans to get to his father.
“I remember hundreds of people waiting for autographs after the games and I used to get them, too, but I was lucky because I could go into the dressing rooms.
“When Manchester United played there when I was about eight, I went around the dressing room getting the autographs of people like George Best and Bobby Charlton. I remember I just needed one more player to complete the team so I went over to goalkeeper Alec Stepney who was still in the bath. He had to wipe his hands and sign my programme!”
Gary says it was fairly common back then for footballers to open shops like his father’s.
“Former players either used to run pubs, become postmen or open sports shops. Although a lot of clubs wanted dad to be a player manager, he always wanted to open a sports shop.
“It was busy as soon as he opened in 1978. In those days the fans would arrive at Stapleton Road by train so there would be thousands of people arriving next to the shop.
“They would have police on horses and the whole street would be full of people going down to the ground.
“Sometimes, there would be 10,000 away supporters arriving by train at Stapleton Road and the
Former players either used to run pubs, become postmen or open sports shops. Although a lot of clubs wanted dad to be a player manager, he always wanted to open a sports shop Gary Hillard
shop would be full all Saturday morning with people coming in for badges, stickers and old-fashioned rattles.”
Now in its 54th year, Doug Hillard Sports is as busy as ever and it’s testament to its founder that it has stuck to a simple philosophy since day one.
“My dad’s philosophy for the shop was that we are a sports shop for the sports enthusiast,” says Gary.
“I can remember when the colourful shell suits were around in the 80s and I would say to him let’s get some in the shop. He would say ‘no, we’re not a fashion shop, we’re a sports shop’ – that philosophy has stood us in good stead.
“We sell a lot of sports equipment and we do a lot of clothing for cricket and football clubs, it has been very important to have such strong links with local clubs.
“But we don’t get involved with the fashion side of things and that has been key to our success.”
Although Gary and Judy run the shop now, he has a team of enthusiastic young staff members looking after things like social media, including head of graphic design Josh Cummins.
Gary says: “Josh has great computer skills and he has built the webshop which, at first, I thought might have an impact on the physical shop and kill business, but it has gone very well.”
Although his children Joe and Katie aren’t involved with the business at the moment, he hopes they might in the future.
“It’s a really good business but if I was taking it on now, I’d look for bigger premises and expand. I’ve been looking for sites but I’d like to stay within a mile of here,” he says.
“I’d really like to have a place big enough for a full-size cricket net so players to test their bats out – we even have our own range of cricket bats now and we are having some made with Devon wood.
“To be honest, we don’t get much passing trade now so we don’t need to be on the high street. The parking’s rubbish, and this street is all supermarkets, hairdressers and kebab shops now.
“But we’ve been so much busier since reopening after the pandemic. The customers have come back to us and there is a lot of loyalty after 54 years because we’ve built good relationships with local people and clubs.
“The big point of difference compared to the big sports shops is that when people come here, they are getting 54 years of sporting experience and knowledge – you won’t get that in many places!”