Big Ron, ‘Bald Eagle’ Jim were such great fun
LIFE off the pitch has changed in this modern world of social media and mobile phones – and I think it is harder for top managers to have as much fun with their friends in the media.
I certainly had plenty of fun with many Midland-based managers in the 1970s, 80s and 90s and in particular with Ron Atkinson of West Bromwich Albion and the late Jim Smith of Birmingham City.
I first met Ron when he was playermanager of Kettering Town and we straightaway hit it off. Serious and determined in matches, off the pitch he was relaxed and a very funny man.
Ron had been a one-club first teamer with Headington United, which gained Football League status as Oxford United, playing wing-half from 1959 to 1971.
He was captain and still holds the club record of more than 500 appearances. His nickname was “The Tank”.
When a 16-year-old Trevor Francis made his home debut for Birmingham in the 1-1 draw with Oxford, he was marked by Big Ron, who claimed to me that Trevor never got a kick.
When I put that to Trevor, he protested somewhat surprised: “But I scored our goal!”
Ron adjusted his feet quickly and retorted: “Well, it was the only kick he had!”
Big Ron was responsible for Jim’s nickname the Bald Eagle and Ron, Jim and I enjoyed many great nights out with our wives at one venue that was a magnet for the football and sporting world.
The old Lorenzo’s restaurant in Birmingham, run by football-mad owner Lorenzo Ferrari, attracted everyone from Johan Cruyff to Cliff Richard, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham to US tennis legend Jimmy Connors.
Banter and wise-cracks were never far away with Big Ron. The three of us, I remember, were in a London hotel on our way to a football dinner – West Brom were second in the table, Birmingham were bottom.
Ron and I were waiting for a descending lift and when it opened, there was Smith all alone. Quick as a flash, Ron inquired: “Going down?”
Move on another week and the Atkinsons and Smiths went to see comedian Billy Connelly perform before being taken back stage to meet him afterwards.
To break a pregnant pause, Smith asked Billy if he liked playing Birmingham, and straightaway Ron butted in with “Billy, EVERYONE loves playing Birmingham!”
When I suffered a stroke in February 2002, I was rushed to the Priory Hospital and heard my specialist, Dr Adrian Williams, tell my wife Katie: “No visitors except you. Not even your children.”
The next day I was amazed to see Big Ron at the end of my bed.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, “I had to walk round the hospital three times before anyone recognised me. Anyway, how are you?”
I had lost everything, including my speech, so out came some gurgled sound in response.
Ron commented: “You sound better than you do on the telly!”
At which point a nurse entered the private room and issued an angry telling-off.
Ron countered: “I’ve only come because my Sky set isn’t working and to have some food on my friend’s bill.”
The nurse’s response: “You have five minutes to leave.”
Unbelievably, we started watching the worst match of the Premier League season and Ron said: “Move over, this match is making me feel ill.”
I passed out and three days later I had a message from him: “Good news, I have all the pall bearers in place!”
My wife was not happy at his arrival, but it did make me stop feeling sorry for myself.
A few years later, I got my own back when I persuaded Ron to sing a Frank Sinatra song (Ron’s hero) at a charity night I was staging at Ronnie Scott’s.
Big Ron was shocked then to discover that I had stitched him up with top billing on all the posters, but gamely sang the four numbers he had rehearsed with the CBSO strings.
When the audience called for an encore, musical director Cedric Whitehouse cried out: “No, we have no more, get him off!”
In January 1978, I helped the Baggies sign Ron for his first spell as their manager.
Albion director Brian Bound rang me to say his chairman Bert Millichip could not be seen tapping another club’s manager, but they wanted to change their own. Who could I suggest and approach?
I told him John Bond, who was going great guns at Norwich City.
Bond told me he wanted the job but a few days later Boundy informed me that Bond had simply got his own chairman to double his salary.
Within 10 minutes Ron, then manager of Cambridge United, was on my private phone at ATV telling me: “I cannot believe you recommended Bondy before me”, before adding “now get on the phone and ring your mate and get me the job, good lad!” And that is what happened.
I got the first interview live in the studio and Albion enjoyed success and great football under Big Ron before he left to manage Manchester United.