Gordon Wilkinson Hill (8 July 1928 – 21 March 2019) was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

. He originally came from

Bolton, Lancashire Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and villages that form the wider ...

Early life

In his early years he attended St. Simon and St Jude's

C of E C, or c, is the third letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''cee'' (pronounced ), plural ''cees''. History "C ...

School,

Great Lever Great Lever is a suburb of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is south of Bolton town centre and the same distance north of Farnworth. The district is served by frequent buses runnin ...

in Bolton. He later moved to

Waterfoot, Rossendale Waterfoot is a historic mill town and civil parish in the Borough of Rossendale between Rawtenstall and Bacup in Lancashire, England. The B6238 road from Burnley meets the A681 road, and Whitewell Brook the River Irwell. History Like the ma ...

in Lancashire and attended

Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School (BRGS) is a selective school, selective co-educational Academy (English school), academy grammar school in Waterfoot, Rossendale, Lancashire, England. The school is named after the two main towns either side ...

from 1936. Upon leaving school in 1946, he moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to train as a teacher for two years. He returned to Lancashire to take up his teaching career, briefly, in

Bacup Bacup ( , ) is a town in the Rossendale Borough in Lancashire, England, in the South Pennines close to Lancashire's boundaries with West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The town is in the Rossendale Valley and the upper Irwell Valley, east ...

. After an 18-month spell of compulsory

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

, he taught in Bury from 1950 to 1955, then returned to teach in Bacup until 1960, and subsequently moved to a post in

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town in Lincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement after Lincoln, England, Lincoln and Grimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021. It is the administrative centre and largest settleme ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, until his re-location to

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

in 1966. Here he became the first headteacher of the new Stafford Leys Country Primary School in Leicester Forest East before taking up a similar post at Mount Grace High School in the nearby town of Hinckley. He remained at Mount Grace until he relocated to take up a teaching post in Plymouth, Michigan in the U.S. in 1975. His liberal approach to refereeing was also evident in his approach to teaching, where he was happy to be called progressive in his approach.

Career

Hill spent six years on the line before progressing to the list of Football League referees. Shortly after, he moved to Leicester, and remained there for the rest of his refereeing career. He quickly established himself and on 14 March 1970 took charge of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

semi-final A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

between Chelsea (the eventual Cup winners) and

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

. Despite his strong profile of games, Hill never made the

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

List, and he remarked in his 1975 autobiography, "Give a little Whistle: The Recollections of a Remarkable Referee", that this may have been due to his non-conformist approach. He continued, however, to handle key games. In 1973, he controlled the Charity Shield match between

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

. Late that season, in April 1974, he was in charge of Burnley again during the FA Cup semi-final in which

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

defeated them 2–0. 1974–75 was Hill's final season and was marked by his most senior match – the League Cup Final between

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

and

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

on 1 March 1975. Villa won when Ray Graydon scored from the rebound after Kevin Keelan had saved his penalty. Shortly after, he reached the retirement age (then forty-seven) for referees. He decided at this time to give up his post as headteacher at a school in Leicester and leave the UK to take up another teaching post in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. While there, he served as a

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

referee in 1975 and 1976, as well as the league's Director of Officials. He was the referee for Soccer Bowl '76 won by

Toronto Metros-Croatia Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the fourth-most populous city in North America. The city ...

. Following the 1976 NASL season he worked for many years as the

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...

' Director of Youth and Community Development. He also provided local radio and television commentary during Rowdies broadcasts for several seasons. He outlived two wives, Audrey Hill, and Nancy Hill; and was the father of sons, Matthew and Martin; and daughters, Lucy and Katie. In his later years he returned to England and before his death became an accomplished artist.

References

Print

*Football League Handbooks, 1960–1970 *The Guardian, 15 April 1975, p21 (details of teaching career and philosophy) *Rothmans Football Yearbooks, 1971–1975 *^†Give a little Whistle: The Recollections of a Remarkable Referee, by Gordon Hill & Jason Thomas, (Souvenir Press Ltd 1975), *^‡Oh, Ref!, by Pat Partridge & John Gibson, (Souvenir Press Ltd 1979),

Internet

External links

Online quotes from his book
during a feature article on Swedish ex-referee

Anders Frisk Anders Frisk (born 18 February 1963) is a Swedish insurance agent by trade and a former football referee. Frisk chose to go into early retirement from refereeing due to pressure from death threats made against him and his family. He is fluent ...

Guardian Unlimited ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

online
Gordon Hill's obituaryHill's Artwork
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Gordon 1928 births 2019 deaths English football referees Sportspeople from Bolton People educated at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School People from Waterfoot, Lancashire English Football League referees Tampa Bay Rowdies North American Soccer League (1968–1984) commentators 20th-century British military personnel Military personnel from the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton