Ronnie Bird (footballer)

Ronald Philip "Ronnie" Bird (27 December 1941 – 20 March 2005) was an English professional footballer.

Career

Born in Birmingham, Bird began his career as an apprentice at his hometown club Birmingham City but found first team chances hard to come by and left to join Bradford Park Avenue, being signed by manager Jimmy Scoular. He quickly established himself in the side and helped the club to retain their division three status after being promoted the previous year. He eventually left the club in 1965 to join Bury but only spent seven months at Gigg Lane before being signed again by Jimmy Scoular, this time at his new club Cardiff City for £5,000. He helped the club to win the Welsh Cup in his first season, one of three times he won the competition at Cardiff, and gained a reputation for scoring spectacular goals.

He left Cardiff after five seasons at the club and joined Crewe Alexandra where he spent one year before dropping into non-league football with Gloucester City. After retiring from football he took over as manager at Ebbw Vale and Bridgend Town before later returning to work with Jimmy Scoular as his assistant manager at Newport County. He left his post at the club during the 1978/79 season and later took over as landlord of the Canton Cross and Romilly Arms pubs in Cardiff. His experience in the trade prompted Cardiff City to hire him to take charge of the several bars in the clubs ground and he later took up a number of positions at the club including match day hospitality manager, manager of the players restaurant and a commentator for the clubs website. He was taken ill in 2003 and subsequently stepped down from his various roles at the club, although after recovering somewhat he later returned to commentate on matches again before he died in 2005.^[1]

Honours

Cardiff City

• Welsh Cup Winner: 3

1966–67, 1969–70, 1970–71

References

• Hayes, Dean (2006). The Who's Who of Cardiff City. Breedon Books. ISBN 1-85983-462-0.