Ron Harris (footballer)
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ronald Edward Harris | ||
| Date of birth | 13 November 1944 | ||
| Place of birth | Hackney, London, England | ||
| Playing position | Defender | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1961–1980 | Chelsea | 655 | (13) |
| 1980–1983 | Brentford | 61 | (0) |
| 1984–1985 | Aldershot | ||
| Teams managed | |||
| 1984–1985 | Aldershot | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Ronald Edward "Ron" Harris (born 13 November 1944 in Hackney, London, England), known by the nickname "Chopper", is a former English footballer who played for Chelsea in the 1960s and 1970s. Harris is widely regarded as one of the toughest defenders of his era - along with players such as Tommy Smith and Norman Hunter - hence the nickname. His brother Allan Harris was also a professional footballer and they were teammates at Chelsea in the mid-1960s.
Harris was a member of the Chelsea side which won the FA Youth Cup in 1961 and made his senior club debut in February 1962 in a 1-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday. Within a year, he had established himself as a regular in the side, a position he would hold for the next eighteen years. He formed an important part of new Chelsea manager Tommy Docherty's youth-oriented re-building of the club after relegation from the First Division alongside the likes of Peter Bonetti, Peter Osgood and Bobby Tambling.
Upon the club's return to the top division, Harris solidified his reputation as an uncompromising - yet talented - defender with a series of strong (and sometimes notorious) performances. His first honours with Chelsea came with a League Cup win over Leicester City in 1965. In the same season, Chelsea were challenging for the league title for most of the year but ultimately finished third after winning just one of their final five matches. He became club captain the following year when Terry Venables left for Tottenham Hotspur and became the youngest ever captain to lead out a side in the 1967 FA Cup Final, although they lost 2-1 to Tottenham. Chelsea, led by Harris, reached another FA Cup final three years later, this time against Leeds United - a side then at their peak in English football.
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