Ronald Edward Harris (born 13 November 1944), known by the nickname "Chopper" for his tough style of defending, is an English former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played for

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in the 1960s and 1970s. Harris captained Chelsea to

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

and

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

success, and made a club record 795 appearances. His brother Allan Harris was also a professional footballer and they were teammates at Chelsea in the mid-1960s.

Chelsea

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 Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

. 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 Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 April 1928 – 31 December 2020), commonly known as The Doc, was a Scottish football player and manager. Docherty played for several clubs, most notably Preston North End, and represented Scotland 25 times betw ...

's youth-oriented re-building of the club after

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

from the First Division alongside the likes of

Peter Bonetti Peter Philip Bonetti (27 September 1941 – 12 April 2020) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Chelsea, the St. Louis Stars, Dundee United and England. He was known for his safe handling, lightning reflexes a ...

Peter Osgood Peter Leslie Osgood (20 February 1947 – 1 March 2006) was an English footballer who was active during the 1960s and 1970s. He is best remembered for representing Chelsea and Southampton at club level, and was also capped four times by Englan ...

and

Bobby Tambling Robert Victor Tambling (born 18 September 1941) is an English former professional association football, footballer, who played as a Forward (association football), forward, most notably for Chelsea F.C., Chelsea, Crystal Palace F.C., Crystal Pa ...

. 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 In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

win over

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

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 Terence Frederick Venables (born 6 January 1943), often referred to as El Tel, is an English former football player and manager, and an author. During the 1960s and '70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queen ...

left for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

and became the youngest ever captain to lead out a side in the

1967 FA Cup Final The 1967 FA Cup Final was the 86th final of the FA Cup. It took place on 20 May 1967 at Wembley Stadium and was contested between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. It was the first FA Cup Final to be contested between two teams from London, and is t ...

, although they lost 2–1 to Tottenham. Chelsea, led by Harris, reached another FA Cup final three years later, this time against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

– a side then at their peak in English football. He won four caps for England U23 between 1966 and 1968. That

1970 FA Cup Final The 1970 FA Cup Final was contested by Chelsea and Leeds United. The match took place on 11 April 1970 at Wembley Stadium and ended 2–2, making it the first FA Cup final to require a replay since 1912. The replay was staged at Old Trafford an ...

is notorious for being one of the most physical of all time, it saw Harris come into his own in the role of both inspirational leader and uncompromising tackler. With Leeds having taken a 2–1 lead at

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 north-west Londo ...

with just six minutes remaining, it was his quick

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

which led to Ian Hutchinson's headed equaliser to take the game to a replay. During the replay at Old Trafford his late tackle on Leeds' playmaker Eddie Gray after just eight minutes (just one of many late tackles committed by both sides), left the latter a virtual passenger for the rest of the match: Chelsea eventually won 2–1 after extra-time. The following season saw Harris lift Chelsea's first major

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an honour – the

– in another replayed final against Real Madrid in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. Chelsea also reached a second League Cup final in 1972, but surprisingly lost to Stoke in what proved to be his last major final for the club.

Moves

While many of Chelsea's star players departed during the 1970s ( due to Peter Osgood and Alan Hudson falling out with manager Dave Sexton, and due to the financial crisis caused by the building of the new East Stand, and the financial impact of relegation ) Harris remained ever-present in the side throughout a decade which saw them relegated twice and promoted once, although he was replaced as Club Captain by

John Hollins John William Hollins (born 16 July 1946) is an English retired footballer and manager. He was initially a midfielder who, later in his career, became an effective full-back. Hollins, throughout his footballing career, featured for clubs such a ...

at the tail end of the 1971/72 season. Harris was primarily a central defender in the mould of Bobby Moore and Norman Hunter but in later years he was often played out of position as circumstances dictated. After the retirement of Eddie McCreadie he played at left back for a considerable time and was used as cover at right back when injuries left the financially struggling Chelsea short of cover. In the closing stages of his career he also played as a holding midfield player in a role similar to Claude Makelele, providing a screen for a defence that was often caught out by counter-attacks. Over an 18-year period Harris was rarely out of the first team. In 10 seasons he averaged 41 league games out of 42 and in 5 other seasons he averaged over 37 games. He finally left Chelsea in 1980 to become a player-coach at Brentford, having played a record 795 games for Chelsea. He later had a brief stint as player-manager of

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

In retirement

Harris was a professional greyhound trainer for several years during the 1990s.

Career statistics

Playing honours

;Chelsea *

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

**Winners: 1970–71 *

**Winners: 1969–70 **Runner-up: 1966–67 * Football League Cup **Winners: 1964–65 **Runner-up: 1971–72 * FA Charity Shield **Runner-up

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third t ...

**Runner-up: 1962–63, 1976–77 * FA Youth Cup **Winners: 1960–61

Individual honours

*Chelsea's Most League Appearances – 657 *Chelsea's Most FA Cup Appearances – 64 *Chelsea's Most Appearances in Total – 795 * Special Recognition Award 2010–2011

References

External links

Ron CHOPPER Harris official blogRon CHOPPER Harris official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Ron 1944 births Living people English footballers England under-23 international footballers Chelsea F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Aldershot F.C. players English football managers Aldershot F.C. managers Association football defenders British greyhound racing trainers Footballers from the London Borough of Hackney FA Cup Final players Association football coaches