Kenneth Hibbitt (born 3 January 1951) is an English former professional footballer who played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for Bradford Park Avenue,

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

, Coventry City and

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...

, and in the North American Soccer League for the

Seattle Sounders Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

once for England at under-23 level. As a manager, he took charge of

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, Cardiff City and Hednesford Town. He is most known for his time at Wolverhampton Wanderers, for whom he played from 1968 to 1984.

Playing career

Background and Bradford Park Avenue

His older brother

Terry Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence (given name), Terence or Terrier (masculine). People Male * Terry Albrit ...

was a professional footballer. Kenny Hibbitt started his senior career with his home town club Bradford Park Avenue. He then left for £5,000 in November 1968.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Hibbitt joined

debuting as a substitute in a 1–0 defeat to rivals

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

on 12 April 1969. He did not feature again though until 12 September 1970, when he scored his first of many goals in a 2–2 draw at

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 ...

. During his time at Molineux Hibbitt won the League Cup in 1974 and 1980 scoring in the 1974 final. He played in the

1972 UEFA Cup Final The 1972 UEFA Cup Final was the final of the first UEFA Cup football tournament. It was a two-legged contest played on 3 May and 17 May 1972 between two English clubs, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. This was the first UEFA club com ...

where the club lost narrowly to countrymen Tottenham Hotspur. He also helped the club win two promotions back to the top flight. He finally left Wolves in 1984 on a free transfer. In total, he played 544 games for Wolves, scoring 114 goals; the second most appearances a player has made in Wolves history. In 2011 he was inducted to the Wolverhampton Wanderers 'Hall Of Fame'.

Coventry City

Hibbitt joined Coventry City in 1984. He spent two seasons at

Highfield Road Highfield Road was a football stadium in the city of Coventry, England. It was the home ground for Coventry City F.C. for 106 years. History It was built in 1899 in the Hillfields district, close to the city centre, and staged its final game ...

Bristol Rovers

Hibbitt joined

in 1986. There his playing career came to an abrupt halt in February 1988 when he broke his leg playing against Sunderland. He remained with the Rovers after this as assistant to manager Gerry Francis. They won the team win the (old) Division 3 title in 1990.

Managerial career

Walsall

Hibbitt was appointed manager of

in 1990. He took them to the Division 3 play-offs in 1993–94.

Cardiff City

Hibbitt took over as manager of Cardiff City from Eddie May in the summer of 1995. He moved upstairs to a director of football role with the arrival of

Phil Neal Philip George Neal (born 20 February 1951) is an English retired footballer who played for Northampton Town, Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers as a full back. He is one of the most successful English players of all time, having won seven First D ...

the following year. However, Neal's time in charge was brief, departing after only a couple of months to become assistant to Steve Coppell at Manchester City. Hibbitt took over the team once again before handing the reins over to Russell Osman. Osman's period in charge was short however and in December 1996 Hibbitt took over team affairs for the third time, before being replaced by Frank Burrows in February 1998. The arrival of Burrows saw Hibbitt revert to his role as director of Football. His influence was now greatly diminished however, and at the end of the 1997–98 season he left the club altogether.

Later career

Hibbitt returned to management with non-league Hednesford Town in September 2001. Despite rescuing the club from a poor start and preserving their place in their division, he was dismissed at the end of the season. He later worked for the Premier League, reviewing the performances of the

referees 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 titl ...

. He also assists in training local football team Kingswood who play in the Gloucestershire County League.

Honours

Wolverhampton Wanderers * Football League Cup: 1974, 1980 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

finalist: 1972

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hibbitt, Kenny 1951 births Living people Footballers from Bradford English footballers England under-23 international footballers Association football midfielders Bradford (Park Avenue) A.F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Seattle Sounders (1974–1983) players Coventry City F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players English football managers Walsall F.C. managers Cardiff City F.C. managers English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States English expatriate footballers