For older Saints fans he was the greatest centre forward that the club has ever had, before or since and now Big Ron Davies is about to hit 70, how time flies.
If Ron was playing in this modern age Im sure that the Northam would be singing "there's only one Ron Davies" although technically they would be wrong, Saints had had another player of that name who played 192 games for the club between 1958 and 1964, Ron Thomas Davies left the Club exactly two years before Ron Tudor Davies arrived from Norwich City in August of 1966.
Ted Bates signed Ron as his signature signing as Saints prepared for their first ever season in the top flight and he splashed out a club record £55,000 to do so, Ron's speciality was heading the ball, many described him as the best in this department they had ever seen and with Saints having in Terry Paine perhaps the best crosser of the ball in the country, not to mention John Sydenham on the other wing, Saints intentions were clear, ironically Davies did not score on his debut, nor in his second game, but he did so in his third and from then on it seemed that he just couldnt stop scoring, he ended the season as not only Saints top scorer, but as the Top flights and indeed the whole football league, hitting 37 in the league, eight more than any other first division player, to put this in perspective, that second player was hero of that summers world cup final Geoff Hurst and he was followed by Jimmy Greaves on 25, big Ron accounted for exactly half of Saints 74 league goals that season as Saints beat the drop by five points and it was clear without Davies they would almost have certainly have gone down.
In his second season he couldnt hope to emulate his first, but with 28 goals he almost did and was joint top scorer in the first division alongside George Best, in 68/69 he only managed 20, but to put this in perspective, defences were getting tighter, in 66/67 Man Utd had won the league scoring 84 goals, two years later it was Leeds and they netted only 66, but it would be in his fourth season Ron really hit the headlines.
In the third game of 69/70 Saints travelled to Old Trafford having lost their two openers, when United took the lead on 8 mins through Willie Morgan it looked like a third defeat was on the cards, but then enter Big Ron who destroyed United almost single handedly, well almost, John Sydenham provided the pin point crosses and Ron headed home a hat trick of headers by the time the game had reached the hour mark, he finished it off late on with his fourth, this time a shot, Matt Busby described him a s the best centre forward in Europe and United promptly tried to buy him.
Ironically though it could be said that this game marked the watershed of his career, the season saw him plagued by injuries, often playing when not 100% fit, the goals at Old Trafford represented a quarter of his seasons total and Mick Channon took on the mantle of the teams leading scorer. thats not to say that Davies contribution was shoddy, in 70/71 he hit 17 and in 71/72, 11 and it has to be put in the context of a side struggling and in the main scoring a lot less goals, John Sydenham had already retired and Terry Paine was no longer the pacy winger he had once been and had adopted a more withdrawn midfield role, in short the ammunition wasnt being handed to Ron to fire anymore.
1972/73 would be his last season, again his contribution wasnt bad, he hit 9 goals from only 24 (1) games, but with his replacement Paul Gilchrist hitting five goals in the last ten games of the season and with Ron now approaching 31, in those days the top end of a footballers career, he moved down the road to Fratton Park in the summer of 1973.
His carrer at Fratton would last 18 months and in many respects it would be succesful, he hit 18 goals in 59 games, including his farewell goal at the Dell, ironically a penalty in a 2-1 defeat for Pompey in September 1974.
But there would then be an unexpected move for Davies, he finally got his move to Old Trafford, some five years after United had put in so much effort to sign him, his career there would be short however as United stormed to the second division title, with 8 appearances all off the bench and no goals before a move to Millwall saw a brief trio of games and a twilight career in the fledgling American Soccer league, after that Ron moved back to the Southampton area and in the early 80's played for local non league teams including AFC Totton and even the Wite Horse pub side in Ampfield.
Ron returned to the States initially living in Orlando where he worked as a football coach until 2003 when he and his second wife moved to Alberquerque in New Mexico, but at 64 years old and working as a labourer on a building site the legacy of a hard graft in professional football was taking its toll and Ron came back into the public eye in 2006 when journalist Jeremy Wilson went over to interview him for his book Southampton's Culy Hero's, Wilson awakened interest in Davies and helped Davies greatly especially in alerting those that once idolised him to the fact that Davies was in need of urgent need of medical attention and had no means of paying for it, initially Saints fans rallyed round and talked of benefit games etc and it has to be stressed that money was raised and used to provide medical care including dental work and assesment and treatment for his hip problems , but in the main this fell by the wayside and Davies once again became the forgotten man.
But one man wasnt going to let his former hero drift into obscurity and over the past five years as most fell away the man known as Tijuana Tim on Saints message boards including this site, continued to offer Big Ron pastoral care and continued to raise money for his ongoing treatment , Tim wont thank me for mentioning this and bringing it up, but im sure that Ron himself would be happy that all of the help he has received over the past few years is publicly recognised.
So happy 70th Birthday Ron Davies , a little early perhaps as its not till the 25th, but heartfelt all the same, Southampton Football Club has rarely cherished its past, not just in the past few years but in my lifetime of supporting Saints, perhaps thats why as a Club Saints have less books written about the club and ex players than most of a similar size, thats perhaps a little sad, football clubs are about respecting tradition, that doesnt mean harking back to it continuosly, but remembering it and realising that if you dont know where you come from how can you know where you are going.
Saints like most clubs have many who the title of legend is bestowed on lightly, in truth there are very few who can merit it, at Southampton Football Club Ronald Tudor Davies is one of those.
Big Rons Saints career. 1966-1974
League Games 239 (1) Goals 134
FA Cup Games 19(1) Goals 9
League Cup Games 13 Goals 6
Europe Games 6 Goals 4
Total Games 277 (4) Goals 153