Ken Chisholm
‘Chizzy’ as he was known during his nomadic playing career, was a colourful character on and off the field. An old fashioned centre-forward he was a war-time guest for Manchester City, Leicester, Chelsea and Bradford Park Avenue and his performances for Queens Park earned him a Scottish cap in a Victory international in 1945 in between he was a bomber pilot. Harry Storer signed him for Coventry from Leicester in March 1950 and the following season he scored 24 goals as City came close to winning promotion to Division One.
His love of the good life in Coventry was notorious, but his answer was to train incredibly hard including wearing cut up tyres around his waist to sweat off excess weight. In 1952 with City sliding towards relegation ‘Chizzy’ was the club’s only saleable asset and he was sold to Cardiff for £12,000 to fund the purchase of other players. Before joining City he had played for both Leeds and Leicester, helping the latter reach the 1949 FA Cup final and avoid relegation to Division 3 in the same season.
After leaving City the man who scored goals wherever he went helped Cardiff to win promotion to Division 1 before becoming a folk hero at Roker Park. His strengths lay in his heading and powerful left foot. Allied with bravery and on occasions, controlled aggression, Chisholm was a fully committed 90 minute player. He was involved in an illegal payments scandal and banned for life but re-instated after admitting the offence. As his career wound down he played for Workington before becoming player-manager of Irish side Glentoran.
He moved to Los Angeles, where he was additionally employed as a newspaper ad-man, and where he broke his leg in the penultimate game of a season in which his team became California State champions. He later worked in the insurance business in the North East and became a champion ten pin bowler.
Hat tricks (1)
1950-51
9 December 1950 v Luton Town H, Division Two
