And so it came to pass that a great deal of hard work bore fruits as the magnificent statue of former Coventry City manager and Chairman Jimmy Hill was unveiled at the Ricoh Arena today.
Joe Elliott, whose time and effort that he has personally put into the project, should never be forgotten, had assembled a four man commitee including Kevin Chairman, Dave Long and Kev Monks to get the funds together and have sculptor Nicholas Dimbleby create what can truly be called a masterpiece.
Support by way of donations came from City supporters all over the world and companies including City Link, Ian Neale Construction, Steel Construction Ltd, Coventry Trophies, Coventry Building Society, Lloyds Pharmacy, Ainscough Crane Hire, Wings Of White, the PFA and the LMA, Coventry City, the Coventry City Former Players Association, Ricoh Arena, RJ Craddock architects and quantity surveyor Bill Hancock.
Today in sunshine, a good crowd of around five hundred considering it was a working day and in the Coventry holiday fortnight, plus an excellent media turn out, belted out the "Sky Blue Song" as Jimmy Hill came out to a tremendous ovation as the likes of former players such as George Curtis, John Sillett, Bobby Gould, Ronnie, Farmer, Bob Wesson and Ernie Machin looked on.
Jimmy Hill cut the tape and the crane lifted off the cover to unveil the statute in all its glory.
So what did Jimmy Hill make of the statue? "The chin should be a bit longer," he joked before leading more choruses of the Sky Blue Song and giving the media and fans the stories and pictures they wanted..
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM