John Raymond 'Johnny' Hills (b. 24 February 1934 in Northfleet

Northfleet

Northfleet is a town in the Borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. Its name is derived from North creek , and the settlement on the shore of the River Thames adjacent to Gravesend was known as Norfluet in the Domesday Book, and Northflet in 1201...

) is a former English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 professional footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 who played for Gravesend & Northfleet

Gravesend & Northfleet F.C.

Ebbsfleet United Football Club is an English professional football team currently playing in the Conference National. The team plays their home matches at Stonebridge Road in Northfleet, Kent. However, the club is now looking to build a new stadium in the Ebbsfleet Valley vicinity in...

, Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....

 and Bristol Rovers

Bristol Rovers F.C.

Bristol Rovers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Bristol, that competes in Football League Two. The team plays its home matches at the Memorial Stadium, in the Horfield area of the city....

.

Playing career

Hills was educated at the Gravesend County Grammar School

Gravesend Grammar School

Gravesend Grammar School is a selective secondary school located in Gravesend, Kent, England. The school accepts boys at age 11 by examination and boys and girls at 16, based on their GCSE results.-The school:...

. He played his early football with Dashwood Athletic before signing for Gravesend & Northfleet. Tottenham Hotspur signed Hills as an amateur in March 1950. After completing National Service

National service

National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...

 with
the RAF, Hills signed professional forms for the Spurs in August 1953. Originally an inside forward

Inside forward

In football, the position of inside forward was popularly used in the late nineteenth and first half of the 20th centuries. The inside forwards would support the centre forwards, running and making space in the opposition defence, and, as the passing game developed, supporting him with passes...

 the club converted him to full back. The solid dependable pro made his senior debut against Blackpool

Blackpool F.C.

Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...

 on 14 December 1957 and went on to make 32 appearances in all competitions between 1957-60. In addition, he featured in over 200 Reserve and A fixtures. The highlight of his White Hart Lane

White Hart Lane

White Hart Lane is an all-seater football stadium in Tottenham, London, England. Built in 1899, it is the home of Tottenham Hotspur and, after numerous renovations, the stadium has a capacity of 36,230....

 career was the first shared 4-4 draw with Arsenal

Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

 on February 22, 1958. In July 1961 Hills transferred to Bristol Rovers where he participated in just seven matches before a knee injury ended his competitive career.

Post-football career

After retiring from football, Hills qualified as a PE

Physical education

Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....

 teacher and taught in Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 before retiring and settling in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

.