Steve McCall, Chris Kiwomya and long-serving former club secretary David Rose were this year’s inductees at the 38th Ex-Players’ Hall of Fame Reunion Dinner in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite at Portman Road on Friday evening.

Town players from across the decades and their guests totalling more than 200 attended the event.

McCall was a member of Sir Bobby Robson's side which won the 1981 UEFA Cup having come through the Blues' youth system and made more than 300 appearances for Town, including a run of 166 consecutive games.

The former England U21 international returned to Portman Road following a playing career which also took in spells with Sheffield Wednesday, Plymouth, Torquay and hometown club Carlisle and worked in scouting and coaching roles. He is currently chief scout at Colchester United.

Kiwomya also came through the Town youth set-up and was a key man in the side which won promotion to the Premier League after topping the old Second Division in 1991/92. In total, he scored 64 goals in 229 starts and 29 sub appearances in eight years with the Blues before moving on to Arsenal in January 1995.

He later returned to the club and coached under Jim Magilton and Roy Keane’s management.

Rose was given the Merit Award for his long service at Town having started working at Portman Road in 1958. He went on to become the club’s secretary for 29 years before retiring in 2004.

Ex-boss Joe Royle was guest of honour, making only his second return to Suffolk since leaving the club just over 10 years ago.

The evening also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Second Division title won by Kiwomya and his team-mates with plenty of other members of John Lyall’s squad also present including Jason Dozzell, Neil Thompson, Gavin Johnson, David Linighan, Mick Stockwell, John Wark and Simon Milton - who compered the event along with Bryan Hamilton and Matt Holland - as well as coach Mick McGiven.

Photo: Action Images

midastouch added 13:22 - Apr 1 Why on earth hasn't Simon Clegg been inducted into the Ipswich Hall of Fame yet? ;-)
1

midastouch added 13:26 - Apr 1 And they should really do a Hall of Shame and induct Marcus Heavens, Mick Mugabe and Ian Milnedew.
1

Blue041273 added 21:41 - Apr 1 Midastouch, please try to understand! We must recognise the contributions of past players and applaud them. It is popular to criticise anything Ipswich at the mo and I'm not necessarily anti the general flow there. But to mock and demean our heritage in this cheap fashion is to me rather hurtful. Please let us have our heroes. Every memory from our illustrious past is precious. Many have not had the pleasure of experiencing these moments first hand but still understand the special history created by very special teams and very special players. This is not just about living in the past. We have problems. No issue there! And we all want them to be solved. But we must not trash the legacy that past players have created in establishing the expectations among the fans that are now considered normal.

1

Blogs 298 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls