OTD: DICKIE ORD BORN

On this day in 1970, former Sunderland defender Richard ‘Dickie’ Ord was born in Murton. Ord first joined the club in 1984 as a schoolboy and went professional three years later. Between going pro and leaving SAFC in 1998, he won two promotions to the top flight (1990 and 1996) and played a bit-part role in our promotion out of the third tier in 1988.

He began his footballing career at East Durham and Durham County Schoolboys and also played for Murton and Wheatley Hill prior to coming to Sunderland. In June 1986, he became a trainee and was awarded a professional contract 13 months later.

His debut came against Southend United in November 1987 in the Third Division, playing just under 70 minutes as we thumped them 7-0. Ord was afforded only a little game time in his debut campaign, however he became a regular feature in our first season back in the Second Division.

Between 1989 and 1992, he failed to nail down a regular spot in the starting XI (he was also loaned out to York City from February to March 1990) and wouldn’t play more than half the games in a league season until 1992/93. From then, until the 1997/98 campaign, he remained a consistent element for Sunderland, partially because he found a uniform position as a centre back. Previously, he was used as a full back too and wide midfielder even. He played 42 out of our 46 First Division matches as we won the title in 1995/96. In July 1996, he had a testimonial match but missed the game against Steaua Bucharest due to being injured.

Ord managed most of the games in the first Premier League season for the club (1996/97) but he was sent off twice during the course of the campaign. After this, his injury troubles really started, missing large parts of the 1997/98 season and then not being given his starting spot back when he did return.

In the summer of 1998, he moved to Queens Park Rangers for a fresh start after 284 appearances and eight goals in a Sunderland shirt. Unfortunately, this would be the end of his career. Ord was contracted to QPR until 2000 but he never got on the pitch for them due to injury problems that surgeries failed to fix.

Aged just 30, he had to retire from playing but he remained involved with the sport. The former defender managed non-League Durham City between 2010 and 2012 and also released his autobiography in 2012. Titled “Who Needs Cantona When We’ve Got Dickie Ord!”, it shares its name with a match chant and also a single released by Sunderland supporters. Additionally, he's worked on the radio since hanging up his boots.