Reg Oliver played for Exeter City in the Plymouth and District League before the club turned professional in 1908. Son of Tom Oliver, who helped the club establish itself on a commercial basis, he later ran the greyhound track in Exeter and captained the golf club.

He made his Exeter City senior debut against Gunnislake on 26 December 1906 his only appearance in a season when forty-two players appeared for the first-team. He made a further eight appearances during the following campaign, the last of which was City’s final game in the amateur ranks against Oreston Rangers on 25 April 1908. Along with nearly all his teammates he did not become a professional but did remain with the club to appear for the reserves on an amateur basis and continued to feature until at least 1911/12.

He was son of Tom Oliver, a licensee, who became a director of the new Exeter Football and Athletic Company Limited established to bring professional football to the city in 1908. Reg himself followed his father into the licensed trade as landlord of the Red Lion and the Mount Pleasant (where he sponsored the Exeter City fixture card for the 1926/7 season). A prominent local sporting figure, he later ran the new greyhound track at the County Ground in St Thomas and was also captain and president of the golf club at Countess Wear.

Reg Oliver died in 1971 in his early eighties.