7th October 1938

Millbrook, Cornwall

Forward

Reg Jenkins, from Millbrook in East Cornwall, played twenty times for a struggling Exeter City in 1960/61. Signing from Plymouth Argyle, and leaving for Torquay United, he went on to score 119 goals in 305 league games for Rochdale. The football ground in Millbrook is named in his honour.

Playing for Truro City, he was given his Football League opportunity by Plymouth Argyle who signed him in October 1957. He scored three goals in 16 league games for Argyle.

Moving to Exeter City in December 1960, he made his Grecians’ debut in the Boxing Day home defeat against Crystal Palace and scored in a 2-3 reverse. Playing in twenty of twenty-three games in the second half of the season he scored a total of six goals.

His stay at St James' Park was a short one and, in July 1961, he signed for Torquay United where in three seasons he netted 23 goals in 88 league starts. It was when he moved to Rochdale in June 1964 for a fee of £3,000 that his career really took off, for during his nine year stay at Spotland he amassed 305 league appearances, scoring 118 goals and, many years later, was voted as the club’s all time best player in one poll of supporters.

Oldham Athletic manager Jimmy Frizzell offered Jenkins the chance to stay in the game as his assistant at Boundary Park but he opted for a return to Cornwall where he became a lorry driver while helping to run the club in his home village of Millbrook for the next two decades. He subsequently became a shipwright in Plymouth Dockyard before his death on 29 January 2013 in Tenerife.

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