He never made it into the first team at Villa Park, was given a free transfer and joined Headington United in 1959. They changed their name to Oxford United the following year and here he was converted to wing-half and as captain he led the side to great success. The club moved from the Southern League to Division Two in the 1960’ s. The Southern League championship was gained in both the 1960-61 and 1961-62 seasons, after which Oxford replaced the defunct Accrington Stanley in the Football League. Big Ron left the club in 1971 after making over 500 appearances for them.
His first job in management was at Kettering Town, where he achieved promotion to the Premier Division of the Southern League in his first season. After three years at Kettering he became Cambridge United’ s manager in 1974. They won the Fourth Division championship in 1977 and were all set for promotion to the Second Division when Atkinson moved to West Bromwich Albion as manager in January 1978. Atkinson had an immediate impact and in that season they reached the FA cup semi-finals and finished sixth in the league. In the 1979-80 season, West Brom finished third in the league and during the close season Atkinson succeeded Dave Sexton as manager at Old Trafford. He soon recruited Bryan Robson and Remi Moses from his former club and spent heavily during the next few seasons. Under Atkinson, United twice won the FA Cup but he failed to win a League championship and after five years at the club he was sacked in 1986.
Atkinson returned to football in September 1987 when he started a second spell in charge of West Brom. He remained there for a year before joining Atlé tico Madrid for a brief spell which lasted just 96 days. He returned from Spain somewhat disillusioned and agreed to join Wednesday as caretaker-manager as they struggled to avoid relegation. In 1988-89 they did avoid the drop and Atkinson accepted the offer to become the permanent manager. The club got off to a poor start in 1989-90, some good form in mid-season took them to a mid-table position but a series of bad results towards the end of the season saw them finish in one of the relegation spots.
In 1990-91, following relegation it was feared that Wednesday would lose some of their players who did not relish Second Division football. In the event Big Ron persuaded them all to stay and they won promotion straight back to the First Division, the icing on the cake of a great season was the League Cup victory over Manchester United.
After his acrimonious departure from Hillsborough, Atkinson managed Aston Villa for just over two years until his relationship with chairman Doug Ellis soured. During that time they finished runners-up in the Premier Division and also won the League Cup. In March 1995 he joined Coventry City as they were beginning to look like relegation candidates and helped ensure they retained their Premier place.
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