Chris Dunphy
Chris Dunphy (born 26 October 1950) is the former chairman of Rochdale Association Football Club (RAFC) in Greater Manchester, England.
He was born in Milnrow, Lancashire.
Dunphy was originally appointed as a director of Rochdale AFC in 1980 when he spent 2 years on the board before moving out of the area. He returned to Rochdale in 1990 and was asked to rejoin the board by the then Chairman, David Kilpatrick and has remained there ever since. On 29 June 2006 he was elected Chairman of RAFC, replacing David Kilpatrick on his retirement. He formed a new board of Directors with the sole aim of progressing the club. One of his first major decisions was to appoint an untried Keith Hill as Manager. Since taking over, Dunphy has become the most successful Chairman Rochdale AFC has ever had, seeing Rochdale enjoy some of their most successful years; twice reaching promotion play off positions, one of which resulted in their first ever appearance at Wembley but losing to Stockport County.[1] Finally in 2010 they gained promotion for the first time in over 40 years Promotion, relegation to League 2 in 2012 was followed by promotion back to League 1 in 2014. The first player Chris sold was Ricky Lambert who has since gone on to feature as a striker in the full England squad.
In 2015 at the Chairman's Summer Conference, Dunphy was the recipient of a long service award from the Football League for 28 years in football.[2]
After 10 years Chris and Rochdale AFC were happy to announce that they finally had full control of Spotland Stadium again. The whole site includes the Radcliffe Arms and Suites and car parks. He also had substantial involvement with Norden Juniors football running teams for over 8 years eventually becoming Chairman following the death of Norman Dale.
He received an award from The Mayor of Rochdale, Cllr Surinder Biant at the Mayor's Charity Ball in recognition of his long association with sport in Rochdale.
Dunphy's own business Christopher Dunphy Ecclesiastical is in the very specialized area of Church Heating; a national company with over 40 years of experience in this field the company installs heating in all types of churches from small halls to cathedrals, from ancient to modern using everything from traditional radiator based systems to utilizing modern green methods and he used his extensive knowledge and experience to write a non-fiction book entitled 'How Green is my Church'. Chris was also the heating advisor to the Sheffield Diocese for almost 10 years.
Chris announced his retirement as Chairman of Rochdale AFC on 5.12.18 and his last game was on 29.12.18