Recruited from Williamstown, Hird joined the Hawthorn Football Club where he made his debut in 1938.
It was at the Bombers he enjoyed his greatest success, playing 102 games from 1940 to 1945 as a pacy flanker, and being a part of the 1942 premiership team.
Hird later spent two years with the St Kilda Football Club as captain-coach, leaving at the end of 1947.
In his seven years as captain-coach of the Seconds, the team won the premiership twice, in 1950 and 1952 (Hird's last match), and was runner-up three times.
The Allan T. Hird Stand was named in his honour at Windy Hill in Essendon, and he was an inaugural inductee into the club's Hall of Fame in 1996, given Legend status the same year.