Maybe I am not the best person to write about Don Revie, after all I could barely walk and talk when he left us to take the England job but I'm sure I was not alone in sparing a thought for the Don today on the 24th anniversary of his passing.
I learned of this sad news via another dearly missed footballing man, the legendary commentator Brian Moore who mentioned it in dispatches whilst covering the pulsating Liverpool v Arsenal 1988/89 title decider at Anfield. Ironically a future Leeds boss in George Graham tasting success in the most dramatic of fashion, the season elongated due to the tragedy at Hillsborough.
Like the Shankly Gates but on a minuscule scale, we mourned Don at the gates to Elland Road. It always seemed to me that the clubs finest hours under Revie had almost been airbrushed from history. Granted I took Howard Wilkinson's point of removing all the "Glory Days" pictures, considering them a burden, but other than some crappy little Cul de Sac off Elland Road named after him, there was never a fitting tribute to the man who put Leeds United on the footballing map up until Graham Ibbotson's statute of him was unveiled last May to mark the 40th anniversary of our FA Cup triumph. The statute was funded by fan donations.
Okay in 1994 the Kop/Gelderd End was renamed the Revie Stand, but as Steve Abbott the former We Are Leeds editor and occasional contributor to the paper version of TEAB pointed out, the stand was still referred to as the North Stand on ticket stubs et al. Nowadays it bares the Don's name alongside that of a local budget airline.
Outside of Leeds 11 you will find fondness towards Revie's memory in chronically short supply. Even those not old enough to remember regularly recite the phrase "Dirty Leeds" verbatim ad nauseam. Last weekend we saw the retirement of a certain Scottish born football manager, the BBC's MOTD programme arguably had to run a tribute putting that man (sorry I can't even type his name!) alongside footage of Busby, Shankly, Paisley, Clough, Bobby Robson, Ron Greenwood even but no mention of Revie.
Let's not forget, the embittered FA still had not forgiven Revie's treason over 20 years prior to his death and refused to send any representation whatsoever to his Edinburgh funeral.
As far as English football goes, he is the unspoken genius. Even the "Damned United" film did of portray Revie favourably in my opinion, Irish actor Colm Meaney was spot on in replicating Revie's Teeside accent, mannerisms etc but the script made the great man look like little more than a stroppy bully. Leeds fan actor Ralph Ineson who had a minor part in the film recalled in the Square Ball earlier this year cheerily greeting Meaney with "How does it feel to play the great man" Meaney apparently guffawed "Oh I don't know about that...."
But 24 years on, we still remember Don and still love him. This time next year a quarter of a century will have passed and I hope the club marks the occasion with a fitting tribute. The return to a pure all-white kit as favoured by Revie and ditching those ridiculous "go faster" stripes would be a bloody good start!