At the age of 82 Andy Roxburgh shows no sign of slowing down. Technical director of the Asian Football Confederation, meetings and the seven hour time difference between Glasgow and Kuala Lumpur make the task of pinning him down as tricky as nailing jelly to a wall.
Like the mentor who collapsed and died in a Cardiff dug out 40 years ago today, Roxburgh spent a significant period of his career serving his native land as manager of Scotland. Mindful of his debt of gratitude to Jock Stein, he makes the time to pay tribute to the man he replaced in devastating circumstances.
“Even 40 years on, Jock’s legacy remains in the minds of coaches he influenced, players he managed and developed and the fans who adored him,’ says Roxburgh now.
“Jock was a very special man and it was a privilege to have known him and to have worked with him. Honestly I could write a book about him...”
When it came to the definitive account of Stein’s life legendary broadcaster Archie MacPherson got there first. A friend and colleague of Stein’s, MacPherson was asked to speak at a ceremony held by Celtic to mark the 30th anniversary of their iconic manager’s death a decade ago where he observed factually that: “Stein lifted the club almost stratospherically and got them a European trophy.”
Over 13 years as manager his relentless drive took a club lacking direction and leadership to 25 major trophies - a European Cup, ten league titles, eight Scottish Cups and six League Cups. After a near fatal car crash his powers waned and, when he was offered a demeaning role selling pools tickets, a seat on the board of directors ceased to hold much appeal.
After an unfulfilling 44 days as manager of Leeds he became manager of Scotland in October 1978, retaining the job until the night he collapsed in a Cardiff dug-out. His injury stricken team needed a solitary point to secure a play-off place against the winners of the Oceanic group and when Wales took an early lead Davie Cooper of Rangers come off the bench to strike an equalising penalty nine minutes from time. Scotland were nearly there.
As the game ended there was a commotion. Medics and coaching staff crowded the Scotland manager seconds after a rogue snapper had become the final victim of Stein’s intolerance of invasive photographers. After 40 years those who live to tell the tale of that night are fewer in number than they used to be, but veteran BBC broadcaster Chick Young remembers journalists switching the narrative from national joy to national mourning in the blink of an eye.
“What I remember was coming out of the stadium to find the Tartan Army singing in jubilation,” he recalls.
“Those people had no idea of what had happened. There was no access to rolling news or mobile phones in those days.
“And we were going round trying to break the news to them, ‘big Jock is dead.’ It was almost incomprehensible.”
Media life was different back then. Where the dressing room is now a roped off sanctuary where journalists dare not tread - players and managers carefully policed by an army of press officers - journalists back then could find their way into places the wind couldn’t reach.
In the spirit of the era Young had left his late colleague Allan Davidson in the press box to compose a fitting introduction to a night of glory for Scotland to head downstairs in search of post match quotes from the manager and players. He discovered scenes of pandemonium as Stein was carried down the wood-panelled, cramped tunnel by four uniformed policemen.
“Jock Stein is being carried off there,’ commentator Brian Moore told the watching millions on ITV. “Maybe Jock has been overcome by it all.” The taut faces of SFA doctor Stewart Hillis and physiotherapist Brian Scott suggested something more serious.
“I got into the tunnel and if I remember rightly you turned right to get to the Scotland dressing room,’ Young tells Herald Sport.
“And all I remember is all hell breaking loose. People were running around frantically.
“The doctor Stewart Hillis was one of them and my good friend Graeme Souness was there as well, outside the dressing room quite distraught.
“It was then that the unthinkable started to sink in.”
As a young newspaper journalist Young had endured the ordeal of calling ‘Mr Stein’ for daily updates on life at Celtic. Archie MacPherson wrote of ‘arguments, fall-outs, bannings, mending of fences, ridicule, cajoling, baiting, good natured jousting, spectacular rows and superb humour’ with journalists until the bitter end. Stein’s control of the media narrative was unshakeable until the night he delivered the front page story no one wanted to write.
“He could be a scary figure. I had to phone him for a line for Sports Reel, the precursor to Sportscene, the Daily News, the Daily Express, the Evening Times. And I did the same with Willie Waddell at Rangers as well.
“When I was a young journalist he could intimidate a young reporter like me but eventually I remember standing up to him over something and we got on much better after that.
“He was one of the Three Kings of Busby, Shankly and Stein, Scottish miners who came through a very different era to establish themselves as giants of the managerial game.
“It’s hard for younger people to grasp how far his phenomenal influence extended.
“And he almost literally died with his boots on. He was there on the front line right to the bitter end and his last job was to lead Scotland to a World Cup play-off for Mexico 1986. Not many Scotland managers do that these days.
“Being there that night I don’t think it would have crossed my mind that journalists would still be writing about it 40 years later or asking me to describe what happened. It shows you the impact that night had on the nation at large.”
To anyone old enough to remember that night in Cardiff remains a JFK moment. Long before the Dianafication of British society the death of Jock Stein saw working class men, shorn of their machismo, shed a tear. My own father was one of them.
It’s natural, if futile, to wonder what fate might have awaited Scotland had Stein lived long enough to overcome Australia take charge in Mexico. At the age of 63 the 1986 finals might have been his last hoorah as manager of the national team. Whatever transpired the late SFA secretary Ernie Walker – a close friend and ally - recognised his knowledge, contacts and ability and always planned to hand him an ambassadorial role when his time was up. His impact on a new generation of coaches, as his Scotland successor Roxburgh acknowledges, would have been immense.
“It is impossible to express in a few words his impact on the Scottish game and his influence on future top-level coaches.
“Jock was generous with his advice, loved football people and had a great sense of humour and , like all genuinely gifted managers, he was very humble.
“He had a charisma and power of personality that was overwhelming, while his knowledge of the game and his ability to handle star players was second to none.”
