Liverpool Legend Ron Yeats Passes At Age 86

Photo by Don Morley/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive

The Liverpool legend suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease for several years.

On Saturday, the Liverpool family lost another legend when it was announced that Ron Yeats died at 86 years old. The Scottish former captain had suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease as he got on in age.

Yeats, famously referred to be Bill Shankly as a “colossus”, made his Reds debut during the 1961-62 season and helped the team receive promotion out of the second division. He was named captain of the squad after only a few months on Merseyside.

Describing the moment when the then 23-year-old was handed the armband, he said, “Bill just turned round and said: ‘Ron, I want you to captain the side. You will be my eyes, my ears and my voice on that pitch’, I thought to myself: ‘Bloody hell’. I did that for him, ­captain Liverpool, for 10 years. It was the best 10 years of my career and my life.”

One of his greatest achievements at the club was being the captain when the team won the FA Cup for the first time in 1965. Upon climbing the top of the stairs and being presented the trophy, Yeats told the Queen, “I’m absolutely knackered!”

He ended up making 454 appearances for Liverpool before leaving in 1971. The club was clearly always in his heart, though, because after he retired in 1986, he returned to Merseyside, this time as chief scout.

According to the man himself, his best work during his time in administration was scouting and bringing in a 25-year-old Finnish centre-back you may have heard of, at the time playing for Dutch club Willem II, named Sami Hyypiä for only £2.6m in 1999. During the 10 year tribute for Hyypiä, Yeats declared signing him as “one of the best bits of business we’ve done over the years… a steal – a bargain…”

Flags across club sites will be lowered to half-mast today as a mark of respect.