Being named as St Mirren captain at the age of 18 was the “proudest moment” of his life, says Tony Fitzpatrick.
The former Buddies player and chief executive was given the responsibility and honour when Sir Alex Ferguson joined as manager in 1974.
Recently, he spoke to the Paisley Daily Express about his relationship with one of the best managers of the game as it was announced Sir Alex will cease his role as Global Ambassador for Manchester United.
In his infamous stint at Saints, being one of the only clubs to have sacked him, Ferguson is said to have revamped the Paisley outfit by making it more focused on youth players — an approach he stuck with throughout his career.
Fitzpatrick highlighted how, during a low time for Paisley, Ferguson turned the club into a beacon of light for everyone in the town.
Ferguson had developed St Mirren from the lower half of the old Scottish Second Division into a First Division champion side in his four-year stint at the Buddies.
And Fitzpatrick has touched on how it was at the club during that time. He said: “Alex Ferguson came as a very young manager at that time. But you could tell that he had this charisma, and he still has it to this day.
“He brought a real light to Paisley as the town at that time was in a bad way – and St Mirren was too as they were part-time. What he did first was, and most likely why he made me captain, was start a youth policy straightaway.
“He wanted the club’s foundations to be built on the youth and he built a top side. He was an incredible man.
“But it wasn’t only the dressing room and the club he was changing, he had everyone in the town believing in St Mirren. He never just used those words, he put things in place to provide those steps.
“One of them being was him making sure that we [the players] knew how much it meant to the fans to play for this club and that we were playing for them.”
Ferguson was sacked by St Mirren in 1978 which he contested as a wrongful dismissal in a tribunal case where he lost.
Despite that, he went on to have a glorious career, winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in 1983 with Aberdeen before moving to Manchester United in 1986 where he is regarded as the club’s greatest-ever manager.
But Fitzpatrick admits that the decision to get rid of the Scot at that time had a bigger impact on the team than most realise, with the former captain admitting that it was something that led him to decide to leave the club.
He said: “You knew what he was about, he cared for people and that is his secret. He loved and cared for his players, their families and even their grandkids.
“And we are still living off him today, the structures he put in place. Sacking him might have been the worst decision in football — it had grown boys greetin’.
“I had a phone call to come down to the stadium one night around 7pm and it was Ferguson, he was very upset, and told me he wanted me to be the first to know about him being sacked. It was over nonsense and it was so sad that it happened and we the players were devastated. I left not long after that, and I wouldn’t have left St Mirren in a million years.
“But due to them taking that decision, it was one of my main reasons for leaving, maybe the biggest. I got on with Jim [Clooney] who came in as the new manager but I told him straight that I couldn’t be part of things after Sir Alex Ferguson going.”
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