Walter Smith’s memorial, of course, was yesterday, and we’ve not covered it too much, out of respect for the man and the family, but we did want to share a great story from Neil, his son, who delivered a wonderful eulogy for his father.
“I can remember one game in particular where my twins played in, and their team was winning 4-0 at half time and the opposition came back to make it 4-3 by the final whistle, which was agitating my dad. On his way home in the car my dad gave his post-match assessment which he normally did. ‘Great result today boys’, he said, ‘but you maybe could have worked a bit harder in the second half. And the team could have kept its shape and kept the ball a bit better.’”
But then the punchline:
“The boys were only 6 years old and playing 5-a side!”
This kind of adorable and sweet story indicated the football man Walter was, obsessed with the game, and even little toddlers weren’t safe from his focus on making the sport better and doing the best one possibly could.
We’ll not cover too much on the memorial, albeit it was beautiful, funny, intense, emotional and a fitting tribute to a great man.
And his son did him proud.