As Dundee United’s greatest-ever skipper, Paul Hegarty locked horns with some of the biggest names in world football and regularly got the better of them.
Against the odds, Hegarty helped the Tangerines topple the likes of Barcelona, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Monaco and PSV Eindhoven in the 1980s.
These were heady days under Jim McLean when miracles seemed possible and United appeared to be getting their scripts direct from the pages of Roy of the Rovers.
Hegarty and United won the 1982/83 Premier League title, back-to-back League Cups in 1979 and 1980, and reached the 1984 European Cup semi-final and the 1987 Uefa Cup final during his 16 incredible years at Tannadice.
Paul Hegarty a one-captain wonder for Scotland in 1983
Hegarty was arguably unlucky not to make more than eight Scotland appearances during that time, although the strength of depth in central defence during his era explains why.
It was the misfortune of Hegarty and his defensive partner, David Narey, to be around at the same time as Aberdeen duo Willie Miller and Alex McLeish, and vice-versa.
Alan Hansen, of the all-conquering Liverpool team, was in the mix too, limiting the number of caps earned by those great players.
Hegarty, however, bears no grudges or regrets.
He loved playing for Scotland and being a one-captain wonder was his pride and joy.
“I cherish the eight caps I won for Scotland,” he told me.
“It meant the world to me when I represented Scotland and I was captain against Northern Ireland in my eighth and final appearance, which was a huge honour.
“So I can’t be disappointed because I never saw myself as becoming international material when I started out as a part-timer with Hamilton in 1972.
“When I joined Dundee United in 1974 I wanted to play on a regular basis.
“Obviously I became captain and developed into an international player under Jim McLean but that wasn’t really my goal to begin with when I started at Tannadice.”
Hegarty was a striker when he joined United, before being moved to central defence by McLean where he soon formed a formidable defensive partnership with Narey.
He never looked back.
Hegarty made his Scotland debut alongside Hansen on May 19 1979 in the Home International Championship against Wales in Cardiff.
It was a baptism of fire for the United man.
Welsh legend John Toshack scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 thumping.
Hansen was dropped but Hegarty kept his place and lined up alongside Gordon McQueen when Scotland played a midweek game against Northern Ireland at Hampden.
A goal from Arthur Graham gave Jock Stein’s side victory.
The defensive line-up of Hegarty and McQueen was retained for the trip to Wembley where Scotland would go down 3-1 to England in front of 100,000 supporters.
A week later and Hegarty was paired with Hansen and Dundee United team-mate Narey in a friendly against 1978 world champions Argentina at Hampden.
That game is remembered for the appearance of a 17-year-old Diego Maradona.
How good was Maradona at 17?
“He was just at the start of his career and you could tell then that he had that something special, and, obviously, he went on to greater things,” said Hegarty.
“On that day at Hampden you could see he was something a bit different.
“He had the most amazing balance, had excellent vision, head up all the time, two feet, clever passing and a wonderful understanding of where everyone was on the pitch.
“He could waltz past three or four players at a time and even then you could see he was in the world-class bracket alongside the likes of Cruyff, Pele and Beckenbauer.
“Maradona scored and they won 3-1 comfortably.
“I never came up against him again, which was probably a blessing in disguise!”
Hegarty played a further four times for Scotland – against Norway, Wales, England and Northern Ireland on May 24 1983, where he was awarded the captain’s armband.
Hegarty led out the Scotland side at Hampden that featured four members of United’s Class of 83 including David Narey, Richard Gough and Eammon Bannon.
It could have been five but Paul Sturrock was still suffering from a thigh strain that saw brought him off against Dundee when the league was won 10 days’ previously.
Despite playing out a 0-0 draw against Northern Ireland, it concluded what was the greatest month of Hegarty’s footballing career following that title win on May 14.
Surprisingly, he never played for Scotland again.
Hegarty recently shared some of his stories and showed off precious memorabilia from his life in football with the Dundee United Football Memories group at Tannadice.
“I was very fortunate to play in a great team at Dundee United that won three major trophies and it’s always nice talking about those past successes,” he said.
“The fans who lived through that era never tire of hearing the stories of winning the League Cups in 1979 and 1980 and the Premier League title in the 1982/83 season.
“Those were the successes but there were also disappointments.
“The lowest was probably the 1981 League Cup final loss to Rangers because we were going for three-in-a-row and went into the game as favourites in great form.
“Then there were the Scottish Cup final defeats, the European Cup semi-final loss against Roma, then the Uefa Cup final in 1987 when we came up short.
“So that’s all the failures and they all have bittersweet memories.
“You’d expect to have won maybe 50% of those games we lost given how good a side we were in the 1980s but I suppose that’s just the rough end of the game.
“You either fall by the wayside or you hang in there.
“When you have a failure it makes you even more determined to succeed.
“We were all so hungry to do well, for ourselves, the club and our fans.
“We had leaders throughout that dressing room and we would all be there to pick each other up if we were going through a bad spell.
“Of course, one man did most of the shouting in that dressing room!
“Jim McLean: what he said went and we accepted that.”
Jim McLean’s influence was immense
Hegarty didn’t drink and wasn’t likely to be seen tripping the light fantastic at the Coconut Grove on a Saturday night but there was one thing he did need from McLean.
Direction.
“I didn’t need a guy like Jim McLean to tell me what time to go to bed, what to eat, what to drink or how to behave on and off the park,” Hegarty explained.
“But I needed someone to make me a better player on the football side of things.
“Jim McLean knew football inside out.
“He transformed me from a centre-forward into a central defender.
“He gave me tremendous help to improve – just like he did with so many players.
“He struggled with the other side of things but if he had taken his foot off the gas and not set such high standards I do wonder whether we would have achieved all we did.
“He was an enormous influence on my career.”
Hegarty served United over 700 times and scored 82 goals before moving to St Johnstone in 1990 for a brief spell before being appointed manager at Forfar Athletic.
When Forfar were relegated in 1992, Hegarty left Station Park and was part of the backroom team when United won the Scottish Cup under Ivan Golac in 1994.
Hegarty continued in various coaching positions at a number of clubs, and, as a manager, took charge of United briefly in 2002, and more recently Montrose.
He is now a club ambassador and remains a hugely popular figure at Tannadice on matchdays where his tales of the glory days are lapped up by fans young and old.
George Laidlaw, Tayside & Fife regional co-ordinator for Football Memories, said: “Paul had the guys in awe for two hours and could have gone on for another two and promised to come back again for that reason.”
