Tributes have flooded in for a man responsible for producing some of Dundee’s brightest football stars who died aged 71 after a two-and-a-half year battle with cancer.
Henry McManus, known locally as Harry, was manager of Fairmuir Boys’ team that produced Scotland international Stephen Glass, former Dundee player Craig Ireland and Forfar midfielder Barry Sellars.
Mr McManus took the team from under-11s age group all the way through to under-16s, winning two Scottish cups in 1990 and 1992 along the way.
His family said he would do “anything for anyone”, with one of his former proteges describing him as a “gem of a man.”
Born in Motherwell in October 1939, Mr McManus married his wife Patricia in July 1966 before moving to Dundee eight years later to work as an engineer.
As a big football fan, he became involved with Fairmuir Boys in the late 1980s and organised summer games for the team to the likes of Spain and Blackpool.
Mr McManus was a devout Catholic and served as a Eucharistic minister at St Leonard’s and St Fergus Church in Ardler.
His son Charles (37) said, “He was a very gruff and private person but he would have done anything for anyone. He had a very dry sense of humour.
“Even in the end when he was in the hospital bed the nurse asked him if he was comfortable and he just said, ‘I make a living’.”
Craig Ireland (35), who turned out for Dundee, Dunfermline and Aberdeen amongst others during his career, played for Fairmuir under Mr McManus’ reign.
He said, “Anything Harry did was for the kids. Looking back at it now, I didn’t appreciate how much he did.
“Any events he could organise he would do and all the money was for the kids. I remember two trips he took us on, one to Blackpool and the other to Spain. I’ve got everything to thank Harry for.
“Originally I was a left-winger who scored lots of goals but he saw something I didn’t see and switched me to centre half when I was 11.
“I didn’t like it at the time everyone likes scoring goals but I got to make a 13-year career out of it. He knew football players, that’s for sure. We were lucky we had a right good bunch of lads at the time but he made it easy by the fact everything was organised on the administrative side of things. He was a gem of a man.”
Mr McManus is survived by his wife and children Paul (44), Owen (42), Mhairi (40) and Charles.