Scotland manager Gordon Strachan led the tributes to former Dundee FC secretary Isobel (Izzie) Sneddon, who has died aged 74.
Isobel, who passed away on Friday, had given 40 years of service to the club and was a mother figure and friend to generations of players who came up through the ranks at Dens.
They included the 1961-62 league championship team, internationalists from four decades and Strachan himself.
She officially retired in January 1994 but, such was her attachment to the club, she was often to be seen helping out in the office on match days for several years afterwards.
As a mark of respect, players will wear black armbands during Saturday’s relegation clash with St Mirren.
Dundee manager John Brown, who played for the club while Mrs Sneddon was secretary, said: “It is deeply saddening news. My condolences are with her family at this time. She was a fantastic servant for Dundee Football Club and will be sorely missed.”
Jocky Scott, who signed up at Dens as a 17-year-old and went on to manage the club twice, said: “They talk about ‘legends’ at football clubs and Isobel certainly comes into that category. She ran the show, she knew everything there was to know about the rules and everything a manager needed to know. Any young players coming into Dens, she loved to take them under her wing and mother them, which she did with me.”
A Dundee FC spokesman said: “Isobel was a truly great servant to Dundee FC during her time at Dens which spanned an incredible four decades. Players from the fifties through to the nineties always spoke of her with great affection and her home remained a shrine to Dundee FC.”
Dundee FC fans also took to online message boards to express their sadness.
Strachan, who signed for Dundee as a 14-year-old in 1971 and spent six years at the club, described Isobel as a “huge personality” around Dens Park who went out of her way to help all the players, especially the younger ones.
“Isobel was a real mother figure to me and all the other young boys at the club and she helped us with everything. She was a superb organiser at all levels of the game and even after I left we remained good friends and I loved meeting up with her again whenever I went back to Dens Park.”