Ron Yeats, Scottish footballer who led Liverpool to glory as Bill Shankly’s ‘colossus’ – obituary

Ron Yeats, who has died aged 86, was instrumental in the rise of Liverpool Football Club in the 1960s as Bill Shankly’s captain and, in the great manager’s words, “a colossus”; during 10 seasons at Anfield, Yeats led the team in more matches than anyone except Steven Gerrard, and won not only two league titles but also Liverpool’s first FA Cup.

Yeats, a left-footed defender, at the age of 23 helped propel Dundee United back into the Scottish Premiership for the first time in almost 30 years when he was informed in 1961 that Liverpool wanted to sign him and instructed to meet Shankly at Edinburgh station.

At the time serving in the Army, Yeats was 6ft 3in tall and weighed 14½ stone, his physique plumped by his work as a killer. The only uniform that fitted him was from the Great War. “What a size you are!” Shankly said admiringly. When Yeats was unveiled to the press, the manager invited reporters to walk around him, quipping: “The man is a mountain!”

Shankly would later remark that it was the arrival of Yeats and another Scot, Ian St John, that sparked the team’s revival. He reportedly asked Yeats where Liverpool were, and the answer was: stuck in the Second Division. “But with you,” he said, “we’ll be in the First next season.”

Dominant in the air and persuasive in the tackle, though never comfortable on the ball, Yeats helped form the backbone of the team, with Tommy Lawrence in goal behind him and Roger Hunt up front with St John. In 1962, with Yeats having succeeded Dick White as captain, Liverpool duly won promotion to the First Division as champions of the Second by a margin of eight points.