IT is a long time since the cinema on Station Road in Kinross became a bingo hall, but if the recently-released The Damned United had played in the town then locals might have joined Duncan Revie in being unable to recognise the portrayal of his father.
Regarded as gregarious and warm by all who truly knew him, Don Revie lived out his final years in the Scottish town, a part of the world he loved almost as much as his adopted homeland of Leeds.
Kevin Keegan, handed the England captaincy by Revie,
is not the only former England manager to have set up home in Scotland, something which is recalled as the 20th anniversary of Revie's death from motor neurone disease approaches next month. Just as Brian Clough steals the show in The Damned United, Revie was overshadowed even in death, at the age of just 61, by a collision of big football occasions; he passed away in Edinburgh's Murrayfield private hospital just hours before Liverpool took on Arsenal in a last-game shoot-out to decide the destiny of the English title in May 1989, weeks after the tragedy of Hillsborough. The following day saw Scotland host England in the Rous Cup for the final time.
"I was with Don in the Murrayfield the night before he died," recalled Dave Duncan, Revie's brother-in-law, earlier this week. "To cheer him up I said: 'Tomorrow you will be able to watch the big game between Liverpool and Arsenal on TV'. He shook his head, as if to say 'no I won't'."
Two decades on and many have been re-awakened to the former Leeds United manager's memory, while a new generation has been introduced to Revie. Whether it is the real Revie is debatable. Clough is granted a reprieve in the film version of The Damned United, having been cast as a psychotic drunkard in David Peace's original book; Revie, depicted as stern and humourless in both, is not.
"The actor, Colm Meaney, did a good job in terms of mannerisms, but he was far removed from my dad's character," Duncan told the Scotsman this week. "He came over as curmudgeonly. He was the absolute opposite of that. He looked after everybody he came into contact with, whether it was the lady doing the washing or the groundsman doing the pitch. In fact, the Leeds groundsman, by then getting well into his seventies, travelled by coach to come to mum's funeral in Kinross. These were the people who really knew dad, as well as the players. The Peter Lorimers of the world will tell you that."
It is just as well Revie did not follow the advice of Clough, who famously ordered those players briefly under his charge at Leeds United to throw their medals and souvenirs into the nearest bin. The superstitious Revie also had a compulsion to hoard. Last year such memorabilia as a League Championship medal from Leeds' first ever title win in 1968-69 were retrieved by Duncan from a travel trunk stamped 'Kinross', and handed to auctioneer David Convery. Later this month, 20 years after his death almost to the day, the Don Revie Collection will be auctioned in Edinburgh, with the proceeds – expected to be as much as £20,000 – going towards motor neurone research. Also included among these items is the famous red book Revie was gifted after being chosen as the subject for This is Your Life, aired on the night Leeds were confirmed as league champions for the second time in the club's history 25 years ago last week. It includes a hand-written message from host Eamonn Andrews: "What a night! What a season! And even Billy made it." Billy is of course Billy Bremner, one of the many Scots whose careers Revie influenced since making his first signing from across the Border – his wife, Elsie.
The day after Revie's death Scotland fell 2-0 to England at Hampden against a backdrop of trouble on the Glasgow streets. It was a different scene to the one at Wembley in 1977, when jubilant Scots tore down the goalposts and carved up the turf. Again these memorable circumstances eclipsed what might otherwise be remembered as Revie's last competitive match in charge of England, whose chances of qualifying for the World Cup finals in Argentina had all-but evaporated. Within weeks he had covertly signed a deal to manage the United Arab Emirates, swapping the first stirrings of cruel media treatment now considered the norm for England managers for sun and financial security, both of which were guaranteed by the Dubai-based post.
Revie was cast as a traitor to the English cause, but though Scotland might have seemed an obvious place to head there were other factors involved in Revie's retreat north from Surrey, where he had briefly decamped after his stint in the middle east ended.
Revie's journey back up the spine of England took him past Leeds, where he spent his most successful days as manager, and then Manchester, where he carved out his name as a player for Manchester City. He passed also his native Middlesbrough, where he was born in 1927. In this flight north Revie kept a promise made to Elsie that they would retire to the east-coast of Scotland.
Although she lived nearly all her married life in England, Elsie Duncan was a proud Scot, born in Lochgelly. Football shaped her life from cradle to grave. Following her husband's death until her own in 2005 she was president of the Leeds United supporters' club, making the trip down from Scotland each year for their annual dinner.
Tommy Duncan, her father, was a footballer whose career took him south following an unusual transfer. Both he and brother Johnny joined Leicester City from Raith Rovers on the same day, signed by former Rover Peter Hodge. Johnny was better known as 'Tokey', and as manager later led Leicester City to the FA Cup final in 1949. Tommy died aged just 39, having played also for Bristol Rovers. Latterly he had worked in the Turk's Head pub in Leicester, owned by his brother. Tokey became a surrogate father to Elsie, his niece, and her four brothers and sisters. It is through him that she met Revie, then a fledgling forward in Tokey Duncan's Leicester side.
Elsie, as the first born, remained in Scotland to attend school in Cowdenbeath, and lived with her father's family – who even Revie referred to as the "old folks". The Duncan family owned a general store in Lochgelly, which Revie, a builder by trade, helped construct. In the close-season he would often begin his pre-season training with Raith Rovers, before heading south again. Elsie graduated from Moray House teacher training college in Edinburgh, and wherever Revie's career led – she estimated they moved house 19 times – she would enter another classroom of unfamiliar faces. But she finally found stability in Leeds, as Revie set about building a team which would compete for the title of best English side since the war. Elsie continued teaching at Leeds Girls' high school even after Revie left Elland Road and took over at England, the period in which The Damned United is set.
But they had always aimed to retire to Scotland, and did so in a house on Broom Road, just an iron shot away from the fourth hole at Kinross golf club. "Dad loved Scotland," recalls Duncan. "He loved Leeds, he loved Scotland, and he loved Manchester too. But I think if you pushed him it would always be between Leeds and Scotland."
His wife's family are still represented in Kinross, through her brother Dave and sister Jenny. Notably, there remains a family link to Leeds – Agnes, another sister, returned to settle in Yorkshire after a spell in Australia. But Revie passed away just three years after he and his wife moved to Scotland, having been confined to a wheelchair. His funeral took place at Mortonhall crematorium in Edinburgh, but few expressed surprise at the location where his ashes were scattered – Elland Road. The obituary in The Scotsman described him as 'tragic Revie' in an article which ran in sports pages otherwise devoted to the previous night's championship crunch match, settled by a decisive injury-time goal from Arsenal, and build-up to that afternoon's clash against the Auld Enemy. When he slipped away in an Edinburgh hospital bed, Revie was a friend rather than foe, and still young, too young.
The full article contains 1427 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
