Liverpool legend Ron Yeats, who was best remembered for captaining the Reds to two league titles and an FA Cup trophy, died on September 7 at the age of 86.
The Premier League club confirmed his passing with a statement that read: "We are mourning the passing of our legendary former captain Ron Yeats. The thoughts of everyone at Liverpool Football Club are with Ron's family and friends."
Yeats had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier this year.
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Who was Ron Yeats? Liverpool legend who won league, FA Cup
Signing for Liverpool in 1961 from Dundee United, Aberdeen native Yeats would go on to play 454 games for the English club, over 400 of them as captain. By the time Yeats left Liverpool, he had captained the side more than any other player in club history, and his mark of 417 currently stands second, only bested by the 471 for Steven Gerrard.
The 6 ft. 2 defender was a hallmark of Bill Shankly's title-winning side in the 1960s, winning the English league title in 1963/64 and 1965/66. In the first title-winning season, anchored by Yates at the back, Liverpool conceded just 45 goals in 42 games, which was 11 fewer than any other top-flight club. Two years later, they'd beat that mark handily, conceding an astonishing 34 goals in 42 games, four better than second-placed Leeds United.
Shankly famously referred to Yeats as a "colossus" not only for his imposing height, but also for his place within club lore, also winning the 1964/65 FA Cup as well as the 1964, '65, and '66 Charity Shield. "Take a walk around my centre-half, gentlemen, he's a colossus," Shankly said famously in 1961, shortly after Yeats joined.
Yeats would leave Liverpool in 1971 after a decade at Anfield, playing 97 games for Tranmere Rovers as player-manager before hanging up his boots in 1978. Yeats returned to Liverpool as chief scout in 1986, spending 20 years in that role before retirement.
In possibly the biggest sign of Yeats' position in Liverpool lore, he is referenced in Everton's anti-Liverpool song, with the line reading, "We hate Bill Shankly and we hate St. John, but most of all we hate Big Ron."
Liverpool said that flags across the club's sites will be lowered to half mast as a mark of respect for Yeats' passing.
