Leeds nostalgia: Revie accepts OBE but thanks club

Don Revie was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours List and immediately heaped praise on Leeds United, saying: 'The award is really a great tribute to the club, not myself.

“The directors, players and staff have done a tremendous job while I have been manager and I could not possible have had better support.

“I regard myself as receiving the award on their behalf and am very proud to do so. We are one big happy family at Elland Road.”

The story appeared in the YEP in January 1970.

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No doubt Leeds being the first British club to win the European Inter Cities Fairs Cup, the forerunner of the present day Europa League, had something to do with it. The mostly forgotten championship

The cup’s strange and very literal name reflects its bizarre initial format. By the letter of the law, this was a competition played between cities, not clubs, with the key qualifying criteria that they must also stage regular international trade or industrial affairs.

Evening Post sports editor Phil Brown said it was typical of Revie to be modest about the award, adding: “I know of no other manager who would have achieved the same result, not just match results, as he has done with Leeds United - on and off the field.”