Today is all about Sir Alex

Enlarge Image

Tim Hales / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES Man United manager Alex Ferguson has been at Old Trafford for 25 years. (CP)

No matter what kind of journey we make, where we started out will always be part of us. -- Sir Alex Ferguson

Shortly after beginning his coaching career at East Stirlingshire in 1974, Alex Ferguson made the first of only three moves he would make in 37 years of club management when he agreed to succeed Willie Cunningham at St. Mirren.

The club was in the First Division at the time and struggling to fill their Love Street Ground. Being the hands-on type we all now know him to be, Ferguson decided to take responsibility for the attendance woes and attached a loudspeaker system to the roof of his car, which he proceeded to drive around Paisley, encouraging all within hearing distance to show up at the stadium the following weekend. Typical Fergie.

It's worth pointing out that Ferguson took St. Mirren into the top flight before joining Aberdeen in 1978. And before he took the job he still retains -- manager of Manchester United -- he helped Aberdeen break up the Celtic-Rangers duopoly (three times), won four Scottish Cups and, most incredibly of all, lifted the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983.

Three years later he took over an underachieving, hard-drinking United side that hadn't won the title in 19 years. Twelve titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, three European Cups and a knighthood later we arrive at today: the 25th anniversary of Ferguson's arrival at Old Trafford -- a celebration, let's all remember, that very well might not have happened.

In those grim days, I was, for the first time, feeling uncomfortable about my position. -- Sir Alex Ferguson

The story goes that Ferguson was one loss from the sack when Manchester United arrived at the City Ground to face Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup on January 7, 1990. His side, winless since the middle of November, seemed to have taken a step back from the previous campaign and, having yet to produce a trophy at Old Trafford, Ferguson went into the match with a knife to his throat.

United ended up sneaking the match -- a 1-0 result provided by the head of Mark Robbins -- and went on to win the FA Cup on a replayed final against Crystal Palace. The title would have to wait a few years, but the silverware bought Ferguson the time he needed to fashion a championship side.

I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Football. Bloody hell. -- Sir Alex Ferguson

So exclaimed Alex Ferguson, soon to be "Sir," after leading United to the 1999 Champions League crown that concluded an unprecedented treble. His opponents might well have been muttering the same thing -- so decisive had been United's dominance in the decade. By then, United had won five Premier League titles and had established themselves as the biggest brand in sport.

For that, they had, and have, Fergie to thank.

In the history of Manchester United there are three pillars upon which the storied club has propped itself. The first is the closest thing they've ever come to a "big-money takeover" -- the £500 investment by John Henry Davies in 1902 that saved the club from bankruptcy. The second is the Munich Air Disaster which, while tragic, consolidated national and even continental support behind United, setting them up for the rock star status that would follow a decade later.

The third is Fergie. Or, in another word, winning. After all, the two have been synonymous over his quarter century at Old Trafford.

That's what today's celebration is really about. Yes, Ferguson's tenure is unthinkable in modern professional sport, but so is his record. And it's that, more than any infusion of oil money or over-expenditure on wages, which has made United, in Ferguson's image, the colossus it is today.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 5, 2011 C8