Peter Lorimer Tribute

It was sad to learn of the passing of Peter Lorimer over the weekend.

Peter is obviously a true Leeds United legend and his loss will be felt by the club and the city as a whole.

As a youngster growing up, ‘Hot Shot’ or ‘Lash’ Lorimer was one of the players you’d heard stories about and seen old footage of and he was part of what was one of the best teams this country has ever seen. In different times, that great Revie team would have enjoyed far more success than it did, and Peter was a central figure in that era.

All players who join Leeds are under no illusion as to the history of the club, and Peter was a member of a team that put both Leeds United and the city itself well and truly on the map. They were the ones who laid the foundations for making Leeds United the club it is now and the attraction that it is today. And it’s heart-breaking that over the last year, weve not only lost Peter, bot Norman Hunter, Trevor Cherry, and Jack Charlton too.

As a bit of an occasional rebel myself, I’d enjoyed hearing the old yarns about Peter not being a fan of pre-match warm-ups, preferring to watch the racing on TV instead, and that was how the game was back then. Peter didn’t need a warm-up to go out and destroy teams because he had all the brilliance and determination in his locker.

When we were playing in Europe under David O’Leary, Peter was a familiar figure on those trips in his role with the media, and he was always around the club. Ken Bates brought him in as an ambassador, a role which divided some fans’ opinions at the time, but few could argue that, like Eddie Gray, Peter was ‘Mr Leeds United.’ He attended fan group meetings up and down the country, and he was always the one the fans wanted to meet and speak to. Indeed, if you ever travelled to Scandinavia with him, it was like being with the King of Norway such was his popularity. We used to get visited by plenty of Norwegians when I had Rock Bar in Leeds, and they’d always come from the Commercial where they’d had a pint and sing-song with Peter.

I got to know him better when I worked alongside him as an ambassador when GFH took the club over and we had many a laugh. I know he will be sorely missed by many.