Frank Connor: The manager who put pride, and much more, back into Raith Rovers

He took the club by the scruff of the neck and shook it up - on and off the pitch.

The foundations he laid re-established the team in Scottish football and paved the way for Jimmy Nicholl’s incredible era of Premier League, Coca Cola Cup and European football.

Above all, Frank gave Rovers their self-respect back, and put them on path to success.

For that the club owes him everything.

As sports editor of the Fife Free Press, I used to phone him weekly.

The calls rarely lasted less than 45 minutes, during which time he’d go over the previous game and look ahead to the next opposition.

After every game he’d join the press in the tunnel for a chat - but only after he’d walked the entire boundary of the pitch, He did it home or away, in all weathers - a few minutes to gather his thoughts and, in all honesty, get his blood pressure back down.

Frank kicked every ball, saw every tackle, and knew exactly how far he could push a referee.

In the days when fans stood behind the dug-outs at Stark’s Park, he’d be involved in just as many conversations behind him as he did with the players on the park.

At Alloa, the press box used to latch on to the dug out. I think he pretty much wrote our reports that day. “C’mon guys, that was a stonewall penalty, do you no’ agree?” We did.

Perhaps one image defines the man and his achievements at the Kirkcaldy club.

Arms raised in celebration, Frank bursts out of the small brick dug out at Stranraer.

Saturday, May 9, 1987, on the last day of the season, as he savoured victory on a promotion race that went to the wire.

As Rovers charged to an emphatic 4-1 win, eyes - or rather ears - were tuned to the transistor radio placed on the roof of the dug out giving anxious news of Ayr United’s relentless surges goalward further up the coast.

A season in which all the breaks had gone against Rovers finally delivered the most important one of all - and that promotion back to the old First Division helped to shape the club for a generation to come.

He was a tough taskmaster but one who also had great enthusiasm, and love for, the game. Behind the gruff football exterior lay a soft heart. All you had to do was ask after his kids ...

I remember telling him I’d miss the next game as I was going on my honeymoon.

“Whit! During the season?!” he exclaimed shaking his head, before laughing and offering me his best wishes.

The door to Frank’s office was always open, and you were always assured of a welcome regardless of the result on Saturday.

His relationship with the board - good Rovers’ people such as John Urquhart - enabled him to bring in a host of experienced players; people he knew and trusted and got the best out of.

But simply being part of Division One wasn’t the summit of his ambition.

By the end of the 1980s, four years into the post he often spoke of ‘’the next step’’ - full-time football and a real tilt at Premier League status.

He continued to set the bar high for all connected to the club.

The end was anything but, however - a 7-1 thumping at Falkirk. I remember him joking afterwards: “Maybe I should have stayed at home today …”

By then Frank had been earmarked by Joe Jordan to join him at Hearts. He wanted someone who knew the Scottish game, and on the day of the Falkirk game, the deal was done.

Regardless of that final result, Frank left the team sitting third in the league; a complete transformation from the mess he’d inherited.

I last saw him on the night he was inducted into Raith Rovers’ Hall of Fame in 2015.

Immaculate suited, he held court on stage and off. Walking with him along the corridor backstage, he spotted former FIFA referee Joe Rowbotham.

“Ya big baldie …!” he bellowed before breaking into a huge smile.

On a stage packed with legends, he was the man everyone wanted to see and shake his hand.

A true Rovers legend whose legacy will never be forgotten.

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