Ron Yeats – ‘the Colossus’ Bill Shankly built his first great Liverpool team around – dies aged 86

Legendary Scottish defender won two league titles and FA Cup under manager who signed him from Dundee United in 1961

Ron Yeats, a foundation stone of the Liverpool side that rose to become a European superpower, has died aged 86.
Centre-back Yeats was the inspirational club captain as Bill Shankly constructed a new Anfield era in the 1960s, leading the team from the old second division to become English champions. 
“The thoughts of everyone at LFC are with Ron’s wife, Ann, all of his family and his friends at this incredibly sad time,” Liverpool said in a statement.
Tributes have flowed for Yeats, with those who followed him acknowledging their debt to an icon of the Shankly years.
Mark Lawrenson, another of the club’s most distinguished former defenders, described Yeats as “a true leader on and off the field”. He added: “They don’t make them like him anymore.”
Liverpool legend and Telegraph Sport columnist Jamie Carragher wrote on social media platform X that Yeats was “a giant of a man and a giant of a player”.
“Everything at Liverpool FC starts with people like Big Ron,” he added.
Phil Thompson, who broke into the Liverpool side shortly after Yeats left the club, said the Scot was an idol: “So sad to hear of the passing of Big Ron Yeats – one of my heroes as a kid and had the pleasure to become his friend. RIP Big Man.”
Affectionately known as “the Colossus” by Shankly – the nickname stuck long after Yeats’s retirement – he won two league titles and was the first Liverpool captain to lift the FA Cup, the club ending its long wait for the trophy in 1965.
Beyond those breakthrough years for the Merseyside club, Yeats’s sphere of influence and legacy extended to future generations.
He will be forever regarded as one of Anfield’s pioneering footballers, paving the way for decades of dominance that followed Shankly and establishing the English side as one of the most storied clubs in world football.
Aberdeen-born Yeats was one of Shankly’s and Liverpool’s most consequential signings – arguably his manager’s most cherished – when he joined from Dundee United in 1961 for £20,000.
Yeats often told the story that he asked Shankly where Liverpool was.
“In Division Two, son, but with you in the side we’ll be in the First Division soon,” was the reply. A legendary master and mentor relationship was born, the coach telling Yeats to be his eyes, ears and voice on the pitch after swiftly making him captain aged just 23.
Shankly, never one to miss a chance to eulogise, famously invited reporters to “walk around” his 6ft 2in defender as well as interview him at his Anfield unveiling. Alongside the purchase of fellow Scot Ian St John, Yeats’s arrival was regarded as the turning point, not in Shankly’s reign, but in the course of Liverpool history. A hitherto malfunctioning, underperforming club began its ascent.
“With Ron at the back, we can play Arthur Askey in goal,” Shankly quipped.
Liverpool’s all-red kit can also, in part, be attributed to Yeats. Shankly thought he looked so intimidating dressed in one colour, he ditched the white shorts the club had previously worn.
“‘Get into those shorts and let’s see how you look,” Shankly told his captain. “Christ, Ronnie, you look awesome, terrifying. You look 7ft tall.”
In an age where the Scottish players felt penalised for pursuing their career in England, Yeats won just two international caps. European success also eluded him as the club took its first steps in continental competition, defeat in the European Cup semi-final of 1965 and European Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1966 sources of regret.
Over 10 years, Yeats would play 454 games before Shankly took the heartbreaking decision of dropping him as part of his second major reconstruction in 1971. Those who succeeded Yeats were left in no doubt of the standards set. Indeed, when Virgil van Dijk moved to Liverpool in 2018, he, too, was compared to Yeats, the descriptions of the Dutchman as the “modern Colossus” a direct reference to Yeats’s legacy.
After a stint as Tranmere’s player-manager and spell in the American Soccer League in the 1970s, Yeats would return to Merseyside and the club where he made his name, working as a chief scout after Sir Kenny Dalglish became player-manager in 1986, and serving five Liverpool managers before his retirement in 2006.
Yeats’s most famous purchase while in his scouting role was that of Sami Hyypia, who he recommended after seeing the Finn play for Dutch side Willem II. Liverpool signed Hyypia for just £2.2 million after Yeats’s glowing report.
Despite his intimidating presence on the pitch, Yeats was a softly spoken, gentle soul off it, and like many from his generation, modest about his achievements and legacy. In recent years, he was one of the many football legends battling Alzheimer’s disease.
The club will mourn his loss at their home game against Nottingham Forest next weekend, saying farewell to one of their greatest servants, without whom it can be said, without overstatement, the modern Liverpool and Anfield would not be what it is today.