This is Derek Dooley's funeral address given by the Bishop of Sheffield, Bishop Jack Nicholls at today's service:
WE are here today to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn at the death of a dear husband, father and grandfather and a friend to everyone he met and especially to his great city.
We are here also to celebrate the life of one of
Sheffield's greatest sons.
I have been a priest for forty years and never have I met more universal praise for anyone than I have for Derek Dooley.
In newspapers, on radio and TV, on the streets, in the homes and in the pubs of this city, everyone speaks with deep affection for Derek and the hearts of us all go out to Sylvia and the family in their sad loss.
What can I add to all that has already been said? What more is there to say? As I have thought about this over the past week I have been asking myself about what lies behind his greatness.
What is it about this man who, in a game where folk are not always singing one another's praises, never had a bad word to say about anyone?
If he could not praise, he would say nothing. What is it about this man who was generous to a fault and to whom everyone was equally important, from the greatest to the least?
What is it about this man who has always been the same, consistently representing what is best in being human, whether as a child kicking a football in the street every hour God sent, or as one of the greats when he played for Sheffield Wednesday, or as a Manager or as Chairman at Sheffield United?
What is the secret? Well I suppose part of it was simply that he was who he was, extraordinarily ordinary. But there is something else.
Imagine a little lad whose life is football, who never wanted to be or do anything else but play football; who became a professional footballer in his own beloved city and whose only fear was that he might be transferred away from Sheffield; who played for peanuts, but would have happily played for nothing.
Stardom, glamour and wealth were never part of his plan, just football. Football first, last and always. And then, at the height of his game, only in his twenties, tragedy strikes.
A footballing accident leaves him with a broken leg, it all goes wrong and he has to lose his leg. At one stroke the end of everything.
Most of us mortals would have carried deep within ourselves for the whole of the rest of our lives anger, bitterness and resentment.
Most folks' lives would have been marred, if not destroyed, by that one tragedy, but not Derek Dooley. Somehow he was able to live for the next fifty odd years the most selfless and generous and gracious of lives.
Even at the time of his accident his concern was never for himself. His only concern was for Sylvia and how they were going to manage with no money and no home.
That's the miracle and that's the measure of the man. He never let the pains of life get in the way, preoccupy him or stop him from being a great human being. The only man to build bridges across this great, but sometimes divided, city.
That's why we've all turned out today. What a tribute, what a man. And Derek would be quite bemused at all this.
In fact, he's probably smiling now and wondering what all the fuss is about, still concerned only and as always about Sylvia, his lifelong companion, the one to whom he said "I love you" every day of their married lives and sometimes more than once, especially when she told him off.
And for Martin and Suzanne, Del, Georgie, Ben and Max. Well Derek, all the fuss is about you and rightly so.
By the grace of God you have been for us all a great example of generous, humble and selfless humanity at its best. May you rest in peace and rise in glory.
READ MORE OF OUR REPORTS ON DEREK DOOLEYSee tributes to Derek from our readers and add your own message in our book of condolenceHere's a song to unite both Blades and OwlsThanks for everything DerekFuneral address for city's great sonhref="http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/DOOLEY-A-world-apart-from.3879453.jp">A world apart from today's millionaire players
Reflections on his life and timesYOUR LETTERS: Wednesday's messiah and country's greatestYOUR LETTERS: Let's have a statue we can all shareMain news indexSport headlinesThe full article contains 797 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
