THE FINAL SAY ...; Joey Rowan's heart failed him but he failed no one.
HERE are some people in this life who are destined to carry more than their fair share of the load.They tend to operate in the background, avoiding the spotlight and attention. They rarely complain no matter how heavy their burden may become.
Mostly they are decent people and, because they are willing to step forward when the going gets tough, the more cynical among us tend to take unfair advantage.
We see these people as soft touches who are there to be used and then pushed aside after they have done all the hard work, the dirty jobs the rest of us don't want to know. Joey Rowan fell into that category.
An Airdrie fan who became the Diamonds' vice-chairman, he had been striving for months to prevent his club from going under and latterly he found himself on his own because the other directors had walked away one by one. As the storm clouds gathered overthe club Joey Rowan could also have galloped for cover. But he didn't.
Having already survived one heart attack Joey shouldn't have been left alone to champion the club's cause when creditors were closing in but he felt he had no alternative because had he disappeared Airdrie's gates would have been chained and padlocked a long time ago
Ignoring advice from family and friends, Joey took it upon himself to keep the ailing First Division club alive as long as possible even though the pressures were weighing heavily upon him.
Pleading with creditors for more time became a daily routine and although he had success on that front he was merely delaying the inevitable. Airdrie were sliding closer to the abyss and the desire of one man, no matter how powerful or passionate, was never going to be enough.
Airdrie's descent towards financial ruin was inexorable and eventually the liquidator arrived on the doorstep.
Even then Joey considered himself responsible in some way when for more than a decade he had worked for the Diamonds. Unlike many of the people who become football directors, he didn't have an ego and if the truth be known he took a seat on Airdrie's board to help his father- in-law Jake Dalziel, who for more than 25 years was the club's major benefactor.
That was away back in the days when Airdrie played out of that dusty, rickety old structure we called Broomfield and when Jake died eight years ago Joey remained on the board because he believed in what he was doing, even if there were those who frowned upon his presence.
With his greying hair pulled back in a ponytail, Joey was hardly the archetypal football director and there was always the suspicion that some of his peers regarded him as unsuitable. When you think about that they might have been correct because Joey was never one for boardroom machinations or pretending to be somebody other than himself.
He called it the way he saw it and that, too, would have made him unsuitable in an environment populated by double- dealers and empire builders.
Joey, who was part of a successful family business, didn't need local recognition nor did he regard his club blazer as some kind of magical cloak which afforded him special status in the town. He sought nothing other than to serve his club.
He was an Airdrie fan who kicked every ball during matches and who would scream out in the directors box when he felt a decision had gone against his team as he did several times recently when we watched a couple of Airdrie's games together. Even though he was in constant radio contact with stadium staff he was still more passionate than most directors I've known.
After the last game we took in together, against Inverness Caley Thistle, I reminded him that he wouldn't get any thanks for his efforts and that maybe he should take a step back. He said he had to see the club through the current crisis although he badly needed a full night's sleep.
Last time I saw him was at a wedding less than two weeks ago. As usual, he spent much of the time fretting about the club's problems. Eventually he was cajoled into singing and even then he couldn't be separated from the Diamonds.
His choice of song? "Only the Lonely," which is, of course, Airdrie's anthem.
That night he said he was aware that as soon as someone lodged an acceptable offer for the club he would be shown the door. The new owners wouldn't want him around. That's usually the thanks football people like Joey receive for their loyalty but no one will ever have the chance to tell him to leave.
Around kick-off time on Saturday Joey Rowan died.
He had been the only one with enough heart to stand on his own and try to save Airdrie but at 2.30pm on Saturday that heart failed him. Joey Rowan, however, failed no one.
A good family have lost a husband and father and many of us have lost a genuine friend, who just didn't know how to stop giving to his club.
So now two men, Jake Dalziel and Joey Rowan, who did all they could to help Airdrie survive, are dead while their club still clings to life.
Someone else will have to find the sense in all of this because I just can't see it.
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| Title Annotation: | Sport |
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| Author: | Traynor, James |
| Publication: | Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland) |
| Date: | Feb 21, 2000 |
| Words: | 902 |
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