Ex-Hearts chairman Leslie Deans has passed away, the club have confirmed.
A statement on the Edinburgh side's website announced the 71-year-old died last night after a short illness at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
After growing up a fan of the club, he became chairman of the Jambos in 1994.
During his time in charge, Hearts won their first piece of silverware since 1956 when they lifted the Scottish Cup in 1998.
He stepped down from his post at the turn of the millennium.
Also in the statement put out by the club, Deans' brother Jeffery paid tribute to his sibling.
He said: “It is with sadness and immense pride that I can say that Leslie left us in some style, full of funny stories, thinking of and thanking all of the huge number of people who had touched his life and made it so wonderful: his mother and father of course who pushed him to use all of his abilities in the place they thought best for him, George Watsons College, but also all the people he met in business, clients, strangers on a train or a cafe in Spain, and of course the friendships forged over sixty years on the terraces and Board Room of Tynecastle.
READ MORE: Legal opinion on European Super League case due to be given
"His partner Carole, the family and the Solicitors firm he founded are glad to have had him in our lives and thank the staff in Royal infirmary High Dependency Unit for their outstanding care and humanity.
"They helped Leslie to find celebration and dignity in his last moments."
At The Herald and Times we know the importance of reaching you where it's convenient, which is why we've engaged top sportswriter James Morgan to bring you an irreverent daily update on what's happening in the world of sport. Be it football, golf, rugby, cricket or something more exotic, James will tread where the best stories take him. To get this exclusive bespoke piece sent directly to your email inbox for free every day at 5pm, simply take a few seconds to type in your email here. It's that simple!
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel