Kerzo was a one-off never to be forgotten
JOHN KERR would have appreciated the irony.
That the man with the kindest and biggest heart I have known in Scottish football should die of heart failure.
Kerzo’s passing last Sunday morning was as shocking as it was tragic to the many who knew him but his was a life less ordinary.
It’s easier to list the clubs he didn’t work for as a physiotherapist during a career when he became one of the most familiar faces in the game.
He was employed by Falkirk, Hearts, Stoke, Queen of the South, St Johnstone, Albion Rovers and Clyde, to name but a few.
Kerzo had a rare quality which isn’t found often in football – an ability to display his feelings and emotion with disregard for the macho environment he inhabited.
It’s a theme which has run throughout this week with players who have taken to social media to pay their respects
Love isn’t a word easily embraced in a sport where emotion is usually dispensed with rage, frustration, bitterness and jealousy.
But Kerzo used to tell his players that he loved them, often it was on the back of a bear hug and a few pints on a night out.
There were no edges or spite to his nature, any negative comments he kept to himself. A man who radiated all the good things about sport.
He first came across my radar after hearing a story during a decadelong spell at Ayr when he saved the life of their keeper Cammy Duncan, who sadly passed away back in May.
Cammy had swallowed his tongue after colliding with a Queen of the South player one Saturday afternoon and Kerzo raced to the scene.
Only his prompt action rescued the critical situation.
When asked to recall the incident recently, it wasn’t regaled to cast himself as the hero, it was his job and he recounted the drama as very matter of fact.
The hundreds of players who literally went through his healing hands will have their own stories to tell of a man whose company made you feel better about yourself.
He carried the bag for our Scotland Seniors squad and the old crocks charity side which is Dukla Pumpherston.
That gave me the chance to see just why Kerzo was spoken so highly about.
A huge presence in all of the dressing rooms he worked, inoffensive but full of humour. And never did it stray towards close to the bone stuff.
There was also a spell
There were no edges to his nature, any negative comments he kept to himself
as manager of Shettleston.
And he had a period of reporting on lower league games with the Daily Record and Sunday Mail. Football was his life despite having his hopes of becoming a pro with Partick Thistle dashed by injury at the age of 15.
He’ll be laid to rest next Wednesday and his standing in the game will be highlighted with a funeral crammed with a who’s who of our game.
Kerzo is survived by wife Caroline, sons Graham and John and two grandsons.
They should know that their husband, father and grandad was a one-off in the football world when you can never be all things to all men.
Not unless your name was John Kerr.