Ian St John, Liverpool forward and TV personality, dies aged 82

Tributes have been paid to the Liverpool striker Ian St John, who has died at the age of 82. He helped to kickstart the club’s rise and went on to reinvent football broadcasting as one half of Saint & Greavsie.

St John was an instrumental part of Bill Shankly’s team that climbed from the Second Division to win the First Division title in 1964 and lay the foundations for decades of success. For many Liverpool supporters he will be best remembered for the winning goal in the 2-1 victory over Leeds United in the 1965 FA Cup final as the club won the trophy for the first time.

The club described him as a “true legend”.

“It is with a heavy heart that we have to inform you that after a long illness we have lost a husband, father and grandfather,” the St John family said in a statement. “He passed away peacefully with his family at his bedside. We would like to thank all the staff at Arrowe Park Hospital [in Merseyside] for their hard work and dedication during these very difficult times.”

St John, who earned 21 caps for Scotland, was a renowned goalscorer of intelligence and ability. As a 20-year-old for Motherwell against Hibernian he scored a hat-trick in two minutes and 30 seconds. After signing for Liverpool in 1961 for a club record fee, he scored 118 goals in 425 games for Shankly’s team, including 21 goals as Liverpool won their first top-flight league title in 17 years. A doctored Salvation Army poster in the city famously read: “Jesus saves… But St John scores on the rebound.”

Shankly told the BBC that signing St John was a key moment in the club’s history. “The turning point and the beginning of the whole affair was the signing of Ian St John and Ron Yeats,” he said after his retirement. “That was the beginning, no doubt about that.”

Liverpool legends paid tribute to St John on Tuesday. Fellow Scot Andy Robertson described him as “a man of warmth, humour, knowledge, wisdom and joy. Scotland and Liverpool has lost a true giant.” The manager, Jürgen Klopp, said: “He was not only football-wise a legend, but a true legend as a person. It was a pure pleasure to meet him.”

The Rangers manager and former Liverpool captain, Steven Gerrard, said: “He’s an iconic figure at Liverpool Football Club. He’s someone I’d met on numerous occasions and he’s a fantastic guy. I’m really devastated … he’s someone I’ve got incredible respect for.”

Another iconic Liverpool striker, Ian Rush, wrote on Twitter: “RIP Ian St John. Sleep well legend!! Thoughts and prayers are with your family at this time.”

After retiring as a player in 1973, St John went briefly into football management before finding a successful second career as a broadcaster in the 1980s. His role as an affable straight man for Jimmy Greaves’s wisecracks made Saint & Greavsie an unexpected and long-running success of Saturday afternoon TV.

Initially paired to fill gaps where highlights would have been during a contractual dispute with the Football League, the duo’s badinage and bonhomie went on to win audiences of up to six million for ITV. Running for seven years, Saint & Greavsie treated football as light entertainment, as opposed the serious business of much punditry.

One episode saw “Saint” work with a latex “Greavsie” when his partner was replaced by a Spitting Image puppet. On another occasion, while in New York, Donald Trump joined the pair to conduct the draw for the fifth round of the Rumbelows Cup.

In an interview with the Guardian in 2016, St John made his feelings about Trump’s presidential candidacy clear. “There surely must be someone inside the Republican party who’s a more suitable candidate than him,” he said. “They’d only need half a brain.”

Greaves, who had a serious stroke in 2015, posted a fond tribute to his former partner via his agent on Tuesday: “Ian St John and I had great fun. He was a lovely man & will be sadly missed by many many people. We must also remember he was a great footballer for Bill Shankly’s Liverpool and beyond.”