FORMER Liverpool defender Tommy Smith has died, the club confirmed on Friday.
The ‘Anfield Iron’ was captain for the club he spent 18 years at and won four league titles, two FA Cups and one European Cup.
Toy Smith MBE was born on April 5, 1945 in Liverpool.
Smith died on Friday April 12 after a battle with dementia.
He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014, the same illness his wife suffered from – she died four years ago.
Daughter Janette Simpson told the Liverpool Echo: “Dad died very peacefully in his sleep shortly after 4.30pm today at Green Heyes Nursing home in Park Road, Waterloo, Crosby.
“I was on my way to see him when he passed a couple of minutes before I arrived.
“Dad was only in here since the end of January and prior to that had been living in a care and sheltered accommodation complex for three years in Maghull.
“He had been growing increasingly frail and suffering from a variety of ailments over the last three months especially.
“We are obviously all devastated. Our mum Sue died four years ago. Mum’s death did hit dad especially hard and the illness took a bit of a grip of him after that we feel.”
Smith was known as the ‘Anfield Iron’ and it was a local old wives tale that ‘Merseyside mothers keep their kids away from the fire.’
He was a Liverpool player for 18 years and made 638 appearances for the club.
Whilst a Red he featured under both Bill Shankley and Bob Paisley having started at the club as a schoolboy.
Smith was a central defender for most of his career and Shankley once said “Tommy Smith wasn’t born, he was quarried”.
Smith’s most memorable moment for the club came in the 1977 European Cup final when he scored Liverpool’s second goal against Borussia Monchengladbach.
Following his time at Liverpool he played at LA Aztecs and Swansea before retiring.
After hanging up his boots he worked as a columnist for the Liverpool Echo for 35 years.
LIVERPOOL
