This article originally appeared on the author's Facebook page.
I don't know many ITFC fans who didn't, at some time, have the privilege of meeting and chatting with Kevin Beattie in the years after he retired from playing. How many clubs can say that about their greatest-ever player? He was just.... around, and Portman Road was much the better place for that.
I first met him in 1994, when I was co-editing Those Were The Days (a cobbled-together print fanzine in our day, now a hugely popular website and news service under the stewardship of people who know what they're doing). I saw him hanging around at Portman Road after Mick Stockwell's testimonial (against a Porto side managed by Bobby Robson), asked him if he'd give us an interview, and he said he'd love to.
A few weeks later, my co-editor and I turned up at the very humble hotel where Kevin and his wife were then living. Kevin was doing kitchen work in exchange for board: a bit different from the post-retirement life of ex-England internationals these days. We spent so long chatting that our tape recorder (kids: ask your parents) ran out, and we had to arrange to meet again a few days later to complete the interview. That second meeting was another hugely enjoyable ramble through the glory days of Ipswich Town, with dressing-room anecdotes aplenty. We were learning that there was nobody in the world more giving of his time than Kevin Beattie.
At that time, the fanzine was promoting Let's Kick Racism Out Of Football (the movement which later became Kick It Out), which was then a very new initiative. We hoped that Kevin might give us a supportive quote, or maybe even have his picture taken with a poster, but we weren't really sure how to ask. We thought he'd be supportive, but we were also aware that he'd grown up, and played, at very different times. Also, back in 1994, LKROOF was a much more controversial movement than it is now. We'd already had hate mail for promoting it in previous editions of the fanzine. We didn't know if Kevin would want to be publicly associated with the campaign.
We needn't have worried. As we tentatively got our LKROOF paraphernalia out of the bag, Kevin grabbed one of the t-shirts, put it on, and said "I'm right behind you with this, lads, where do you want me for the photo?". He could not have been more explicitly, unhesitatingly, supportive of anti-racism. And it was also clear that his belief in the cause was completely genuine. There wasn't any room for negativity or hatred in Kevin's heart.
Over the forthcoming years I - like most other Town fans - would just see Kevin around, at games home or away. He'd recognise me and greet me by my name, but he'd always have time for everybody, and I do mean everybody. And, of course, everybody wanted to talk to him. Why wouldn't they? His Ipswich career is the stuff of legend.
Kevin's demeanour never changed from its upbeat setting, but it was clear that his personal life was sometimes chaotic. Some of that became public, but much of it was only really known around Ipswich and around the club. I wasn't the only supporter who he'd cheekily (and humbly) cadge a beer or a cigarette off when he got the chance. On the one hand that was a bit sad, but on the other, who wouldn't feel honoured to buy a pint for the man that Bobby Robson described as the best English player he had ever seen?
In more recent years I'd see Kevin fairly regularly, usually on the Radio Suffolk show that he co-presented on a Saturday lunchtime, on which I would be an occasional guest. As ever, he was always keen for a chat. Whatever else was going on his life, he cared deeply about football and ITFC. He was just as much a fan as any of the other paying punters in the ground. And he always had time for people.
Kevin's death marks the passing of a one-off, a unique talent and a unique person. It also marks changing times. Someone of Kevin's talent - these days - wouldn't be allowed to drift in the way that his career and his life did. In some ways that's a good thing, but the personal connection that Kevin had with so many ITFC fans is unlikely to be replicated at any club in any future generation. Something more than Kevin is being lost to football.
Most importantly of all, however, Kevin was quite simply a lovely, genuine, caring, and generous human being, and everyone with any connection to Ipswich Town will miss him. RIP The Beat. Thanks for the memories.
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