Tyrone joint-manager Feargal Logan described former supremo Art McRory as someone who "knocked down walls" for his successors in the county.
McRory, who died today aged 82, had a decades long association with Tyrone football, dating from his days as a county player during the lean 1960s, then as the minor manager who brought All-Ireland success in 1973 and most notably the senior manager across three different spells from the start of the 1980s until the early 2000s.
Logan, who was part of the 1995 Tyrone side who were infamously edged out by Dublin in a controversial decider, said that McRory had been in contact with him in recent days about football in the county.
"The whole Tyrone GAA family is in deep mourning over the loss of a colossus of Tyrone football over the years," said Logan, speaking to the BBC.
"As a player, as a manager, Art was involved in every Tyrone team coming up.
"He pushed Tyrone forward when it wasn't just so fashionable. He was a giant of Tyrone football.
"Art was a mentor to many, many people. He had vast experience and vast insight and knew football inside out. He was someone who was in touch with me in the last couple of days about footballing matters in Tyrone.
"That shows the depth and the regard in which he held Tyrone football and in which he was held in Tyrone football. By all the guys in the 70s, the '86 team which produced All-Stars when All-Stars weren't coming to Tyrone.
"It's a deeply, deeply sad day and everyone in Ireland will mourn Art's loss."
Having taken the senior job in 1980, McRory is perhaps most famous for guiding Tyrone to their first ever All-Ireland final in 1986, when they led Mick O'Dwyer's Kerry by seven points early in the second half before fading in the last half hour.
He left the post in 1987 but returned five years later, this time accompanied by 1980s playing star Eugene McKenna. Bystanders during the glut of Ulster successes in the early 90s, they regained supremacy in the mid-90s, winning back-to-back provincial titles but missing out to Dublin by a point in the '95 final, a match notable for a disallowed late equaliser and Charlie Redmond's delayed sending off.
His third stint ran from late 1999 to 2002, yielding another Ulster crown in 2001 but All-Ireland glory remained elusive.
In total, he won five Ulster titles as Tyrone boss - 1984, 1986, 1995, 1996, 2001.
"There were decades of Tyrone people flying the flag and pushing things on," said Logan. "And no one pushed it on more than Art.
"The unluckiness of how it worked out in terms of winning All-Irelands... But listen, Art won underage, schools, it just didn't work out perhaps (in senior finals)
"Art pushed the thing up a hill, knocked the walls down for the rest of us and that's why we're eternally indebted to him."
