Brave on and off the pitch, Gregg was one of NI’s sporting greats

Then aged 25, he was one of a minority of people who escaped death on board the plane that crashed in Munich Airport (21 survivors out of 44 people).

An adjective that is often applied to Gregg is brave: on the opposite page alone the veteran News Letter writer Billy Kennedy says that about him, as does the distinguished Times football writer Henry Winter.

Gregg famously pulled other passengers out from the wreckage which could at any moment have exploded.

Gregg was also described as brave on the pitch. You would hardly get to be a Manchester United goalkeeper and be otherwise.

Like the goalkeeper Pat Jennings a generation after him, he would combine a long career at a leading club (Arsenal in the case of Jennings) with a world cup stint in the goalposts for Northern Ireland.

For the Green and White Army to hold mighty Germany to a draw in 1958 was as thrilling as beating Spain in 1982.

Gregg is up there with the biggest names of Northern Ireland sport: Fred Daly, George Best, Jack Kyle, Mary Peters, John Watson, Eddie Irvine, Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor, Barry McGuigan, Carl Frampton. On page 5 we have a picture of him with Rory McIlroy, who was born more than half a century later.

Northern Ireland has a small population, and we will always be the sporting underdog, even within these islands, let alone on the international stage.

There is a special pride therefore in our sporting stars who compete and even win at the very highest global level.

Gregg was in later life something of a sage. He could be blunt, but was always a man whom people consulted with respect, both for his footballing gifts and his immense integrity.

He will be long be at the heart of NI’s hall of sporting fame.