OVER the years, it could be argued, Birmingham has often been too modest about its achievements.

Other cities vaunt themselves shamelessly, sometimes gracelessly and groundlessly, to the skies.

Birmingham has plenty to shout about, make no mistake, but has not always felt the need to shout. Even when the subject is a source of enormous and fully-justified pride.

The grave of William McGregor was a prime example of such modesty. Until this week.

When McGregor died, 100 years ago, on December 20, 1911, the Second City lost a giant of a man.

His input into his community was many-stranded. Scotland-born, but warmly-adopted Brummie from early adulthood, McGregor was a long-standing member of Wheeler Street Congregational Church, a staunch Liberal and a prominent businessman through the family firm of drapers.

A teetotaller, he was a man of much energy and many interests but none of his passions were greater than football – and his beloved Aston Villa where he held, at various times, every significant off-field position, including chairman.

McGregor was deeply embedded in Birmingham life but possessed too much talent for his influence to remain merely parochial.

And that influence was to spread not just beyond the city limits around this country but worldwide.

As founder of the Football League, in 1888, ‘Mac’ left an indelible mark upon English history. In that single visionary act he shaped the spare time of a nation (and the world, as the English League was copied around the globe) for generations to come. Perhaps forever.

William McGregor took the unwieldy mess that was football in its formative years and transformed it into a structure that became integral to day-to-day life.

One that would supply comfort after the horrors of war, maintain spirits through austere times and, year in and year out, simply give millions of lives a lot of fun.