238 games. A truly extraordinary number.
In nearly 120 years of the club’s existence, only 63 players have ever participated in so many for Aberdeen. But none of them consecutively; none, that is, except Ally Shewan.
Such is the size of that figure, the Dons’ contemporary captain won’t make his 238rd appearance for the club until next month. But even the famously durable veteran Graeme Shinnie has had the occasional break through injury, suspension, rest, and transfer.
Count back 238 games and you’ll find an Aberdeen squad containing Chris Forrester and Stephen Gleeson. If they feel like ancient history, that is a measure of the constancy of Ally Shewan’s presence in the 1960s. For the last five years of what was ultimately a 300-game Pittodrie career, if Aberdeen were playing, Ally was playing.
But it was not just that he was there. Ally did not simply fill the shirt. He wore it with great pride, yes; but with greater majesty.
Burning desire to represent his club would not alone have been enough to warrant such reciprocation. Ally was always chosen to play because nobody could have done it better.
A titanic and unflinching defender on the park, but a tremendously warm and kindly man off it, Ally defined perfectly the intersection point between elite professional sport and the North-East of Scotland. However notable is the place he holds in the club’s history, in his cultural significance to Aberdeenshire, it should be greater still.
Though Ally came as close as any, no footballer is ever truly irreplaceable, for one day the team takes the field with another in his stead. But the person, whose long run has also now ended, will forever leave a gap in his family’s teamsheet.
My thoughts are with them as they, and we, mourn his passing.