Charlie Hurley has made contact with new Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill.
Hurley, the man voted player of the last century by Sunderland supporters, was O'Neill favourite player as a schoolboy in Kilree, and the reason he supported the club rather than Manchester United, Liverpool or Leeds United, like most of his friends.
The pair spoke on Tuesday, just an hour before O'Neill met the Sunderland public and press for the first time.
"I was going to say he sent a get well soon card," O'Neill said. "But he called and left a good luck message, then I spoke to him and he told me his early days here were disastrous but he got voted Player of the Century. It's not bad is it?
"Where I grew up your team were either Rangers or Celtic and everybody had an English team.
"I took Sunderland because Charlie Hurley was playing centre half and I think it was because he was the big Irishman at that time. May be it was because they were the Bank of England club then as well.
"But I would not want to play too much on the Sunderland boyhood hero thing. It might give me two games grace but we are in results business.' "