He was a man most surrounded by legend.
John Fahy, the former professional footballer, Hunter businessman and one-time deputy lord mayor of Newcastle, died peacefully at the age of 80 on November 6, 2023, in Toronto, Ontario, where he lived in care at the Kensington Garden Hospice.
Mr Fahy was the youngest of three children born to Gerald and Mary Fahy on May 13, 1943, in Paisley, Scotland.
At 13, he caught the eye of a Luton Town Club football scout, who quickly signed the youngster, beginning a long and fruitful career as a striker, first with Luton, then Letchworth, and finally Bedford Town clubs.
While playing for Bedford in 1964, Mr Fahy sensationally delivered a pair of deadly blows to bring down the giant Newcastle United in a shocking and historic upset victory. The young striker, playing up front and in the centre, took his second with a high-flying head into the bottom right-hand corner.
Mr Fahy ultimately scored 30 goals for Bedford before he signed to play professionally with Oxford in the fourth division and debuted in April of 1964. He passed a series of long spells before returning to the senior side in March 1965 with a show-stopping three-goal performance against Bradford Park Avenue. He ended that year's season with 10 goals, enough to carry the team into the third division.
In 1972, he signed with the Toronto Metros in the National American Soccer League and made 10 appearances, scoring a hat trick in each, before reverting to part-time football in 1973. Toronto would prove where Mr Fahy spent most of his adult life, balanced between the years he spent in the Hunter.
Beyond football, Mr Fahy was a businessman and entrepreneur who followed in the family trade and took a five-year apprenticeship with Vauxhall Motors at 17 as Britain lurched out of the shadow of the Second World War.
On the other side of the Atlantic, he spent years as a salesman for United Foods and Cara Retail before turning his hand to media with the Metro Toronto News and Warner Publishing Services, where he was attached to Reader's Digest.
"He was a charming guy," his youngest son, James Fahy, a former student of Newcastle Grammar and Merewether High School, told the Newcastle Herald after returning home from Toronto, where he had spent the last few weeks of his father's life. "He worked with Playboy and visited Hugh Hefner's mansion representing Reader's Digest and showed around a couple of the famous playmates and movie stars who were there."
In the latter 1970s, during his tenure with Time Warner magazine, he met his wife, Lynda Stone, in the CN Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in the world at that time.
They moved to Mayfield in 1986 and took up work as the licensees of the suburb's McDonald's restaurant under his brother and mentor Gerry Fahy. In 1999, Mr Fahy turned to public life as a Newcastle councillor. He served on several boards and associations, including the Sydney 2000 Olympic Torch Relay Working Group, Hunter Development Board, Civic Theatre Newcastle Management Committee, Sports Advisory Committee, Hamilton Main Street Committee and Tourism Board, among others.
Between January and April 2001, he briefly served as the deputy lord mayor of Newcastle. It was during his time in the Hunter, so the story is told by his family, that Mr Fahy could secure a table at any restaurant with a phone call, giving his name and often being mistaken for the 38th premier of NSW John Fahey.
Mr Fahy's son remembered his dad as a man who took the incredible twists and turns of his life as they came.
"He wasn't an Elon Musk-type, thinking that he had to achieve the next thing," Mr Fahy told the Herald. "He would say that he just fell into every one of these things as they came along. He just wanted to play some soccer. But he did all this stuff and never really thought about it - it's pretty funny."
Mr Fahy's life was one littered with tales and legends. One such story, told by his son, goes that he once appeared in a celebrity football match with the late Sean Connery (known to frequent charity matches around the 1970s) and tackled him so aggressively the actor's manager threatened his life. In another, he is credited with developing the recipe for the McOz hamburger, loaded with beetroot and onion, and during his tenure with Reader's Digest, spent time with film star Sophia Loren.
"He was such a genuine and open person," Mr Fahy said of his father at the end of his life, "We never really had any unresolved issues; there was nothing that was last-minute ... We just spent a month sharing these crazy stories, and everyone over there loved him."
"He always said that you just have to expect the best from people and see what happens."
Mr Fahy was predeceased by his older sister, the Canadian MP Cathy O'Flynn, and brother Gerry. He is survived by his eldest son, Jason, daughter Sally, and second son James; his granddaughter Rowan; and nieces, Erin and Donna, and nephew, Patrick.
