He was a nearly man when it came to promotion, he was at the helm when Huddersfield Town recorded the lowest final league position in their history (11th in Division IV in 1978) and he had an apparent aversion to blue and white stripes.
But Tom Johnston has a unique place in the club’s history as the only manager to have had three spells at the helm.
The first began 50 years ago on Sunday, when the pipe-smoking Scot became the successor to Eddie Boot, who had resigned just four matches into the 1964-65 season.
Johnston was a fully qualified coach who had spent four years working in Finland after ending a playing career as a left-sided forward which brought spells at Peterborough, Nottingham Forest and Notts County.
He had a coaching stint at Birmingham City before managing Heanor Town, Rotherham, guiding them to the 1961 League Cup final, and Grimsby.
Johnston inherited a Town team struggling near the foot of the original Second Division (now Championship), reshaping the squad with the acquisitions of goal-getter Tony Leighton and midfielders Jimmy Nicholson and Johnny Quigley and claiming a final position of eighth before missing out on promotion by three points in 1965-66.
Johnston introduced plain blue shirts for the following campaign, when Town finished sixth, and in 1967-68, he led the club to the League Cup semi-finals and a final position of 14th before leaving that summer.
The following October, he became manager of York, and enjoyed his most successful spell in management, leading the club to two promotions, one of them into Division II for the only time in their history.
In January 1975 Johnston shocked the York faithful be returning to Town to work alongside Bobby Collins as general manager.
The partnership never worked and Town were relegated from Division III that season, with Collins departing in December 1975, leaving Johnston in sole control of a side who finished fifth, one place outside the promotion places, in 1976, by which time the plain blue shirts were back.
After a dip in form the season after, coach John Haselden became manager but found the going tough and Johnston, who had remained at the club, took the top role once again in September 1977, remaining in charge until August 1978.
Johnston died in 1994.
