When Graham Henry took over as Wales head coach in 1998, one of the first calls he made was to Steve Black, a charismatic Geordie who had worked as a bouncer before making a name for himself in rugby as mentor to Jonny Wilkinson.
Henry arranged a meeting with Welsh rugby's top brass led by Terry Cobner aimed at bringing Black on board.
A year later the New Zealander wrote: “Steve — Blackie to everyone — is 40, looks like Friar Tuck and is into positive reinforcement in massive slices.
“He’s thoroughly exuberant; in fact, at that first get-together, Terry and I couldn’t shut him up.
“I had to tell him to be quiet at times, so I could get a question in.”
But that was Black, a wonderful character who radiated bonhomie and positivity.
Newcastle Falcons announced on Sunday morning that he had passed away. He was 64.
There are one-offs, and then there was Steve Black.
As a youngster he became known for being able to look after himself, and at the age of 16 he was employed as a doorman in Newcastle. “I'd try to talk people out of fighting but if I couldn't I'd chin them,” he once told ChronicleLive. “As the word got round fewer and fewer people would look for trouble when I was around.
"I had a shotgun thrust in my face more than once. It was funny but, looking back, I never once expected the trigger to be pulled.
"It was a tough world — but I was never a villain. That was the big difference. I met a lot of faces and I admit some became good friends because they never did me any harm but I never crossed that thin dividing line. I never got myself a police record.”
The turning point came when a man pulled a knife on him and ended up being slung through glass doors with a bad injury.
Black decided to leave a doorman's work behind and enrolled in college, where he attained a sports science degree. His big break came when Kevin Keegan heard of his work. The then Newcastle United football manager took him on for a three-month trial and handed him a job permanently after only a week.
Black was part of Newcastle's brilliant spell near the top of the Premier League during the mid-1990s.
Widening his scope, he moved into rugby and achieved success with Newcastle Falcons and, in particular, with Wilkinson, who became a firm friend. He also worked with the boxer Glenn McCrory and, later, with Danny Cipriani.
His time on the Wales coaching staff initially proved a success. Players enjoyed his upbeat nature.
“When he sees you in the corridor, he always greets you with a smile and tells you how good you are looking today,” a member of the Wales team that won 10 games early in Henry's reign once said. “He’s a brilliant motivator.”
Henry, in particular, thought a huge amount of him, saying: "He's the most positive person I've met. One of the best human beings I've known. He'll put himself on a limb for other people.”
The Kiwi further wrote in his book: “Blackie conditions players as opposed to physically training them and in this he’s great because he makes the players feel good about themselves. He’s at his best one on one; in fact, he doesn’t like dealing with more than four players at a time because he’s working on their minds as well as their bodies. He’s a great believer in love.
“'You’ve got to love your players, Graham,'” he keeps reminding me. "It’s a feel-good factor coming through, which has impacted emphatically. Because of Blackie, I’m probably closer to the Welsh squad members than I was to the Auckland players, amazingly.
“I was fortunate to find someone of his exceptional talent.”
All honeymoon’s have to end, however, and Wales’ long run of victories heading into the 1999 World Cup in Cardiff, during which the team acquired the sobriquet of Henry’s Heroes, eventually did end, and with a bump.
A tough Six Nations in 2000 led to criticism of the Welsh players’ fitness. Black resigned.
But his absence left a void in Henry’s regime. “We missed him when he decided to leave us,” wrote Gareth Thomas in his book, Alfie! “Blackie was always a happy person who never spoke badly of anyone.
“Even is deep down he hated someone — which I can’t imagine could be the case — instead of slagging them off he would say: 'Well, he does have a good side.'
“Blackie was truly one in a million.”
Of his style, Black — described at various points as sports psychologist, master motivator, conditioner, fitness trainer and exceptional one-on-one coach — once said: “You can either do something the same way as everyone else or do it differently, and I prefer to do it differently.”
He had a 15,000-book library at home.
But he always did it his way.
He’ll be hugely missed.
To get the latest rugby news and analysis delivered straight to your inbox, you can sign up for our Welsh rugby newsletter.
