The imposing figure of Bill Struth was to cast a long shadow over Rangers Football Club. During his 34 years as manager, his influence was such that it shaped the club's future for many generations to come.

Struth laid down the foundations for greatness. He installed the traditions and made it "special" to be a Rangers player.

And when he had gone, the torch he had passed on was picked up by men like Scot Symon and Willie Waddell who had played under Struth and were to succeed him as manager.

Symon and Waddell were to provide their own styles of leadership, but much of what they had learned had been inherited from Struth.

Indeed, it is still Struth's portrait which hangs in the Trophy Room at Ibrox among the Championship pennants as a symbol of continuity at the club.

Struth, born in Edinburgh, had been a stonemason by trade and was also a professional athlete. He had worked as a trainer at Clyde and at Hearts before coming to Rangers in 1914 as assistant to William Wilton.

His appointment as Rangers' second manager came, however, in tragic circumstances when Wilton sadly drowned in a boating accident in 1920.

But in taking on the mantle Struth, by then 45, embarked on a period of unprecedented success in which Rangers would dominate Scottish football until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

Struth's record of achievements was extraordinary. He won the League Championship 18 times, including a dazzling spell of 14 in 19 years before the war. Those titles included a run of Five-In-A-Row between 1926-27 and 1930-31, a standard unsurpassed at the club until the 1990s.

Not only was he to bring the first Cup and League Double to the club in 1927-28, he was still at the helm when they completed the first Cup, League and League Cup Treble in 1948-49.

The line of great players under his guidance seemed endless - stretching from David Meiklejohn and Alan Morton, through Bob McPhail and Willie Thornton to, among others, Jock Shaw, George Young and Willie Woodburn.

And none of them was in any doubt as to who the boss was. Struth was a strict disciplinarian, a man who believed firmly in respect for authority.

There were privileges for the players. Struth insisted that his teams always travelled first class. But in turn they had to accept their responsibilites. These included wearing a collar and tie for training and maintaining standards of dress and behaviour at all times.

Any player who fell short of what Struth expected felt the chill of being told that his presence was required up the marble staircase in the manager's office.

Part of the Struth legend has it that the manager would watch from the window of his flat overlooking the Copland Road as the players arrived at Ibrox. Anyone who had dared to walk down the street with his hands in his pockets would find that Struth had seen him and telephoned the ground to insist that he walk down the street again, this time with his hands by his sides.

Another of Struth's habits was to play the piano, which still stands in the Blue Room, after every match to unwind. He was also a sharp dresser and kept up to half a dozen double-breasted suits in his office, sometimes changing what he was wearing three times a day.

Struth became a director of the club in 1947 and was appointed vice-chairman on his retirement as manager in the Summer of 1954. He died two years later aged 81.

It was not, however, the end of an era. For his work lived on through the lessons he had instilled in others.

One of the greatest managers in the history of football, Struth is buried in Craigton Cemetery, near to the club he had fashioned in his own incomparable image.