How Billy Bremner kicked bullies off park

• Billy Bremner holds the Uefa Cup in 1971. Above right, his tragic team-mate, the winger Albert Johanneson. Photograph: Getty

But now it has emerged that Billy Bremner harnessed his volcanic temper to inflict his own brand of on-field summary justice to the racist bullies who tormented one of England's first black footballers.

The flame-haired Leeds and Scotland legend suffered a fatal heart attack aged just 55, but now this week, 13 years after his death, a collection of some his final interviews will be published for the first time.

Over the years critics lam-basted him for failing to control a volatile temperament which frequently led him to clash with opponents.

But before his premature death, Bremner revealed to a biographer that many of his seemingly unprovoked fouls were directed towards players who subjected his South African team-mate, Albert Johanneson, to racist taunts.

The Stirling-born midfielder told how a host of high-profile players mercilessly baited the Leeds winger who in 1965 became the first black footballer to play in a FA Cup final.

He said: "Many a time during a game Albert would devastate other teams with his blistering pace and finishing. Some of the racial abuse he would get from opposition players and fans was disgraceful. I would try to protect him from that and so would the rest of the lads."

The man who led Scotland to the World Cup finals in 1974 admitted that he deliberately meted out swift and painful punishment to the "bullies" whose identities he took to his grave.

Johanneson went on to make 200 appearances for Leeds and scored 68 goals in the legendary team assembled by Don Revie, but his career was cut short when his crisis of confidence led him to seek solace in the bottle.

Johanneson was moved on to lowly York City, where his decline accelerated and in 1995 he died penniless and alone, aged 53, in a squalid Leeds tower block.

The adopted Yorkshireman was buried in a pauper's grave, but Bremner felt he could have gone on to become a far bigger star.

Tragically, the Scot, who, himself, had done his share of hard living, died just two years later.

His sudden demise led his friend Paul Harrison to shelve the official biography they had been working on. But now Harrison has now decided to publish the interviews as a posthumous tribute to the man he once worshipped from the terraces of Elland Road.

The book also includes the final interview with Johanneson, just months before his death, where he spoke of his lifelong gratitude to his former mentor.

The South African told Harrison: "In many games the players we faced would call me offensive names and some even asked me to polish their boots. Billy would always come to my defence and tell me that the best way to hurt them was with my skill, pace and goals. Many times I cried and it was Billy who would lift my spirits."

Harrison said: "Supporters often incorrectly regarded Bremner as tough, ruthless and unsympathetic, but nothing could be further from the truth."

n Keep Fighting; The Billy Bremner Story will be published by Black & White this week.