Emlyn Hughes' son and daughter were emotional as the Liverpool FC legend's collection was officially launched on October 8 ahead of auction. An exhibit at the Titanic Hotel brought together an extraordinary body of match-worn shirts, medals and tracksuits from the late Reds captain's illustrious career.
Hughes' children, Emma and Emlyn Jr, spoke to the ECHO at the exhibit and said they wanted to share their dad's legacy with people from all across the world.
Pride and emotion
Emma said: "Someone asked before, 'how are you feeling?' I feel proud, but on the day when they're going, I probably will feel emotional."
Emlyn Jr added: "There will be emotions because there are stories he told about 77, 74 and one of the long sleeve shirts in the 1971 FA Cup Final [which Liverpool lost and led Hughes to never wear a long sleeve shirt again]. It'll be those memories when they do sell, when they do go through the auction that will come to the forefront."
He continued: "It will be emotional but the overriding emotion will be pride about what he's done."
The difficult decision to part with the memorabilia was made after their mum, Barbara, died last year. The collection had lain in boxes for many years.
Fifty years in the family
Emlyn Jr said: "They've been in the family for 50 years, but we made the choice to let other people enjoy them."
Emma added: "Unfortunately he died before he met any of his three grandchildren. My son said I can go on social media and see what he's done, but they've never been on display anywhere, so it's not like you're going to be missing them."
The Reds legend, who died of a brain tumour aged 57 in 2004, is the only player in Liverpool's history to captain the club to two European Cup titles. Both the 1977 and 1978 shirts, alongside tracksuits, were of pride of place in the exhibit ahead of the live auction on November 2.
Shirts from football icons
Hughes faced off against some of football's biggest icons and shirts from Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer and George Best feature amongst the collection. There are also shirts from legendary teammates Kevin Keegan, from the forward's time at Hamburg, and Sir Kenny Dalglish's Scotland shirt.
The auction is run by BUDDS and COO, Adam Gascoigne, estimated the collection will be worth upwards of £300,000. Emma and Emlyn Jr were overwhelmed with pride to see the scale of their late dad's achievements when they were out of the boxes and laid out in the exhibit.
Emma added: "He did have some career, didn't he?"
Remembering the man
Speaking about how their dad would want to be remembered, Emlyn Jr hailed his passion and will to win. He said: "He would like to be remembered by the fans as he put everything into wearing that shirt. Every ounce of energy, everything he could do, went in to make Liverpool successful. And to be fair, he didn't do to bad of a job."
He added: "In '77, dad went up to pick up [Liverpool's first European Cup in Rome] and he wasn't thinking of himself. He always said this to people who asked. He wasn't thinking of himself. He was thinking about all the fans who had made all the effort over all the years up to that point. He was picking it up for the fans, the players, the likes of Roger Hunt, the Ron Yeats, the Ian St Johns that had laid the foundations for him to be lucky enough to be the one to pick the trophy up."
Despite Hughes being one of English football's most successful ever footballers, Emma and Emlyn Jr will always simply remember him more for being their dad.
Emlyn Jr said: "At the end of the day, it was dad. That was what he did. It's taking seeing it like this to appreciate it a little bit more. I'm immensely proud of what he did."
He added: "It was proud every Thursday evening turning the telly on and seeing your dad on tell. He was exactly the same person at home as you saw on Question of Sport. There's that many lovely memories. We went to the Rugby World Cup a year before he passed away and that was such a lovely trip."
Emma said: "He was exactly the same at home. It's a strange one because at the end of the day he was just our dad. We'd go to Anfield and see dad do his job. And not really appreciate what we were going to see. We're both Liverpool supporters and we're cheering them lift the European Cup [in 2019- and then you think our actual dad did that many years ago."
She added: "You don't appreciate it because it was just what you knew. It's taken me a long time until I've got my own child to appreciate what childhood we did have."
