It's likely anyone with even a passing interest in Gaelic football will have sensed the influence of Enda Colleran, who died at his Galway home in Barna on Wednesday night.

He was 62. Though synonymous above all with the Galway team that won the celebrated hat-trick of All-Ireland titles from 1964 to 1966, he remained an integral part of football in the county long after his retirement from the game.

Yesterday several colleagues from his football days remembered not just a player of exceptional ability but also a thoroughly likeable character always held in the highest regard.

Colleran was captain for the All-Ireland victory in 1965 and again the following year, a feat matched in Gaelic football by only five other men.

Yet probably the crowning moments of his great career came in recent years when he was named in the right-corner back position firstly on the GAA Team of the Century in 1984 and again on the Team of the Millennium in 2000.

Only one other Galway man, half forward Seán Purcell, shared that Millennium honour and it was a fitting tribute for a player who will always be rated one of the finest defenders in the game.

A native of Moylough, Colleran took up football in that traditional Galway breeding ground at St Jarlath's in Tuam. In 1960 he won the first of his vast range of medals when he helped St Jarlath's win the Hogan Cup, the All-Ireland Colleges title.

A year later as a student in University College Galway he played in the Sigerson Cup final, but on this rare occasion lost to University College Dublin.

Colleran first came to prominence in the Galway colours during the minor championship of 1960. The team comfortably beat Cork in the All-Ireland final, with Colleran playing at right-half back in a line-up that featured several others that would also go on to senior success.

Three years later he was on the Galway senior team that reached the All-Ireland final, having beaten then champions Kerry in the semi-final. Dublin, however, got the better of them in the final, winning 1-9 to 0-10, although Colleran had already established himself as an indomitable presence at right-corner-back.

"We did everything that day but win," he said afterwards. "It was some of the best football Galway ever played before the Dublin goal, and I suppose you could put that defeat down to inexperience."

When they re-emerged in the summer of 1964 Galway were a powerful force. They beat Mayo with ease in the Connacht final, then brushed past Cavan in the semi-final to set up another intriguing clash with Kerry.

In the end they won by five points, with captain John Donnellan raising the Sam Maguire for Galway for the first time since 1956.

That victory over Kerry was repeated a year later by a closer, three-point, margin, this time with Colleran in his first year as captain. Several Kerry greats such as Mick O'Dwyer and Mick O'Connell played on that opposing team, emphasising the true height of the Galway achievement.

"To beat Kerry in an All-Ireland final is a great achievement at any time," he later observed. "And to beat them twice running is greater still. You may catch Kerry out the once, but never the second time, so there can be no excuses for Kerry in 1965."

And Galway were back for one more in 1966, beating Cork in the semi-final and Meath in the final, with Colleran once again a pillar of reliability as corner back - and captain. Not surprisingly he was All Star that year, as he had also been the previous year.

Although Galway failed to come out of Connacht the following year, and wouldn't get back to an All-Ireland for another five years, Colleran played on for several more seasons. And his success as a senior wasn't limited to those three All-Ireland titles. He helped Galway to the league title in 1965, and two years later became only the fourth Galway player to captain a winning Connacht Railway Cup team.

Such an enthusiast for the game was destined to move into management and Colleran spent two years as Galway senior manager in the mid-1970s. Later still he became a much-esteemed analyst on RTÉ's The Sunday Game, where his vivid and honest football analysis proved universally appealing.

In more recent years he became involved with the Galway Football Association that ultimately helped provide the push for Galway's All-Ireland success in 1998 - their first title since Colleran's own era. He was also chairman of the football coaching board in Galway.

Just last year he retired from his teaching post at St Enda's College in Galway, and remained a true fitness enthusiast, with the game of golf one of his favourite pastimes right up to the time of his sudden death.

Plans were already in place for a statue in his honour in the main square at Mountbellew, close to his native Moylough. It will now be an emotional unveiling.