Stories abound of Mr Maughan's dedication and commitment that ultimately flowered into the rugby league club synonymous with this city.

For certain generations many of its formative moments, its collective core memories, extend from the club's exploits.

The famous grand final win over Manly is intertwined with the end of BHP as a pivotal moment, and one that would have felt far bleaker in the annals without the team built on the back of Mr Maughan's hard work.

The sport has gone a long way in the interim - quite literally, with the first matches of the season played in Nevada on Sunday our time.

Metaphorically, though, the Knights are a long way from where they started.

In Max McKinney's report on Friday, Newcastle legend Tony Butterfield remembers perjoratives aimed at the club in its early days. It is testament to the viability of Mr Maughan's vision that few would stick to the side that lit up the late rounds of 2023 and boasts the reigning Dally M medallist.

There is no doubting the Knights' momentum today, but before there was momentum there was Mr Maughan fighting for every sponsorship dollar of what has become a bedrock of the region's sporting culture.

With the backing of Wests and membership figures threatening to make tickets a hot commodity, it is tempting to wonder what Mr Maughan would make of the modern Newcastle Knights. In 1988, he told fellow founder Michael Hill and described the fledgling side's future succinctly: "We have lit a fire here, which will never go out."

It is testament to the club's reverence for history that Mr Maughan's role was recognised so unanimously after news broke of his passing.

"His place in history as a founding father of the Knights is secure and we will always be thankful for everything he did," Knights CEO Phil Gardner said.

"Probably the only reason that the Knights got in was that they were sick to death of Leigh ringing. But it was because of that persistence that the Knights became what they are," former colleague at NBN Mike Rabbitt recalled.

This newspaper sends it condolences to his friends and loved ones. Black armbands in Thursday's season opener against Canberra Raiders are fitting, but it is hard to do justice to a man whose contribution has captured the imagination of a city for so many winters with just a gesture.

So few are lucky enough to build a legacy that outlives them, and fewer still to build one that brings joy and inspires young and old. Mr Maughan did both, earning himself and Newcastle the respect of sporting administrators over years before the red and blue became a reality.

Newcastle would not be the same without the Knights, and the club would certainly not have been the same - or likely even have existed at all - without Leigh Maughan.

Many of this region's sporting stars and fans alike owe him a debt of gratitude, but hopefully they will also be inspired by his example of hope and hard work delivering something bigger than the sum of its parts.

Knights fans have great cause for optimism for the season ahead. The club's rocky years appear to have given way to a window, at least, for the kind of success that would repay the commitment of fans who stuck firm through the hard times.

They had a good teacher in such determination. May the season be a fitting tribute to the man who set it all in motion.