Even if you're not a football fan, the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson is still reason to take pause. The Manchester United manager took the reins on 6 November 1986, awkwardly donning scarf and bobble hat for the occasion. That was almost twenty seven years ago.

Rather a lot has changed in the interim. Certainly football itself is unrecognisable from its mid-eighties state: post the Taylor report and the rise of the Premier League, the game is now big business - and big news.

I don't remember Alex Ferguson becoming manager of Manchester United manager. They were a middling, mid-table team, with the glories of the Busby era an ever-fading memory. I was more interested in the exploits of my team, Nottingham Forest. Outside of football, my interests were in space - it was the year of Hayley's Comet and, tragically, the Challenger disaster. And also, Chernobyl, which captured the imagination of a six year old boy, who dreamed of radioactive sheep.

What were you doing when Alex Ferguson became manager of Manchester United? What are your memories of the distant days of November 1986? Share your memories in the open thread below.