The group all ended their playing careers with Todmorden Borough Veterans, a team originally established by two of them.
It was almost a dozen years ago that Jan Barker and Don Case established the team.
Now Jan has joined Don in retirement and together with him are two other mainstay of the team, Doug Peavoy and Pete Holmes, who as well as playing was also a successful manager with Hebden Royd Red Star.
Jan, Peter and Doug Peevoy started their playing careers as teenagers in the early 1970s.
After serving with a variety of different clubs, for the last 10 years they have been turning out for Todmorden Veterans.
Jan, aged 53, of Todmorden, has been running, as well as playing for, the Veterans since the club's formation. Other commitments have caused him to give up the reins.
"I'll still be playing five-a-side and would be prepared to turn out again in an emergency.
"But at 53 like me, we all just got too old to play," said Jan.
He began his playing career at the age of 15 as a winger for Stile Youth Club before moving to Lydgate United in the 1970s, where he became a midfield player, and played for Todmorden United in the 1980s.
Lydgate eventually became Todmorden Borough and Jan decided to continue his playing career by forming the Veterans about 10 years ago.
"A lot of the best players from Todmorden came back to play.
"It's been a great pleasure to play with them and we've had some really good times," said Jan.
He is hopeful the team will continue despite the retirement of the trio of stalwarts.
Peter Holmes, aged 52, of Mytholmroyd, is one of the area's best-known players and reckons he has played more than 2,000 games in his long career.
A winger and midfielder, he began with Lydgate United and also played in Hebden Bridge and had a year playing in Australia.
He is probably best remembered as player-manager of Red Star from 1992 to 2000, in which time he led them to the treble of Halifax Premier League, Halifax Challenge Cup and Halifax FA Cup - only the second club to have achieved the feat first achieved by Lydgate in the late 1960s.
Despite such a long record of achievement, one of his fondest memories is becoming the penalty king at Todmorden Carnival when he was 15.
"I scored 10 from 10, missed the 11th and was presented with £2.50 - a lot of money in those days. If I'd made it 12 out of 12 it would have been a fiver."
Jan, who also played in the Sunday League with Rose and Crown, said: "We did pretty well in the veterans and were never near the bottom of our league, which a remarkable achievement as we were not playing veterans teams, but in an open age section," he said.
"In our veterans team we ended up with some of the best players who have ever played locally, people like Pete, Stephen Hughes, Trevor Barnes, Simon Barker and Jonathan Buckley in goals."
Doug played in the Manchester League for about four years with Clifton Villa.
He later joined Jan at Lydgate and then moved into the veterans.
"Jan and I both ran junior football teams for Borough. Mine was the first team to enter a mini soccer team into the Calder Soccer Group.
"That was great fun probably my happiest football memories.
"Jan's junior team probably won more trophies than any other in junior soccer in the town," he said.
"Jan is famous for his enthusiasm - optimism in the face of logic and he invented spin years before the politicians started.
"He could turn a 3-0 defeat into a brilliant win in the space of a pint after the game.
"Perhaps that's the story really, not so much the when, where and the score, but the people you meet along the way," said Doug.