Lawrie McMenemy (b. 1936) is best known as the former manager of Southampton F.C..

McMenemy, an ex-guardsman , started his footballing career with Newcastle United, before moving to non-league Gateshead in the late 1950s. An injury ended his career in 1961, but he moved into coaching instead, spending three years in coaching at the club. In 1964 he was appointed manager of non-league Bishop Auckland and transformed them from a struggling side into Northern League champions and also took them to the third round of the FA Cup.

McMenemy then moved to Sheffield Wednesday where he spent two years as a coach before he got his big break as manager of Doncaster Rovers where he remained until 1973, when he was approached by Southampton to fill the vacant assistant manager post. By Christmas he was manager.

In 1976, McMenemy guided Southampton to an FA Cup final victory over Manchester United. It was widely predicted before the game that United would easily win (one pundit said the score would go into double figures) but Southampton, who were in a lower division and had a much older team, put up a stern challenge for United and Bobby Stokes scored the only goal of the game with just seven minutes to go. Captain Peter Rodrigues received the Cup from the Queen and the whole of Southampton partied long into the night. They were the second club in just three years to win the Cup from outside the top flight of English football after Sunderland in 1973.

In 1977, the Saints won promotion to the First Division and in 1979 reached the League Cup Final where they lost 3-2 to Nottingham Forest. McMenemy had signed World Cup winner Alan Ball to aid his side, later adding serving England captain Kevin Keegan when he came home from Germany in 1981.

After a two year spell at Sunderland, McMenemy took a rest from the game and in 1990 returned as assistant manager to England boss Graham Taylor. Unfortunately, when England failed to qualify for USA 94, Taylor and McMenemy both resigned.

McMenemy soon bounced back however and was offered the new position of Director of Football at Southampton, and fans and the local media were delighted when he accepted the role. In McMenemy's first season back at Southampton, the Saints finished 10th in the Premiership, a fantastic achievement for the perennial relegation fighters. But it didn't last long and in 1997, when Rupert Lowe arrived as new chairman, neither McMenemy nor manager Graeme Souness got on with him and promptly resigned, publicly denouncing the new board in the process.

A year later, in 1998 McMenemy was appointed Northern Ireland manager, but he was not successful and in 2000 he resigned after a poor performance in the Euro 2000 qualifers. Since 2000, McMenemy has concentrated on his role as FA special ambassador, travelling to Afghanistan in 2002 to help set up a national league and liaising with the English team in the Special Olympics.

He also regulary appeared on TV-am prior to 1990 as their 'football analyst' and is in demand as an after-dinner speaker.

Lawrie McMenemy is rated in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the twenty most successful managers in post-war English football.