WESTLAKE, Ohio — Someone had to feel George Steinbrenner’s wrath first. Mike Cleary was employee victim No. 1 of “the Boss.”

“I was the first person he ever fired,” said Cleary, executive director of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. “I was a 24-year-old general manager and George was a 29-year-old owner.”

And already showing signs of being a demanding, dictatorial leader.

In 1960, Cleary was GM of the Cleveland Pipers of the American Basketball League, working for a young Steinbrenner, a Cleveland-area native whose family’s shipping business gave him the revenue to enter sports ownership. The team was hoping to get some publicity for signing guard Dick Barnett, who would later play for the Knicks, and had worked out an agreement to break the story in the Cleveland Press.

But the story leaked and Steinbrenner was irate. He took it out on Cleary.

“He came in and said, ‘You’re fired,’ ” Cleary recalled. “I said, ‘I quit.’ Later we became good friends.”

Two years ago, Cleary approached Steinbrenner at a National Football Foundation dinner in New York. Steinbrenner was in declining health but recognized Cleary.

“He said, ‘You know what? You were always loyal,’ ” Cleary said.