COOPERS BY ANY SPELLING
An “occasional contributor” is how WILLIE Coupar describes himself.
Indeed, there have been several contributions in the past from Willie (Williamcoupar1@aol.com), and he comes back to us “with a bit of a puzzle”, as he puts it.
“I was up in Scotland a couple of weeks ago for a family get-together,” said Willie.
“My uncle, who is a regular Tele reader, told me about the BwB article last year with photos of Dundee FC players around 1910, the year they won the Scottish Cup.
“In the piece, you also mentioned that Dundee regularly farmed out players to Violet at that time.
“One of the photos in the set, along with Dundee legends such as Bob Crumley and Herbert Dainty, was captioned ‘W. Cooper’.
“My uncle then told me that, when he was a young lad, he was told that his own uncle Willie Cooper had been “a bit of a football player”.
“Willie Cooper, my grandfather’s brother, served in the Black Watch and was killed in 1917 near Ypres.
“From my memory as a boy scout in the 40th Dundee in the 1960s, the war memorial in St Patrick’s church hall in Maitland Street includes the name William Cooper, M.M. This means that he won the Military Medal.
“The question is whether or not the footballer shown in your column at the end of September is the same Willie Cooper after whom my own father and then myself were named (the change in spelling came later).
“He looks not unlike my own father, born in 1919 two years after his uncle died.
“He was older than my grandfather (born in 1896), so could well have been playing around 1910.
“I also know that Willie Cooper had several daughters who will likely now have passed on, but he may well still have grandchildren around Dundee.
“The question is intriguing.
“If, indeed, this is my great uncle Willie Cooper, then this is the first time I’ve seen a photo of him.”
TIME TO PAU UP, FRED
Well-known Dundee amateur referee RONNIE DITTRICH wants help with a little wager.
“Can you confirm that Jim Forrest scored a hat-trick against Dundee United at Tannadice around December 1964,” he asked.
“Kenny Dick scored a consolation goal in a 3-1 win for Rangers.
“I have a small wager on this with our mutual friend fred wood.”
Ronnie’s version is totally correct, with the game being played on December 12, 1964.
Dundee United lined up — Davie; Millar, Briggs; Neilson, Smith, Fraser; Dick, Gillespie, Dossing, Berg, Persson.
Rangers — Ritchie; Provan, Caldow; Greig, McKinnon, Wood; Johnston, Millar, Forrest, Beck, Wilson.
A couple of weeks later (Jan. 9), Dundee travelled to Ibrox and were also on the end of a Jim Forrest hat-trick in a 4-0 defeat. Jimmy Millar scored the other goal.
In all, Forrest — capped just five times for Scotland, the first of which didn’t come until 1966 — grabbed eight hat-tricks that term, which included four-goal hauls against St Mirren (a) and Falkirk (h) in the league, and against St Johnstone in the League Cup at Muirton Park.
PENALTY SHOOT-OUT RECORD
Coincidentally, another equally well-known local whistler asked me the following as I watched a Sunday Morning match at Claypotts.
Said FRED BUTCHER, “Does anyone know the record for kicks in a penalty shoot-out?” he asked.
I told him I was involved in one which went to 14-13 some years ago, and I read recently of a local amateur game going to 21-20.
But we don’t have any files regarding this, so will have to rely on readers’ input.
WANTS TO CONTACT BOB BLYTH
Reader Ray Harvey (ray harvey@ntlworld.com) is looking to get in touch with former Morgan Academy school teacher BOB BLYTH.
Bob is a regular reader of this column and, indeed, has made several contributions over the years.
Ray said, “Can you pass on my contact details to Bob.
“His wife is my godmother and I have not seen or contacted them for many years.”
TOMMY NEILSON?
ABBY OSWALD (can’t get rid of him these days!) refers back to the Dundee United Dallas Tornadoes pic (Mar. 2).
“Isn't that Tommy Neilson behind Tommy Millar in the Dallas pic?” he inquired.
Certainly looks like him to me, Abby.
NOT QUITE TANGERINE THEN
Dundee United fan STEVE GRACIE also picks up on that Dallas piece, and offers, “Dundee United becoming the ‘Tangerines’ did not happen until 1969 following the second trip to Dallas as the Tornadoes.
“At the time, the directors were looking for something to brighten the club's image.
“It was apparently Mrs Kerr (wife of then manager Jerry) who suggested the change to tangerine with black trim (the Dallas Tornado trim was blue).
“The new colours were registered and worn for the first time when United went to Goodison Park to play Everton in a friendly on August 2, 1969.”
MORE CITY DOUBLE MEN
There were quite a number of responses to the players who have played for both Dundee United and Dundee.
PATRICK NORRIE (Patrick.Norrie@wwavrc.co.uk) got in touch from London to say, “I think Billy Williamson played for both sides.
“I have a scrapbook somewhere in my attic with quite a few Dundee FC-related clippings from the local papers (Billy Pirie was my hero at the time).
“I’m sure there’s a piece bearing the headline, ‘Williamson for Dens as Trigger heads to Tannadice.’ Trigger, of course, is Bobby Robinson.
“Remember the days when the first you knew about a transfer was when it appeared in The Courier or The Tully?
“Keep up the column — it’s the best part of the website on a Friday.”
Others contributing to the ever-growing list were MIKE McGREGOR, JAMES HAMILTON, DAVID RALSTON, BENNY WILSON, MIKE GALLACHER and IAN WILSON.
Between them, they gave — Steven Robb, Danny Griffin, Andy McLaren, Gordon Wallace, Roy McBain, Stuart Beedie.
Billy Williamson, John McQuillan, Gordon McLeod, Ian Philip, Andy McLaren, Alan Gordon, Aaron Conway.
Marcus Dailly and Andy Cargill were also mentioned, but I don’t think they ever played in United’s first team.
We’ll keep this open for a couple more weeks, so keep ‘em coming.
LEGENARY FIGURES
My former team-mate GRANT MACLEAN (grant.maclean@eu. weatherford.com), who has featured several times in BwB, not least over the past few weeks as part of the Auchterhouse/Tayport saga, had always been promising to send me in “some great pictures”.
“I’ve finally got these pictures organised for you,” said Grant. “The bottom one (of the two below) is Lawside Academy from 1963/64.
“The top picture is the Dundee Catholic Schoolboys at around the same time.
“Several of these boys went to senior clubs from school and we were a good side.
“However, we were once hammered 8-1 from Glasgow, who had Willie Carr playing for them that day.”
The quality of the photos is not great.
However, they are worth inclusion on the strength of some of the legendary figures featured.
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