“If I remember correctly, he was a Tech teacher at Perth High School around the mid 1970s when he was in the very good Carnoustie team as a left-winger.
“I was also interested in the photo of the young Archie Knox, who hailed from the Carse of Gowrie
“That area seemed to produce more than its fair share of football players who played at the top level.
“Apart from Knox, there was HAMISH and DEREK McALPINE, IAN and GAVIN REDFORD, JOHN CLARK and RAYMOND POLLOCK.
“I’m sure the BwB readers can come up with more”
Graeme’s story struck a chord with BILL FLEMING, of Clepington Road, Dundee, a former colleague in the Tele.
Graeme was one of his Scouts between 1961 and 1965 when he ran the 7th Troop in Victoria Street Church Hall.
Since then, he has kept newspaper cuttings in scrapbooks of former Scouts who have gone on to notable achievements.
In one of these scrapbooks, Bill has a cutting from a Montrose match in which Graeme scored a hat-trick.
This was in a friendly against Dundee United reserves and was reported in the Sporting Post on February 13, 1971.
Montrose won 9-3 and, apart from Graeme, Jim Young also had a hat-trick. Other Montrose scorers were Denis D’Arcy (2) and Harry Johnston.
United’s scorers were Rice, Hill and Petrie.
An earlier cutting in Bill’s scrapbooks, again from the Sporting Post, this time dated June 10, 1967, has a picture of Graeme and four other Morgan Academy schoolboys, who, it was stated, were on the way to football fame.
Three had joined senior clubs and the other two were on the brink of following, so the article said.
Possibly the best known of the quintet was JOHN DUNCAN, who, at the age of 18, was scoring regularly for Dundee Reserves.
John, of course, went on to achieve greater fame with Tottenham Hotspur (and also capped for Scotland).
Also signed for Dundee at that time was 16-year-old GEORGE HILL, son of the Dens Park legend of the same name, but better known as “Pud”.
Third member of the quintet who’d signed senior forms was IAN McGOWAN, who’d been snapped up by Montrose.
The two others, Graeme and DAVID McNICOLL, had been on trial spells with Liverpool at the time of the article. However, the Merseysiders didn’t follow up their original interest.
Graeme, as we know, eventually signed for Montrose, while David, too, signed for Dundee, but later went on to join Dunfermline Athletic and played for them for several seasons.,
“Incidentally,” concluded Bill, “there was no mention of John ‘The Blether’ Brown among the Morgan schoolboys doing well at football in 1967.”
A trifle harsh, Bill. My turn came later, but that could, perhaps, be another story for another day.
LOVELY FELLOW
BILLY CLINTON (billy3@u.washington.edu), formerly of Croy, outside Glasgow, but now of Seattle, had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy Gabriel recently.
“Reading your recent articles, I understand totally what you say about him being a ‘very unassuming character’ as it is absolutely true,” said Billy.
“I go to my local park in Seattle/Shoreline nearly every day with my dog and, one day, saw this guy coaching kids soccer (fitba to us!).
“I heard an accent and wondered where he was from, and one of the kids assisting told me he was Scottish.
“I chatted with him and what a lovely fellow he is.
“We talked about Scotland and Everton, and fitba in general, and about the US game, and so on.
“I also used to coach kids soccer here, which was a great experience.
“After reading your article, I thought I’d comment how good it was to know he is well respected in the game.”
ST JOHN’S FORMER PUPILS FC (1948-49)
The photo (below) was sent in by ANDY LOW, of Park Avenue, Dundee, who is in the photo.
It’s the ST JOHN’S FORMER PUPILS FC from season 1948-49 when they won the Mudie Trophy as memders of the Dundee Juvenile League.
Back row (from left) — J. Whittaker, T. McGoldrick, T. Burns, J. Macbeth, D. Butchart.
Middle row — A. Loew, R. Ogilvie, A. Hannan, M. Pacione, M. L. Hutton, A. Gourlay, C. Mulvey.
Front row — J. G. Conway, A. Rollo, J. Monaghan, T. Connelly, Brother Lucien.
