Thursday 5 November 2009

GEORGE "PUD" HILL - 15 YEARS A DEE

As a player, Pud was way before my time, his playing days at Dens being from 1940 to 1955. So although I never got to see his wing wizardry in action, I did actually get to meet him quite a few times. He used to drink in our local, The Boars Rock in Arbroath Road, and sat with us regularly. He had a great memory and told many DFC tales that had us all hooked, especially when he'd name-drop Billy Steel and so on. In fact one time we all ended up back at his house in Craigiebank for a wee New Year sing song! A really good guy.
He had plenty story telling material, his 15 years at Dens seeing him play in a total of 257 games.
Pud died in 2002, and this article from the Courier, Dec 2002, tells a bit about his talent.
Click image to enlarge.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this, it's good to find out a bit more about the man. I used to visit Pud Hill's newsagent shop regularly after school in the mid-70s and frequently bought up his entire stock of football cards (the ones that came with the wee slab of revolting pink bubble gum!) We schoolkids must have been a pain in the neck but he was a lovely man who I remember as kindly towards us. RIP Pud.