THE DFC TEAM BUS - 1932

It's difficult to tell by the clothes they are wearing whether the squad is about to set off for an away match, or going away for a round of golf, but here are the DFC players posing beside the bus outside Dens in 1932.
Not a particularly thrilling year football wise, mid table finish and no trophies, but anyway, it's who's who time.
From left to right -
Tom Smith - Colin McNab - Jimmy Guthrie - Bill Marsh - Jock Gilmour - P.Jackson (Director) - Lew Morgan - Willie Blyth - Harry Smith - Jimmy Robertson - Alec Troup - J.Brown (Trainer).
Poking out the windows - Tom McCarthy - Andy Campbell - Peter Gavigan.
The bus itself looks almost like a modern day Hummer!

JOCKY SCOTT IN 1970

"Ohhhhh Jocky Jocky - Jocky Jocky Jocky Jocky Jocky Scott."
This is Jocky Scott getting the pitch all to himself in 1970.
Still a bit young for his side-lappers to make an appearance, but by this time his many match appearances saw him well on the road to being our very own 70's superstar!

STEVE MURRAY - MIDFIELDER - 1960'S

Steve Murray hooked up with Dundee at the start of the 1963/64 season.
First began playing as a right sided winger, but after a couple of years was placed in the right-half position and for the remainder of his time at the club, claimed the #4 shirt.
He managed to grab 21 goals, the majority of which were scored during his early years when playing up front.
He played a total of 240 full games for the Dee - 1963 to 1970.
The photo was taken at the tail end of the 60's.

JIMMY WILSON - 70'S WINGER

What Dundee got when they signed Jimmy Wilson was, a busy wee winger - sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right.
This picture of him was taken when he first arrived at Dens in 1970.
He played a total of 123 full games for the club, right through to 1975.
The wee man also managed to bag a few goals along the way.

GEORGE STEWART - CENTRE HALF - 1964-76

You can tell by the strip and his rather youthful looks, that this picture of George Stewart was taken in the mid 60's - very early on in his long career at Dens.
Although he joined the Dee in 1964, he didn't make his debut until the 1966/67 season, and then went on to play a total of 291 full games for the club, all the way through till 1976, which is pretty good going.
A typical centre half really, dependable, got stuck in, and being of tall build he'd often use his height advantage for corners and free kicks, hitting the back of the net on a few occasions too.
In fact, one of his rare goals was captured on telly, here it is below.
A 2-1 Dee victory away at Tynecastle, with big Dode getting on the end of a Biffo free kick - December 1972.

DUNCAN McLEOD - STRIKER - 1971/73

Here's a DFC player to test your memory cells - striker, Duncan McLeod.
This cutting, dated Friday 14th January 1972, mentions the possibility of McLeod making his Dundee debut that Saturday as he was included in the pool to play Hearts at Tyncastle the next day.

It wasn't to be however, in fact McLeod only played one full game for the club and that was the following season when he took part in the Dees away game against Norwich in the Texaco Cup in September 72. So at the end of the day, there can't have been many Dee fans who actually saw him play for the dark blues!

Anyone go to Norwich?

Incidentally, the game at Tyncastle - we won it 5-2!

THE WEE RED BOOK - 1973

Here's a reminder of how the popular Wee Red Book looked in the 1973-74 season, the year we lifted the League Cup.

Under it, Tommy Gemmell parades the trophy at Hampden with Thomson Allan alongside.

IAN SCOTT - FORWARD - EARLY 70'S

Ian Scott joined Dundee in 1971. Although he was a striker, he wasn't exactly a prolific goal scorer for us. Then again, he was competing with Wallace, Duncan & J.Scott in the forward line at the time, so it was a difficult task I suppose. In his 82 games he played for the club, he managed to grab a total of 19 goals.
His final appearance in Dee colours was in April 1975.
The photo of him was taken in 1971.
When he hung up his boots, he went on to be a policeman and is now retired.

DAVE JOHNSTON IN THE 70'S

Dundee's left back, Dave (Biffo) Johnston, was well known for having a power-blaster of a shot. So what you DIDN'T want to be doing was standing in the way of one of his shots.
Unfortunately, Alex Ingram of Ayr United didn't heed this warning, and took the full force of one of Biffo's thunderbolts, right in the kisser!
You can see on the footage below from 1975 how, despite appearing to have his left eye half shut from the impact, Ingram not only stayed on his feet, but he didn't even flinch!
The picture above of Davie at Dens was taken circa 1970.

JIM EASTON - MIDFIELDER - 1964-1971

Jim Easton is a name I can remember from when I first started going up to Dens in the late 60's when I was a primary schoolboy.
He had been with the club a few years before my visits however, from 1964 in fact, and kept going till 1971.
He notched up a total of 202 games in the centre-half position for the Dee, so he is actually one of Dundee's longer serving players.
The photo was taken around 1969.

LAWRIE SMITH - PHYSIO - EARLY 60'S

Here's physio, Lawrie Smith, tending to Dee player Bobby Seith, probably around the 1961/62 period.
Lawrie joined the club in 1959, leaving Arbroath Infirmary to take on the Dens job.
That's coach Sammy Kean in white keeping an eye on things!

MAURICE FRIEL - PHYSIO - EARLY 70'S

Not sure how many years exactly Maurice Friel was Dundee Physio, but he was definitely with the club during the 1969 to 71 period, this photo taken in 1970.
It just occurred to me when I saw this image that this round DFC crest he has on, has never been resurrected like other crests from the past have. This simple design is my favourite too but has only been used on the shirts circa 1970-73. There was a blue version and a red version I remember. This was the one worn when we beat AC Milan at Dens in 71, so maybe time to reintroduce it again for newer generations to get acquainted with.

BOBBY ANCELL AS MANAGER - MID 60'S

Here's a photo of Bobby Ancell when he was DFC manager, the image taken around 1967.
Bobby was boss from 1965 to 68 during which saw the Dee play in a Scottish League Cup final and reach the semi's of the Fairs Cup.
A couple of decades earlier, Bobby played left-back for Dundee, and as a defender (1944 to 50) he notched up a total of 134 games.
He was involved in one of the clubs quirkier moments in history, Bobby being in the team which in 1947, won 2 League games 10-0... 2 weeks on the trot!
While in his playing days at Dens he also achieved 2 Scotland caps.
Bobby Ancell died in 1987.

RODDY GEORGESON - FORWARD - 1967-70

Despite his Scandinavian looks, Roddy Georgeson was born in Egypt. However, Dundee signed him from a slightly less exotic location, Port Vale, in 1967.
His time at Dens was pretty much as a fringe player, notching up only 13 full games in the 3 seasons he was with the club. He did pop in 4 goals mind you, so at least what skills he had were of some use.
After 1970, he went on to play for a number of smaller Scottish clubs well into the 80's.

JIM STEELE IN THE 60'S

I already have a couple of items up about Jim Steele's playing career at Dens, so no need to go into detail again, but I just thought I'd put up this pre-curly top image of him as a young lad.
The photo was taken around 1967 when Jim had not been at the club very long and was still a couple of years away from making his first team debut.
When Jim moved to Southampton in 1972, he was a top player by then, and I remember that same year when I was 14, I wrote asking for a signed photo of him wearing his Saints strip. However, not having a clue of the postal address of Southampton's ground, all I could muster was the name of it, so I ended up just putting - Jim Steele, The Dell, Southampton - on the envelope!
It was no surprise that I received no reply, as I suspect my letter never reached him in the first place!

MIKE HEWITT - GOALKEEPER - 1970-74

Dundee were fortunate to have 3 great keepers on the go around the same era, however, this wasn't such good fortune for Mike Hewitt who found himself in the middle of, firstly, competing with Ally Donaldson in 1970 & 71, then going straight into battle for position with Thomson Allan in 1973 & 74.
Hewitt's best season was 1971/72 when he became the dominant keeper wearing the #1 jersey.
All together he played a total of 55 games in the 4 seasons he was with the Dee.
He then left Dens in 75 to play in the United States.
Not sure if he ever returned?!

DAVIE SWAN - LEFT BACK - 1966-70

Here's a young looking Davie Swan with an unfamiliar crew cut, the picture taken in the late 60's.
Davie played left back for Dundee, debuting in 1966.
Although he was with the club for a few years, he only participated in 44 full games, his final outing in dark blue being in March 1970.
One of his career highlights was playing in the semi final of the Fairs Cup against Leeds in 1968, with a 24,000 crowd at Dens roaring them on.
He later opted for a sensible side parting!

I R GELLATLY - DFC CHAIRMAN - 1986

Another one of the Gellatly clan - this time it's Chairman Ian Gellatly, the picture taken at the start of 1986/87 season. For some reason the photographer managed to persuade IG to pose without his shades on. Quite a rare sight!!
I don't know how many Gellatly's there have been in total at the club, but I know the family have been connected with Dundee FC since at least 1944.
I'm not so sure either if their positions as Chairmen & Directors also included "owning" the club, but they have been on the board for many decades in the past.

GELLATLY WITH THE GOODS

This is DFC Chairman, James Gellatly, keeping a close eye on the Scottish League Championship trophy in 1962.
Wonder how much the club spent on Duraglit that year?!

CHAAAAAAAAAAARGE!!!

Here's a couple of great shots of jubilant Dee fans invading the pitch.

The happy occasion took place at East Stirling on 2nd May 1981 when Dundee won promotion back to the SPL with a 1-0 victory.

The dark blues had around 5000 at the game, most of which ended up on the pitch by the look of it!

The invasion was caught on tv too, so here below is the commotion after the final whistle.

Looking forward to a repeat of it this season!!

Big thanks to JG