Happy memories of Gowanhill

Jul 1 2009

Sir, – Thank you for the trip down Memory Lane provided by the Gowanhill feature last week. I have always been fortunate to have a copy of this photograph, which I have often referred to over the years.

As we got older only then did we appreciate the efforts put in by people like Willie Gordon to give young lads an opportunity through sport to take a pride in themselves.

Most of us took advantage of this start in our lives. Some, like Billy Bremner and Alex Smith became household names in Scotland.

Others did not quite make it. The classic example of this was the captain, John Grant, one of Jock Stein’s youth team at Celtic. Unfortunately for Johnny, there was another young lad around at the time called Billy McNeill.

The thing about the team was that we had all grown up together and most had played in the same school teams. In fact, of the team in the first photograph nine of us came from St Modan’s and in the second photograph there were eight.

At that time Stirling High School did not play football. Its team sport was rugby. Mr Gordon used this fact very well in his recruitment of players.

It is nice to read that a number of the lads are still alive.

Let’s hope that Tommy Wynn wins his fight against ill-health. This guy should have been the next Gordon Smith. I rated him at that age better than Billy Bremner – and, of course, the immortal Billy was possibly the best Scottish footballer of his generation. He ranks up there with Jimmy Johnstone and Kenny Dalgleish.

There was one error in your report: the pre-final photograph taken at the midweek game. When the final came along, yours truly was replaced by Andy Clacher, by far the better player – yours truly being the good looking fellow, aged 17, standing next to my idol at that time, John Grant.

Yes, thanks for the memories, and thanks to the people like Willie Gordon who gave us the opportunity to enact them. Yours, etc.

JOE MELDRUMStirling