The man who served Rangers in 5 decades and scored in front of 118,000 at Ibrox

dh1963

Well-Known Member
When Davie Kinnear died aged 90 on February 3rd 2008 he was widely believed to be the oldest living Ranger. His service to the Ibrox club spanned across 5 different decades, firstly as a skilful winger of some pace, then latterly as trainer and physiotherapist under successive managers Scot Symon, David White and Willie Waddell.

Kinnear was born in Kirkcaldy in 1917 during the dark days of the First World War and was educated at Viewforth Secondary School. His football career commenced at Burntisland United and he signed for Raith Rovers in 1933. He joined Rangers one year later at the age of just 17, his first-team debut coming at Dens Park in a 2-3 league defeat on August 25, 1934. Two days later he scored his first goal in light blue as Celtic were overwhelmed 4-0 at Parkhead in Jimmy McGrory's benefit match.

A clever, direct winger with an impressive turn of speed who preferred the ball played ahead of him, Kinnear was following in the footsteps of the legendary Alan Morton. He would go on to play 143 games for Rangers, scoring 39 goals and winning two league championships, one Glasgow cup and one charity cup winners' medals before his career, like so many others, was interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1939.

He was a player respected by opponents. Bobby Hogg of Celtic described him as the most difficult winger he had ever encountered. On January 2, 1939, he scored Rangers' opening goal as Celtic were defeated 2-1 at Ibrox before a British league record attendance of 118,730 that stands to this day. In three consecutive championship campaigns, he netted 29 goals in 89 games - an impressive ratio for a winger.

International recognition came at Hampden on December 8, 1937, when Kinnear netted the final goal as Scotland overwhelmed Czechoslovakia 5-0 before 41,000 spectators. That call-up would prove to be his only full international appearance as the storm clouds gathered across Europe.

Kinnear served with the Army Physical Training Corps during the war and was stationed in France and England. He played for the British Army alongside the likes of Matt Busby and Bill Nicholson. Such postings meant of course that he was seldom available to play for Rangers during this period - he played just 11 games for them throughout the entire course of the war, but guested for Aldershot, Middlesbrough, Crewe Alexandra, Fulham, Northampton Town and Stockport County.

At the end of the war, Kinnear moved from Rangers to Third Lanark in May 1946. His final appearance for Rangers was on April 10, 1944, in a 3-3 home league draw with Partick Thistle. Unusually he lined up at inside-left, with Charlie Johnston on the wing.

His stay at Cathkin Park was a short one and he returned to Fife to sign for Dunfermline Athletic after just five months. Brief spells followed at Queen of the South and Millwall Athletic before injury brought a premature end to his football career.

Kinnear was appointed remedial gymnast at Gleneagles Rehabilitation Unit before moving on to a similar position at Bridge of Earn Hospital. Rangers manager Scot Symon invited Kinnear back to Ibrox in 1956, where he would serve the club for 14 years as trainer and physiotherapist.

His stint at Bridge of Earn paid dividends for the club when he recommended to Symon that he sign the East Fife wing-half Harold Davis, who had been wounded in action in Korea but had regained his fitness under Kinnear's instruction. Davis would go on to be an outstanding servant for Rangers.

A final parting with the club in 1970 led Kinnear to take up the post of occupational therapist at Leverndale Hospital in Glasgow, where he helped set up a sports-related occupational therapy unit in the NHS.

The Kinnear family lived in the shadow of Ibrox throughout much of Kinnear's career, only moving to Newton Mearns late in life after his wife, Dorothy, suffered a stroke, being cared for by her husband until she died in 2003.

Kinnear died in Mearnskirk Hospital in 2008, and is one of a very elite group to have served Rangers in 5 different decades.
Such service deserves to be remembered.
 
Apart from possible military exploits, professional footballers who served during WW2 had some tales to tell regarding the number of Ad Hoc games which were played. The Army would play the RAF or Navy and each side would be full of internationals or at least very good professional players. The manager of the amateur side I played for 40 years ago was one George Paterson who played 300 odd games for the mentally challengeds, in fact I think he played in that 118k game at Ibrox. He was a real name dropper on who he'd played with during the war. In later years he was one of the first to take the professional coaching course in England alongside such as Walter Winterbottom and Alf Ramsey. With apologies for polluting the thread. ;)
 
Apart from possible military exploits, professional footballers who served during WW2 had some tales to tell regarding the number of Ad Hoc games which were played. The Army would play the RAF or Navy and each side would be full of internationals or at least very good professional players. The manager of the amateur side I played for 40 years ago was one George Paterson who played 300 odd games for the mentally challengeds, in fact I think he played in that 118k game at Ibrox. He was a real name dropper on who he'd played with during the war. In later years he was one of the first to take the professional coaching course in England alongside such as Walter Winterbottom and Alf Ramsey. With apologies for polluting the thread. ;)

Hardly polluting the thread. He played for Celtic but who cares. He served and gets the respect of all on here for that.
 
Great find, OP.

Whilst I'd heard the name before, that's the first I've seen any detail about him.

I wonder where they got the 118,730 figure from, widely quoted elsewhere as 118,567, for the 1939 game. Of course, neither will be entirely accurate and both will be far below the actual figure but it's the first I've seen the attendance quoted as that.
 
Great story, Scott Symon was the office based manager and Davie Kinnear took the training. Jim Baxter was summoned up the marble staircase where Symon asked him "could you no train a wee bit Jim, just to keep Davie happy"
Great post dh1963 about a good servant to The Rangers. I was at a Supporters Club meeting in the early 1970’s where Davie Kinnear was speaking. He didn’t have many good words to say about Jim Baxter unfortunately.
 
Once again, a wonderful, insightful and informative post.

My main memories, or more exactly knowledge of the man (such and as meagre as they are?) is him scoring in that league game in 1939, and of Baxter being the bane of his life.

I always got the notion that he was a disciplinarian and disciple of Struth's way of running the club and therefore Baxter deciding to swing as it was actually the 60s, didn't actually sing to his soul.

A lovely wee nod to the memory of a Ranger, probably most forgotten.
 
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Great post dh1963 about a good servant to The Rangers. I was at a Supporters Club meeting in the early 1970’s where Davie Kinnear was speaking. He didn’t have many good words to say about Jim Baxter unfortunately.
I think that basically sums up the situation. Symon was supposed to be a disciplinarian as well but it seems that Baxter got away with things that other players didn't and that riled Davie Kinnear.
 
Baxter's lack of discipline caught up with him as was evident when he returned to Ibrox in his early 30s. He was overweight unfit and well past his best at an age when many players were just coming into their prime
 
I think that basically sums up the situation. Symon was supposed to be a disciplinarian as well but it seems that Baxter got away with things that other players didn't and that riled Davie Kinnear.

You have to realise Baxter wasn't the same as other players. It's merely stating a fact.

It's a hard one any which way you look at it.

Rangers FC, maintainers of standards, going back to the 1800s. Only three managers at this point. William Wilton, William Struth and Scot Symon. For many, 'Olde Worlde' values and in a changing world, the sixties changed it all, it all went into meltdown and changed lives and outlooks forever.

I've always looked at in a certain way also.

Imagine a Rangers team with Baxter, Henderson, Charlie Cooke, Willie Johnston and George Best in it. (It's not that outlandish, thinking back)

Should the Rangers support have been denied this assortment of talent because Bill Struth once decreed a Ranger should report to Ibrox clean shaven and in a Bowler hat?

But getting back to the slim one. Look back at any recorded matches from his era and listen to the Rangers supports' response, when he gets on the ball.

It's a decibel or a hundred more than his team mates. Treat him as a one off.

We will always have standards that no one comes close to.

But we should also react to the ever changing and evolving times and the problems that result.

If Struth could have acted within the restrictions of the times back in the day almost single handedly, to the press, then the present Ibrox board should be all over them.
 
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