Born in Forfar in 1890, David McLean made his Celtic debut in October 1907 aged just 16 in the Glasgow Cup Final win over Rangers. He scored.
He made his league debut for them the following week against Port Glasgow. He scored a hat trick.
At 18, he had played 29 times for Celtic and scored 22 goals. But he was mainly a reserve to their famous centre forward Jimmy Quinn, and decided to leave Parkhead to seek more regular football.
He left their youngest ever goalscorer, youngest ever hat trick scorer and youngest ever scorer against Rangers.
His next club was Preston in the English top flight. In a season and a half, he scored 25 league goals in 49 games. His transfer to Sheffield Wednesday in 1911 was something of a surprise. No surprise he scored plenty. 100 goals in 145 games, and top goalscorer in the English First Division in both 1911-12 and 1912-13.
Like many of his generation, war interrupted his career, he featured as an occasional guest player for a few clubs during the conflict, most notably Third Lanark.
He then joined Rangers for the 1918-19 season. Due to injury, he only played in 24 of the 34 league games. He scored an amazing 29 goals in those 24 matches. This included 4 against Kilmarnock, hat tricks against Hearts, Clydebank and Clyde, and doubles against Hamilton, Partick, Dumbarton and Third Lanark. In a tense title run in, he scored 6 times in the last 3 games, Rangers ending the season with three successive 4-0 wins, but Celtic matched that winning run to claim the title by a single point. Most observers agreed the championship would have ended at Ibrox if McLean had played in more games. He did play in the Glasgow Cup final win over Celtic that season, a 2-0 win where he didn't score.
McLean was the league top scorer in 1918-19, becoming the first man to top score in both the English and Scottish top divisions. However, that was his one and only season at Ibrox, with a move back to Sheffield. His nomadic career would see him go on to play for Bradford Park Avenue, Forfar (twice) and Dundee. At the age of 35 he scored for Dundee in the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic, but ended up on the losing end of a 2-1 scoreline.
He retired after his final spell with Forfar aged 40, after a career that boasted 240 top division goals in Scotland and England, over 350 total competitive goals, and the best part of 500 when minor competitions, friendlies and unofficial games were included.
McLean got only 1 Scotland cap, in the 1912 1-1 draw against England. He was an excellent cricketer too, and retained his love of sports right up till his death in 1967.
He won few medals. He never played many games for us. He played for Celtic. He broke records.
A strange career, and a mainly forgotten one.
David Prophet McLean, one season at Rangers, but what a season he had.
He made his league debut for them the following week against Port Glasgow. He scored a hat trick.
At 18, he had played 29 times for Celtic and scored 22 goals. But he was mainly a reserve to their famous centre forward Jimmy Quinn, and decided to leave Parkhead to seek more regular football.
He left their youngest ever goalscorer, youngest ever hat trick scorer and youngest ever scorer against Rangers.
His next club was Preston in the English top flight. In a season and a half, he scored 25 league goals in 49 games. His transfer to Sheffield Wednesday in 1911 was something of a surprise. No surprise he scored plenty. 100 goals in 145 games, and top goalscorer in the English First Division in both 1911-12 and 1912-13.
Like many of his generation, war interrupted his career, he featured as an occasional guest player for a few clubs during the conflict, most notably Third Lanark.
He then joined Rangers for the 1918-19 season. Due to injury, he only played in 24 of the 34 league games. He scored an amazing 29 goals in those 24 matches. This included 4 against Kilmarnock, hat tricks against Hearts, Clydebank and Clyde, and doubles against Hamilton, Partick, Dumbarton and Third Lanark. In a tense title run in, he scored 6 times in the last 3 games, Rangers ending the season with three successive 4-0 wins, but Celtic matched that winning run to claim the title by a single point. Most observers agreed the championship would have ended at Ibrox if McLean had played in more games. He did play in the Glasgow Cup final win over Celtic that season, a 2-0 win where he didn't score.
McLean was the league top scorer in 1918-19, becoming the first man to top score in both the English and Scottish top divisions. However, that was his one and only season at Ibrox, with a move back to Sheffield. His nomadic career would see him go on to play for Bradford Park Avenue, Forfar (twice) and Dundee. At the age of 35 he scored for Dundee in the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic, but ended up on the losing end of a 2-1 scoreline.
He retired after his final spell with Forfar aged 40, after a career that boasted 240 top division goals in Scotland and England, over 350 total competitive goals, and the best part of 500 when minor competitions, friendlies and unofficial games were included.
McLean got only 1 Scotland cap, in the 1912 1-1 draw against England. He was an excellent cricketer too, and retained his love of sports right up till his death in 1967.
He won few medals. He never played many games for us. He played for Celtic. He broke records.
A strange career, and a mainly forgotten one.
David Prophet McLean, one season at Rangers, but what a season he had.
