In the late 1960s, I enjoyed a couple of holidays in the English fishing hub of Hull.
The east coast of England city is not usually linked with the holiday trade but I had relatives staying there and it was good to go down to see them.
Workmates Ally Gowans and Colly Bearn were my holidaymaker chums in these excursions.
My uncle and aunt were Willie and Sheila Bird, and Willie, a shoemaker/cobbler with Saxone in the High Street in Dundee, was offered promotion with the company but that entailed moving to Hull.
He accepted and moved his family south.
It was during one of those trips south that Willie told me about a Scots footballer who played for Hull City.
He said: “The Tigers goalkeeper (at that time) was a Scottish lad called Ian McKechnie.
“He always enjoyed good rapport with the Boothferry Park fans.
“During one press interview, he just happened to say he liked oranges.
“From the next home game on, when he came out at the start of a game (no warm-ups in these days), fans would chuck oranges into his goalmouth.
“Groundsmen and ballboys then had to scurry about and lifted all the oranges on to the track. Sometimes, there would be hundreds.”
During one of those trips to Hull, I took in a City home game and, sure enough, when McKechnie reached his goalmouth, oranges, satsumas and tangerines would rain down on him.
“He just laughed heartily and gave the fans a wave.”
The reason I’m relaying this story is that I came across it while browsing the internet.
What follows is an extract.
‘Jovial Scottish custodian Ian McKechnie was a mainstay between the sticks for Hull City over eight seasons in the 1960s and 70s but despite all his agility and bravery — team-mates said he was brave almost beyond the call of duty — it’s the pre-match routine between him and City fans which was dominant in securing his place in City folklore.
Numerous stories have been related but McKechnie’s own version has to be taken as the definitive.
One Thursday afternoon after he’d left Boothferry Park following treatment, he walked along North Road and then Anlaby Road and noticed a Jaffa orange in a shop – a wet fish shop, oddly — and decided to buy it to scoff during his walk.
Two young lads then shouted their good wishes for the coming away game to him, and McKechnie, still chomping on his snack, responded with thanks.
Two weeks later, at the next home game, two oranges landed on the pitch near McKechnie’s goal, almost certainly from the same two lads.
McKechnie, who happily sucked on the oranges during the game, related afterwards to the Hull Daily Mail whom he believed had thrown them and why, and subsequently numerous oranges started appearing in his goalmouth as a ritual at each game.
Some got squashed or bruised but he’d end up taking half a dozen or so home each time.
One week, an orange had a phone number and ‘I Love You’ on it which McKechnie showed to the Mail reporter, who then arranged a meet up.
Although McKechnie was greeted by an attractive woman upon ringing the doorbell, it was her five-year-old daughter who had chucked the fruit.
Another time, a fan was arrested at Sheffield United for hurling an orange towards McKechnie, and the keeper himself appeared in court on the supporter’s behalf to explain away the reasoning.
Given that McKechnie, who played for City between 1966 and 1974, was also responsible for English competitive football’s first penalty save in a shoot-out (in the Watney
Cup semi-final against Manchester United’s Denis Law in 1970; he also missed a penalty, a further first), he could have got uppity about being more associated with fruit than football when his City career ended.
But he was truly proud of his unique contribution to player-fan interaction at a time when fan-fan interactions were rather more feisty.
McKechnie died earlier this year and, at the funeral, his family threw oranges into his grave. It’s impossible to define how fitting as a final gesture this was.’
Twists in the McKechnie career doesn’t end there.
He was born in Bellshill in Glasgow and signed for Arsenal as a 16-year-old — as an outside-left!
However, during training sessions, Highbury boss George Swindin saw his potential as a goalkeeper and he was soon converted.
McKechnie went on to make 25 appearances between 1961 and 1964 for the Gunners.
He then joined Southend, playing 62 times in the first team, before heading for Hull in 1966.
After leaving Hull, McKechnie then signed for the Boston Minutemen in the North American Soccer League in May 1974, where he was rated one of the top goalkeepers for that season.
There was a suggestion of him signing for a season as a goalkicker for an American football (gridiron) team but, due to a strike, this did not take place.
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