Kenneth McVittie, of Charleston, in Dundee, reckons one of Dundee’s best managers was John Prentice.
“When John Prentice was in charge at Dens, Dundee played some really good football.
“Can you give some background on him?
“Also, did he not sign a former Arbroath player called Fraser on three different occasions?”
Prentice was a wing-half with Rangers, Hearts and Falkirk before going into management with Arbroath.
He left Gayfield in September 1962 to succeed Johnny Haddow as manager of Clyde.
He was then, perhaps, a surprise choice by the SFA for the post of manager of Scotland in March 1966.
His sacking by Scotland is shrouded somewhat in mystery as some reports suggested to went to Canada to seek further employment.
The SFA took umbrage to this and sacked him.
He wasn’t out of a job for long before Falkirk took him to Brockville as manager.
From there it was on to Dundee in September 1968, before joining Falkirk once again three years later.
He succeeded Jock Stein, who had managed the national side on a part-time basis in addition to his post at Celtic.
Prentice took charge of just four Scotland games between April and June in 1966 — and all played at Hampden.
Scotland suffered defeats by England, Holland and Portugal but recorded a 1–1 draw with reigning world champions Brazil.
He emigrated to Australia where he died in 2006 from a brain tumour, aged 79.
Jim Fraser was the player who played under him three times.
He was a centre-half at Gayfield when Prentice first arrived as manager, then joined him at Clyde and Dundee.
A wee aside to Prentice leaving Dens — to be replaced by former Rangers boss Davie White — is that Dundee also lost their head coach a few days later.
One James McLean decided to accept an offer from the board at Tannadice to step up to manage Dundee United.
And we all know what happened after that!
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