Brenda Neilson also replied to the popular tale of Dundee United being promoted to the top league in season 1959-60, first mentioned in this column on December 2.
“I saw your page on the internet about Dundee United’s promotion and you were asking for any other information,” said Brenda.
“My father is former Dundee United player Tommy Neilson and he is still living in South Africa.
“He will be 80 in March this year.
“He played football over here for a while, then coached for a few years.
“He and all three of his brothers played football. The brother you mentioned was Jackie, not Jimmy,” concluded Brenda, who also lives in South Africa.
Tommy currently lives in the East Rand of Johannesburg, as does Brenda. Brenda’s brother Martin is also in SA, residing in Pretoria.
In those days of football in the early 1960s, I used to go to Dens one week and Tannadice the next.
Although a Dundee fan, you appreciated some of the great players United had.
I could still rattle off United line-ups at that time without scouring record books… goalkeepers Ugolini, then Mackay and Davie; full-backs Millar, Briggs; half-back line of Neilson, Smith, Fraser; forwards including Carlyle, Gillespie, Mochan, Irvine, Mitchell, Howieson, Thom.
Then came the never-to-be-forgotten Scandinavians.
Tommy, who celebrates his 55th wedding anniversary with wife Eunice this month, played right-half and joined the club in that promotion-winning season.
United historian Peter Rundo remembers him well.
“Tommy was a very good player for United and was with us for around nine seasons,” said Peter.
“He was a very effective old-style half-back, who sometimes also played inside-forward.
“He was also captain of the team for a spell. He went about his job in a very quiet and unassuming fashion but nevertheless effective.
“One very amusing anecdote about Tommy I vividly remember was him running out on to Tannadice in an end-of-season Forfarshire Cup tie. Just as he came out of the tunnel, he threw his lit cigarette on to the trackside.
“Cigarettes and football don’t go nowadays look at the recent furore with Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.”
Tommy played junior for Arniston Rangers, then had spells with Hearts and East Fife before joining the Jerry Kerr revolution at Tannadice.
His first game was a 0-0 home draw with Albion Rovers on October 24, 1959, two days after signing.
He also played in all four Inter-Cities Fairs Cup games against Barcelona and Juventus in season 1966-67.
In March 1968, after playing 316 games in black-and-white, he left United for Cowdenbeath, before emigrating to South Africa in the early 1970s.
When he eventually hung up his boots, Tommy, a boilermaker to trade, ran an engineering firm for about 15 years.
Incidentally, in our first follow-up to the United ‘pitch-invasion-promotion’ story on January 7, Duncan Fenwick reckoned that match was Ron Yeats’ last appearance for United before going to Liverpool.
The towering centre-half actually played around 30 league games the following season for United before being lured to Anfield by legendary Liverpool boss Bill Shankly.
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