Rob Boag has asked me to thank John Gallacher for enlightening him on the date that Harp’s home ground Beechwood Park was established (1940).
He reckons he confused the houses in the Glens for Beechwood houses.
“I’ll never be forgiven for that,” he laughed, “but the dates, attendances, teams and scores mentioned in the article (May 31) are accurate.
“John mentioned Alec Duncan on that great Harp team is his uncle.
“Through my father and uncles, I had the privilege to meet and enjoy the company of a few Harp legends.
“My uncle Dickey Boag played on the left-wing and was honoured with two Scottish caps.
“In the early days of Menzieshill, I wallpapered most of Alec Duncan and his lovely wife Alice’s home. Over cups of tea, I would get Alec talking about playing with that famed team.
“I also remember their daughter, young Alice Duncan, who was Dundee’s ‘avant garde’ fashion statement.
“This was before we, in Dundee knew, what ‘avant garde’ was.
“Through my artisan accomplish-ments, I was invited to do similar work at Tommy Adamson’s home in Beechwood. I think Tommy and Alec were married to sisters.
“Again, over cups of tea, Tommy Adamson, also capped for Scotland, would talk about what it was like playing for that Harp team.”Andy never took prisonersRob Boag continued with a description of his weekend ritual around the late 1950s.
“In 1958, on Saturday evenings, before heading to the Palais Bar, I would stop in at Frankie Davie’s pub at the top of Liff Road for a pint with my dad, uncles and a host of their sports friends,” he recalled.
“They would all gather to sup on the best pint of heavy ever brewed in Scotland no one drank lager back then.
“One Saturday night, I recall Patsie Coleman (twice capped for Scotland) was sipping pints with my father and friends.
“My uncle Josie Boag and my sainted auntie Becky were in Davie’s lounge bar with Alec and Alice Duncan.
“Once the ladies were settled, sipping on vodka and blackcurrant, Josie and Alec would nip through to the bar where pints were waiting for them.
“They would then pick up the thread of a sports debate (I use the word debate loosely) and jump right into the topic.
“They would then nip back to the lounge, spend 10 minutes with their spouses, then back to the bar and continue with their arguments.
“As a young lad, I wondered why Josie and Alec didn’t just stay at the bar with their friends.
“It was years later after I was married that I understood their dilemma!
“One player I never met was defender Andy Brown (also capped for Scotland) but I knew his son Andy.
“However, I heard Andy senior’s name mentioned with respect many times ‘Big Andy Broon never took any prisoners!’ was how Andy was described by his admiring Harp mates.”City’s greatest junior teamRob moved on with his Harp reminiscing, and enthused: “One great story was a sixth-round Scottish Junior Cup tie away to Larkhall Thistle in 1934.
“The abuse hurled at Harp players and fans who travelled through to the match would never be tolerated in today’s game.
“The Harp players told each other, after the match finished in a draw, that they would take this Thistle team apart in the replay.
“And they did . . . turning on the style and demolishing Larkhall 5-1.
“When asked what they thought of the current Junior game and this was in the late 1950s a couple of them were diplomatic, shrugged, and said: ‘The game had changed, it just wasn’t the same’.”
“A couple of others were undiplomatic, saying: ‘The game had no style, no swagger to it, no personalities’.
“They could never compare it to their generation.
“Going back to the thoughts expressed by these Harp legends, there is one constant all of them realised they had played in a team that was special and so did the thousands of fans who broke attendance records and knowing they were watching something special.
“What they didn’t realise was that they were watching the greatest team ever to play in Dundee Junior Football history all 127 years of it!”
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