Former Dundee and Montrose right-back Les Barr showed me this cutting of a team photo of the Links Park club from around the mid-1970s.
“I bet you don’t know who the ‘Unknown’ player is?” he teased.
I replied immediately that it was Bobby Buchan.
Bobby was a top player in the Dundee juniors and had several trials and spells with a number of Angus and Fife senior clubs.
Players in the photo (above) are: Back row (from left) — Brian Third, Dave Ewan, Bobby Smith, Dave Gollan, Ian Thompson, Dennis D’Arcy, Gordon Crammond.
Front row — Les Barr, Bobby Buchan, Jim Young, Bobby Livingstone, Arthur Finn.
Les is still revered to this day by the Gable Endies’ faithful and, indeed, enjoys the nickname ‘The Legend’.
When he joined Montrose from Stobswell Juniors in 1971, he played a bit further forward as a right- winger.
It was injuries to other squad members which saw Les move back into the right-back role — and he never looked back!
Perhaps his greatest claim to fame in the blue jersey was the amazing 60-yard winner in a League Cup quarter-final home tie against Hibs.
From his full-back position, he scored an amazing 16 goals (including penalties) in season 75-76.
In all, he netted 63 times in over 200 appearances before joining Dundee in 1978.
Four years later, he returned to Links Park, where he was part of the Angus side which won the Division Two championship in 1984-85.
Another, loosely, football tale from this photo concerns Dundonian goalkeeper Dave Gollan.
In the early 1970s, I was at the Caird Hall in Dundee to see Rod Stewart and The Faces.
Rod, as everyone knows, is a big football fan, and he came out on to the stage with a bag of polka dot footballs and started kicking them into the crowd.
I was sitting up at the side balcony and one of the footballs was coming straight in my direction.
I reached to grab it out of the air when a massive pair of hands came over my head and securely clutched the ball.
It was Dave Gollan, putting into practice what he learned on the training field — and thus denying me a historic piece of rock memorabilia!
Dave was a good mate and emigrated not long after to New Zealand, where he teamed up with my other buddy Colin “Tush” McDonald.
n THERE were some internet comments re Rob Boag’s tale from September 9, which is on the Tele website (www.thetele.co.uk). Rob relayed a story from Scottish Cup Final day in 2010 when he watched Dundee United beat Ross County on Canadian TV.
His story centred around a United-supporting friend who mistakenly thought a Dundee fan, sporting a blue ‘D’ shirt, might be hijacking the day.
Bob Ford wrote on the Tele website: “Nice to see you bringing low class football tribal nonsense to a wider global audience.”
Grant Anderson commented: “Silly thing to do just because a boy has a blue T-shirt on with a ‘D’ on it!”
Fellow-Canadian resident Harry Peter Rose offered: “Happy to read that Rob has moved west in Canada and shall be on the lookout for older gentleman wearing green/white shirt.”
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