The recent passing of George ‘Beef’ McKimmie brought comment from Tayport resident Bill Melville.
“I was really sad to hear of George’s death,” opened Bill.
“I moved to South Africa in 1973 and one of the first Scots I met over there was former referee Ronnie Forbes.
“Ronnie persuaded me to go to a football match.
“It was Pretoria against Arcadia Shepherds, and playing for Arcadia was George.
“I met George after the game and one of the first things he said to me was ‘why not come along and train with us and see how you get on?’.
“I was introduced to the manager, who was none other than former Rangers right-back Kai Johansen.
“I’d played football in Dundee with the NCR team, and I worked with the company there.
“To be honest, I struggled with the training due to the altitude. At times, it was like getting stabbed in the chest.”
My article on George also contained quotes from his former Lochee Boys Club manager Billy Grier.
This also brought comment from Bill.
“I worked with Billy Grier at NCR and he was forever organising football games,” he remembered.
“Some of the football pitches at the NCR grounds near to Camperdown Park were on a slant and these were nicknamed ‘the slopes’.
“Billy organised games, usually on Tuesday evenings, and some great players used to turn up, such as Jimmy Rooney and Jimmy Anderson to name just two.”
Bill, now retired, latterly worked in human resources in South Africa and moved back to Scotland eight years ago.
The Dunfermline Athletic website also paid a glowing tribute to George.
Below is an extract from the obituary.
‘One point of note is that he made his first-team debut on October 2, 1968, in a European Cup-Winners’ Cup tie against Apoel in Cyprus, aged just 17.
He came on as a substitute for former Dundee FC favourite Hugh Robertson, with whom he travelled to East End Park from Dundee every day.
With Bert Paton, Pat Gardner and Ian Lister unavailable, George made his league debut in a 2-2 draw at Aberdeen on March 24, 1969.
The following month, in what was only his fourth appearance for the first team, he replaced Barrie Mitchell in the second leg of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup semi-final against Slovan Bratislava.’
The Pars admit they don’t know the answer to this for sure but they suspect there aren’t too many players who have played in a major European semi-final aged 17.
I’ve found a Pars team line-up with George in it, taken in late July 1969. He is pictured second from right in the middle row.
Back row (from left) — Renton, McGarty, Martin, Baillie, Duff, Paton, Lunn. Middle row — Unknown, Gardner, Barry, McLean, Fraser, Mitchell, McLaren, McKimmie, Thomson. Front row — Robertson, Edwards, Callaghan, George Farm (manager), Cowan, Lister, Brown.
While I was in the Dunfermline ‘photo file’, another picture stood out.
This is the Dunfermline team which won the Scottish Cup in season 1960-61, and this photo was taken on the afternoon of April 29, 1961, when they met Dundee United at Tannadice.
The photo was used in the Sporting Post that evening.
Can you just imagine nowadays a team parading the trophy at any other park than their own?
Me neither!
Back row (from left) — Dickson, Sweeney, Fraser, Connachan, Smith, Miller, trainer Jimmy Stevenson.
Front row — Peeble, Thomson, Mailer, McLindon, Melrose.
Dunfermline, under the guidance of Jock Stein, won the trophy with a 2-0 victory over Celtic just four days earlier.
This was a Wednesday night replay at Hampden, with over 87,000 in attendance.
The first game, also at the national stadium, ended in a goalless draw, with around 114,000 crammed into the ground.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.