Dundee in the late fifties was a wholly different experience to now. The mills clattered away day and night, the boatyerd was working full time and Dundee F.C. were approaching the dawn of the greatest period in the club’s history.

We lived in Baxter Park Terrace. In one direction lay the “Sosh” jute mill and the Gleebee Primary School. Dens was less than a mile to the North and was eminently walkable; so was the adjoining allotment shed inhabited by a certain second division outfit and, as part of a civilised upbringing, I was lifted over the turnstiles of whoever happened to be at home, expect on occasions when the old firm hoards came to town. In these days, the practice of getting a “sneaky in” was still prevalent, as was the habit of hard up fans streaming in when the gates were opened with twenty minutes to go.

Most of the intimate details of the earliest games I attended are somewhat sketchy, although three heroes from the period are indelibly imprinted on my memory – Doug Cowie, Bill Brown and Jimmy Gabriel. Brown was the acrobatic goalkeeper supreme, Gabriel was class at control and pass and Cowie; well Doug was everything. Strong, fearless, skilful and dominant. His timing in the tackle was uncanny, he rarely misplaced a pass and he ran on five star.

Just as the team was building into something special, Brown and Gabriel were off to Spurs and Everton respectively and this was a harbinger of the talent train which would leave from the cut price Dens Market at regular intervals over the years to come.

Then, early in 1960, a young lad by the name of Gilzean came back from National Service. “ Watch that lad at No.10”, my dad told me – he could be something special. In his first couple of games he was, unbelievably, the target of the Boo boys, but Gillie soon sharpened up to match fitness and, in March of that year, came a game which was to demonstrate to me, just how exciting top class attacking football could be – especially if it was your team who were doing it! Dundee crushed Hibs 6-3, with Gilzean and Andy Penman in particular being simply unstoppable. As we walked from the ground through the wet smoky streets I could hardly contain my excitement, I was seven and a half and the world was wonderful!

Around the same time, I had my first experience of football hooliganism. Although I was ten before I was finally allowed to go to games against Celtic and Rangers, the Hearts fans at the time proved that they too could cause trouble. We had by now moved down to the Ferry and, after a game we would catch one of the stream of football special buses which left Isla Street for the city centre, as soon as they had filled up.

Our bus had edged into the Dens Road traffic where we were surrounded by around 300 Hearts fans who were raucously singing “ The talk o’ the toon are the boys in maroon” – ironically enough, to the tune of “Up with the Bonnets” . The Jambos had beaten us 2 nil and had gone back to the top of the league. The mob surrounding the bus started to bang their fists against the windows as they sang. “ Don’t look at them, we’ll soon be moving”, my dad advised. He was right, but not before several windows had been broken and there had been a skirmish with the Conductor and some of the Dundee fans on the bus. Jambo Teddy boys! Some things never change.

During the 60-61 season, a rash of injuries to key players stopped the Dee from achieving their potential, although – up front Gilzean was rattling in the goals and a new song was born. “ Gillie scored the winning goal – hallelujah”, would ring out in the latter stages of countless games over the next few seasons.

The Dundee derby was also back on the agenda and I was amongst the 20,000 at Tannadice, when United were promoted against Hamilton and we were moved down in front of the railings to the side of the pitch, as Tannadump failed to cope with the crowd. 90% of the lads in my class at the Eastern at the time were Dark Blues and genuine Arabs were as rare as cases of sunstroke, so most of the crowd must have been made up of Dees and duals.

Interestingly enough, up until the early sixties, Dundonians often went to watch both sides, with United being a strictly secondary diversion. This started to change, however, as United won their home derby in their first season up.

For Dundee, the close season leading up to the title-winning year was, strangely enough, dominated by fan disgruntlement as Cowie was given a free. However, things looked up when much sought after winger Gordon Smith put pen to paper. This was the final piece in the jigsaw of the team, which I will still be able to recite when the rest of my memory bank has given way to Old-timers disease. Liney, Hamilton, Cox; Seith Ure Wishart; Smith, Penman, Cousin Gilzean and Robertson. We were on our way.

andy boyack