The Thistle Archive

David, a left-back specialist, started his career with junior side Lugar Boswell Thistle, before joining Queen’s Park in the late 1950s. When he played with the Spiders he worked as an apprentice engineer at Hillington, and would collect a budding player called Alex Ferguson from the shipyard where he in turn worked, before travelling on to QP training. His amateur status afforded him the opportunity of a lifetime in the summer of 1960 when he was chosen to represent Great Britain at the Rome Olympics. David played in all three games, losing 4-3 to a Brazil side that included Gerson, drawing 2-2 with hosts Italy, before defeating the Republic of China 3-2. Walking back to the athletes village after the Italy game, our man was astounded to bump into former swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, a superstar Olympian of the 1920s and even more famous for his later movie roles as Tarzan, lord of the Jungle!

He signed with Scottish champions Hearts shortly afterwards (Davie, not Tarzan) and there he stayed for just over 9 years, winning the League Cup in 1962 and playing his part in the squad that was pipped for the title on goal average to Kilmarnock in 1965. Sandwiched in-between, David was "capped" 5 times for Scotland, playing alongside the greats such as Billy McNeill, Denis Law, Jim Baxter and Alan Gilzean. The undoubted highlight of his international year (May 1963 to May 1964) was the 6-2 friendly win over Spain at the Bernabeau on 13 June 1963. All five of Scotland's forwards scored that night; Ian St John, Davie Wilson, Denis Law, Willie Henderson and Dave Gibson. Davie's neighbour from the Gorbals, Frank McLintock, scored the other. I say "capped", it was a bone of contention for David - and many others - that their efforts were not rewarded with actual caps as mementos, these being reserved for home international games only. How mean!

Davie joined Thistle from Heart of Midlothian in September 1969. By now, the Gorbals-born 33-year-old was at the end of his playing career, and left Hearts with bad feeling, even though he had a sterling career with a previously high-flying Hearts side. He later said that he had been unfairly treated by the Tynecastle management. Scot Symon's attempt to stop the rot at Firhill was to no avail. Thistle finished rock bottom and, in April 1970, were confirmed as relegated for the first time in 69 years. Where's Tarzan when you need him? When he played for Thistle he was paid £16 per week, and it was to be £12 in the close season. In a Daily Record interview in November 2019, Davie revealed that he still held that final contract!

David was a taxi driver after hanging up his boots, a big difference in career from his former Hampden colleague, Sir Alex Ferguson!

David is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists →