The Thistle Archive

● Davie Meiklejohn, 1950s (DR)

MANAGERIAL SPELL

(Thu-05-Jun 1947 ↔ Sat-22-Aug-1959; 12y,2m,17d)

The Rangers legend had retired as a player 11 years earlier, and had been working as a sports writer for the Daily Record and others since then. He did incredibly well for us, and his record as Jags boss is second to none. Our esteemed manager finished 3rd in the League twice, had an unprecedented 10 consecutive seasons in the Top 10, got to 3 League Cup finals and won 4 of the Glasgow Cups. Arguably, he was the greatest of all Thistle managers and, had he continued, there's every chance he'd have bagged one or another of the major trophies, possibly even the flag itself.

12 successful years came to an end unexpectedly when he collapsed from a heart-attack at Broomfield in August, 1959, and died en route to the Glasgow Infirmary. As Monday's Times put it “To be cut-off so quickly without being allowed to see so much good at Firhill bear rich fruit is a thing to be deeply regretted”. For the first time, managerial appointments had become a big deal and post-Meiklejohn, the press speculated over possible candidates, notables including Andy Beattie, Jackie Husband and George Young.

He was in charge of Thistle, his only club managed, for 583 games in total.

Davie died on Saturday, 22nd August, 1959, in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, aged 58.