Motherwell come to Dens park on Wednesday on Ladbrokes Premiership business and so we take a look at a player who played for both clubs, Scotland internationalist and Scottish Cup winner John Fraser.
Dundee FC were a formidable side in the first decade of the 20th century finishing as Scottish League Championship runners-up three times and Scottish Cup winners in 1910 and the strength of the Dark Blueâs side was exemplified by the having eight full internationalists between 1902 and 1911 and seven Scottish League internationalists in the same period.
One of those internationalists was Scottish Cup winner John Fraser who earned one full cap against Ireland at Celtic Park in 1907.
John (Jack) Fraser was born in Dumbarton on November 10th 1876 and began his football career with his local side, making his debut for The Sons at 18 years of age. He was part of the Dumbarton side which lost the 1897 Scottish Cup Final 5-1 to Rangers and moved to Motherwell shortly afterwards but in February 1898 moved to Notts County for a fee of ÂŁ70.
Eighteen months later the 5ft 11â winger moved to Newcastle United and two years later returned north of the border to St Mirren and earned a Scottish League cap against the Irish league while playing for the Buddies in 1901/02.
He continued his nomadic career by going back south after a year to Southampton and by the time he joined The Saints he had clocked up eight years with five different clubs with no conspicuous success. He was signed by Southampton as a replacement for Edgar Chadwick who had moved on to Liverpool after leading the Saints to the 1902 FA Cup final and he would go on to win two Southern League Championship medals in 1903 and 1904.
Fraser had planned on remaining in Southampton as his intention was to purchase a tobacconist’s business in the town but when the deal fell through, he accepted excellent terms from Dundee and returned to Scotland. The return north paid dividends as he was to gain an international cap for Scotland on March 16th 1907 in a 1â0 victory over Ireland alongside Dark Blue team mate Billy Muir at Celtic Park and won the Scottish Cup in 1910.
Jack made his debut for Dundee in the first game of the 1905/06 season and scored from the spot in a 2-1 defeat to St Mirren at Dens. In total he would make 212 appearances for The Dee scoring 27 times from 1905 to 1912.
In his second season at Dens Jack scored six times in 33 appearances as the Dark Blues finished runners-up to Celtic and he was rewarded for his consistent performances with that international cap against Ireland in the British International Championship.
Dundee finished runners-up again two years later just one point behind Celtic in 1908/09 and that season Jack scored his only hat-trick for the club away at Airdrieonians on August 22nd. A 2-1 home defeat in which Fraser scored against lowly Morton in February (who finished second bottom and needed re-elected) cost the Dark Blues dear but Jack didnât have to wait much longer for silverware as the Dark Blues lifted the Scottish Cup the following season.
Outside-left Fraser played in all ten matches on the way to lifting the trophy including the three final ties against Clyde and made the most appearances of any outfield player in the Cup winning season.
Until December Dundee had shown little of the consistency of the previous term but by 1910 the team was firing on all cylinders. By the time of the Cup Final only one game in 15 had been lost and despite Clyde knocking out both Rangers and Celtic en route to the Final, Dundee were the favourites to win at the 75,000 capacity Ibrox Park; being used as Hampden had not yet recovered from the Old Firm riot in the 1909 Final.
Jack lined up at Ibrox in his usual left wing position but found himself and his team mates 2-0 down at half time. It looked like the Cup was heading heading to Shawfield but with just three minutes left Dundee pulled a goal back from Hunter before equalising through Langlands with the last kick of the ball.
Seven days later torrential rain made the Ibrox pitch a quagmire for the replay and after a 0-0 draw the sides had to do it all again for a third time four days later.
This time Dundee were triumphant after fighting back from the loss of an early goal to win 2-1 with John âSailorâ Hunter writing himself into Dark Blue folklore with the winning goal. For Jack it exorcised the ghosts of the 1897 Scottish Cup Final defeat as he won his first and only major honour.
Jack was awarded a benefit match as part of the agreement when he signed from Southampton and the match took place in front of 7,000 at Dens Park against Falkirk on August 16th 1909. Dundee won the game 1-0 thanks to a Jimmy Bellamy goal but bizarrely the game doubled up as a Robertson Cup match which was a competition inaugurated the previous year.
The Robertson Cup was initiated by Aberdeen, Dundee, Falkirk and Airdrieonians as a counter to the Glasgow Cup ties which took preference to Scottish League fixtures and left the big clubs outside Glasgow with no competitive fixtures. It was played initially in a league format and was won by Dundee on six occasions, the last of which was a two-legged final win over Dundee United in 1932/33 when The Dee won 5-3 at Tannadice and lifted the trophy after a 2-2Â draw at Dens.
Jack hung up his boots at the age of 36 at the end of the 1911/12 season and made his final appearance for Dundee in a 2-0 Forfarshire Cup Final win over Brechin at Dens after winning the semi-final against Dundee Hibernian on the toss of a coin â his second Forfarshire Cup winnersâ medal.
In 1919 Jack moved back down south to take up a job as scout with Chelsea and later became assistant manager David Calderwood and Leslie Knighton.
At Dundee, Jack was a big favourite with the Dens Park crowd and passed away aged 75 on October 1st 1952, the same month that Dundee won just their third trophy 42 years after Jack helped Dundee win their first. .Â
Honours with Dundee:
Scottish Cup winners: 1910
Scottish League Championship runners-up: 1906/07, 1908/09
Scotland full cap: 1
Forfarshire Cup winners: 1908/09, 1911/12
Appearances, Goals:
League: 188, 26 goals
Scottish Cup: 24, 1 goal
Total: 212, 25 goals
