Everyone at Dundee Football Club was devastated to learn of the death of Dundee legend, Hall of Fame inductee and Scottish championship winner Bobby Wishart, aged 87
Bobby was a member of the famous Dundee side who became Champions of Scotland in 1962, playing on that famous day at Muirton before going on a run to the semi-final of the European Champions Cup the following year.
Signed by manager Bob Shankly from Aberdeen for a fee of £3,500 in January 1961, Bobby went on to make 108 appearances for The Dee, scoring 14 goals until he left for Airdrieonians in 1964. Having been an inside-left at Pittodrie, where he won his first Scottish title in 1955, Bobby moved to a position at Dens where his expertise would be invaluable and he would become a cultured left-half as a member of the celebrated Dark Blue half-back line of Bobby Seith, Ian Ure and himself.
Along with Bobby Seith and Gordon Smith, Shankly signed Wishart to provide some experience alongside youngsters such as Gilzean, Ure and Penman who had forced their way into the team that would go onto win the Scottish League Division One title and then reach the European Champions Cup semi-final in 1963.
Of Bobby’s 14 goals for the club, the majority of them came in important and high profile matches and he started to immediately endear himself to the Dark Blue support with two goals in a 3-0 victory over Dundee United on his debut the day after he signed.
Bobby kicked off the championship winning year in style by scoring the club’s first goal of the season in a League Cup tie at home to Airdrie on the ‘Glorious Twelfth’ and also scored the third in the opening League match; a 3-1 win over Falkirk at Brockville.
Wishart also scored in the famous 5-4 win over Raith Rovers in November 1961 when Dundee were 4-2 down with 20 minutes remaining. Bobby scored the first comeback goal to make it 4-3 and in fact scored seven, half of his Dundee total, in the title winning year.
His most famous goal for the club came in Dundee’s first ever European tie in the incredible 8-1 win at Dens against Cologne in the European Cup preliminary round. Bobby scored the second goal after only 11 minutes and it was described by team mate and former Scotland manager Craig Brown in his autobiography as “the most incredible goal I have ever seen.”
From the edge of the box Bobby miscued the ball and as it trundled away, a huge divot went in the opposite direction. The West German goalkeeper Fritz Ewart dived across his goal to save the divot while the ball crept into the net at the opposite side and it left Dens Park stunned as it tried to comprehend what it had just witnessed. You can hear a brief silence on Kenneth Wolstenholme’s BBC Radio’s commentary of the match!
Wishart played 37 times in the championship winning year, 29 of which were in the league and in the European Cup season, played 47 times, scoring three goals.
In the Champions Cup campaign Bobby was an ever present, playing in both legs of every tie against Cologne, Sporting Club of Portugal, Anderlecht and AC Milan and that lucky goal against second favourites Cologne was his only goal on the run to the semi-final.
Playing in the European Cup gave Bobby a chance to finally play in Europe’s premier club competition, having been denied the chance to play in the inaugural tournament in 1955 after The Dons had won the league. Instead of sending the reigning Scottish champions in what was effectively a tournament by invitation, the SFA in their wisdom decided to send Hibernian and while the other competing associations sent their league winners, the Scottish FA, who just happened to have Hibs chairman Harry Swan as their president, sent the Edinburgh side instead.
It is a decision that still rankles in the North-East today but for Bobby Wishart, his experiences with Dundee more than made up for that disappointment.
Bobby’s last game for Dundee came in a 2-1 defeat at Ibrox in December 1963 and having failed to make another appearance that season, missed out on playing in the 1964 Scottish Cup Final and was allowed to leave on a free transfer in August and join Airdrieonians.
In the official Dundee FC history video released in 2000, Craig Brown points out that Dundee’s alarming winter slump in 1962, which almost cost Dundee the title, was by no means a coincidence of the same period that Bobby Wishart was out injured and describes him as “a brain in midfield and an excellent passer of the ball.”
His time with Dundee was short, successful and varied as it included a brief relegation battle, a championship win, reaching the semi-final of the European Cup and a short spell working with the talented young reserve players. It gave him a golden finish to an excellent footballing career and he was inducted into the Dundee FC Hall of Fame with a Legends Award in a gala dinner at the Caird Hall in 2012, celebrating 50 years of Dundee winning the League Flag.
While history often points to Gordon Smith’s fantastic achievement of winning the Scottish League with three different clubs outside of the Old Firm, Bobby Wishart wasn’t that far behind winning it with Aberdeen and Dundee and he will remain forever part of the folklore at Dens Park as part of the legendary side that became Champions of Scotland and Princes of Europe.
A regular visitor to Dens in recent years, including spending his 86th birthday at a match at the Kilmac Stadium last year, Bobby Wishart was a gentleman and will forever be a Dark Blue legend.
The thoughts of everyone at Dundee Football Club are with his family and friends at this sad and difficult time.
