Everyone at Dundee Football Club were deeply saddened to learn of the death of former player John Duncan, at the age of 73. John was a tremendous striker for the club, winning the League Cup in 1973 and was inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame in 2015.
Anyone who was allowed the honour of the nickname of ‘Gillie’ at Dens Park must have been a pretty special player and John Duncan was most certainly that. Local boy made good, John Duncan is one of the privileged few who grew up supporting Dundee before getting the chance to play for the club they loved and in a seven-year Dark Blue career scored 109 goals, including 40 in season 1972/73 where he finished as Scotland’s top scorer.
Born in Lochee on February 22nd, 1949, the Morgan Academy pupil worshipped the Dundee title winning side when knee high to a crush barrier behind the Provost Road goal and got a chance to join his beloved Dees from Butterburn Youth Club in 1966. John joined the Dundee staff on a part-time basis as he was studying to become a P.E. teacher at Jordanhill College in Glasgow and once he completed his degree, he joined the Dark Blues full time and soon started knocking in the goals in the reserves on a regular basis.
Within four years of watching Dundee lift the League Flag, John was now sharing a dressing room with the likes of Bobby Cox and Andy Penman and when in his first practice match, he rose unguarded at the back post to powerfully head home, he was given the nickname of ‘Gillie’ which quickly stuck.
The fact that John was allowed to carry such an iconic nickname showed the high regard he was held in by his teammates and his peers at Dens and soon he was following in his famous predecessor’s footsteps.
Duncan made his debut for the first team on the first day of the 1968/69 season and it was a memorable occasion for John as he scored in a 4-0 League Cup home win over Kilmarnock.
By the end of his first season John had scored 11 times in 18 starts but with the club well served in the striking department thanks to Jocky Scott and Gordon Wallace, his appearances were restricted to just three in his second year.
However, the 1971/72 season was to see John finally make his mark with a permanent berth in the starting line up and he rewarded the manager’s faith with 15 goals in 20 starts and five appearances from the bench; an excellent ratio of a goal every 1.6 games.
But if that ratio was good, it was nothing compared to the following year when John finished as Scotland’s top scorer with 40 goals in 46 appearances. It was no surprise therefore that John was to receive international recognition and when selected to play in a Scotland v England inter-league match, he made his mark for the Scottish side with both goals in a 2-2 draw at Hampden in March 1973.
Nine months later, John was back at the National Stadium, this time in the dark blue of Dundee as The Dee met Celtic in the Scottish League Cup Final. In the lowest attended national cup final, due mainly to the poor weather and the national energy crisis, Dundee overcame strong favourites Celtic with a 1-0 victory thanks to strike partner Gordon Wallace’s second half winner.
Lifting the League Cup with The Dee was a major career highlight for Duncan and for John it was right up there with the U.E.F.A. Cup adventure of two years previous when Dundee met European giants Cologne and A.C. Milan.
In the second-round tie with the West Germans, Dundee overcame a 2-1 first leg deficit but with just 20 minutes left on the clock in the second leg at Dens, it looked like Dundee were heading out as they were 2-1 behind and 4-2 down on aggregate.
Duncan had given Dundee the lead in the 12th minute before drawing the sides level on the night in 69 minutes and then roared on by the vociferous home support, the big striker completed his hat-trick to put Dundee 3-2 ahead, making it 4-4 on aggregate.
With away goals counting double in the event of a draw however, Dundee had to score again and as the minutes ticked away, Jin Steele and Duncan had shots cleared off the line as it looked like Dundee might run out of time but with just 60 seconds remaining Bobby Wilson crashed home a memorable winner.
In the next round, Dundee drew another of their 1962/63 European Cup foes in the guise of A.C Milan and after a disappointing 3-0 first leg defeat in the San Siro, another difficult comeback would be required if The Dee were to reach the quarter-finals.
It wasn’t to be however for despite besieging the Milan goal for the entire 90 minutes, they could get no more than the two goals scored by Gordon Wallace and John Duncan.
Duncan’s goal scoring prowess soon put him on the radar of the big clubs down south and in October 1974, Terry Neil persuaded John to be his first signing at Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £140,000, then a Dens Park record, which saw him once again follow in the footsteps of ‘Gillie’ who had made the same move ten years before.
Duncan’s goals for Dundee rightly earned him his legendary status at Dens Park and he holds the club record for most goals in a League Cup tie when he scored five against East Stirlingshire in an 8-2 sectional win at Firs Park on the first day of the 1972/73 season.
His hat-trick against Cologne came in a game described by The People’s Journal as “the greatest contest at Dens that century”, while his final European goal for Dundee against R.W.D. Molenbeek came in the club’s last major European tie for 29 years.
John Duncan sits seventh on the club’s all time leading goal scorer list and he did what all Dundee fans dream of by making the step up from fan on the terracing, to fan on the park. His goals earned him the adulation of the supporters he used to stand next to on the Provie Road terracing who were proud to watch one of their own make it in dark blue and was inducted into the Dundee FC Hall of Fame in 2015 with a Legends Award.
The thoughts of everyone at the Kilmac Stadium are with John’s family and friends at this sad time.
