This week Dundee travel up to Pittodrie to face Aberdeen and with the voting for the 2016 DFC Hall of Fame now open, we take at look at the career of Jocky Scott who is a hero at both clubs as a player and a manager and was inducted into The Dee’s inaugural Hall of Fame in 2009.
When looking back on the life and times of Dundee Football Club, there will be few who will claim a right to have a locker in the Dark Blue Hall of Fame with a list of entertainers, ball players, match winners, goal scorers, coaches and managers with brilliant tactical brains but Jocky Scott is a man with a claim better than most, fitting all of the aforementioned categories.
In a Dundee career spanning almost half a century, Jocky Scott has been all those things in a time that has spanned the peaks and troughs from the heady, hopeful days of 1964 through to his departure from his third spell in the managerial hot seat in 2010 while Dundee were top of the First Division.
John (Jocky) Alexander Scott was born in Aberdeen on January 14th 1948 but surprisingly it was an English club who first spotted his prowess in front of goal and duly took him down to Stamford Bridge as a schoolboy.
London however wasn’t for the young Scott and when Dundee manager Bob Shankly heard of the striker’s homesickness, he approached Chelsea boss Tommy Docherty to secure Jocky’s signature and so began a love affair that would continue off and on for the next forty-six years.
After impressing in the pre-season public trial, Jocky made his debut at sixteen years of age on August 26th 1964 at home to Motherwell in a League Cup sectional tie. Dundee were by then unable to qualify from their section and so Shankly decided to field a host of youngsters including Scott and they did him proud with a 6-0 win.
Jocky in particular was impressive and kept his place for the next match and scored his first goals for the club in the best possible circumstances with a double in a 4-1 win over deadly rivals Dundee United at Tannadice a fortnight later.
This was the start of a Dens Park playing career that would see the rugged and robust striker turn out 433 times for The Dee making him joint second in the list of players who have made the most competitive appearances for Dundee and score 154 goals; a total only bettered by Alan Gilzean and Archie Coats.
It took Jocky a couple of season to become a regular in the team but in the 1967/68 season, he made twenty-eight starts for the side which culminated in lining up against Leeds United in the semi-final of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Jocky was on the bench in the 1-1 first leg draw at Dens but started the second leg at Elland Road where Leeds progressed to the Final with an Eddie Gray winner nine minutes from time.
That same season Jocky was left out of the side which lost out to Celtic in the League Cup Final in October but six years later more than made up for it when he played in the 1973 League Cup Final where Dundee famously defeated Celtic 1-0 thanks to his friend Gordon Wallace’s winner.
The League Cup was a competition that was to be good to Jocky as he won it again with Aberdeen in 1976 under Ally McLeod after scoring a hat-trick against Rangers in the semi-final, would win it a second time with The Dons as co-manager in 1989 and also led Dunfermline to the Final in 1991 where they lost to Hibs.
Before he left Dundee to join his hometown team in 1975, Jocky was top scorer for Dundee in four different seasons and gained two international caps for Scotland when he was picked to play against Denmark and the Soviet Union in 1971.
After spells at Pittodrie and in the N.A.S.L. with the Seattle Sounders where he won the 1977 Soccerbowl after defeating George Best’s L.A. Aztecs, Jocky returned to Dens in the autumn of 1977 in time to be part of the side who won the Scottish League First Division the following season.
Three years later he joined the coaching staff in 1980 following the departure of former Lisbon Lion Willie Wallace who emigrated to Australia and in season 1980/81 helped Dundee win promotion back to the Premier Division as runners-up before having a testimonial against Aberdeen the day after they went back up.
A year on, Jocky became first team coach under then manager Donald McKay and when McKay left In December 1983 Jocky wanted the top job but saw it go to Archie Knox who kept Scott on as number two.
Jocky got his chance however in 1986 when Knox rejoined Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen and just two years later, Jocky made the same journey north himself to become co-manager with Alex Smith.
His two years in charge saw Dundee play some exciting attacking football, scoring 100 goals in all competitions in 1986/87 and also reaching the Scottish Cup semi-final after signing goal scoring legends Tommy Coyne and Keith Wright. In his second season he led Dundee to the League Cup semi-final and victory in the Tennents’ Sixes and those two seasons saw Dundee achieve three victories over Dundee United, including a famous League Cup quarter-final win in front of almost 20,000 at Dens.
After leaving Dundee for a second time, Jocky’s coaching and managerial career took him around Scotland via Aberdeen, Dunfermline, Hibernian, Dundee United and Arbroath before returning to take charge of Dundee for a second time in February 1998 to see them over the First Division finishing line after the sacking of John McCormack.
In Dundee’s first year back in the top flight after a four year absence, Jocky took the Dark Blues to their highest ever Premier position which equalled Dundee’s highest league placing since they won the Scottish Championship in 1962.
At the end of the following season however Scott was disappointed to find that his contract wasn’t being renewed as the club were moving in a completely different direction under the Bonetti brothers but it wasn’t to be the end of his time at Dens.
In November 2008, Jocky returned to Dundee for a fourth spell to start his third stint in charge of the club and twelve months later led Dundee to victory in the ALBA Challenge Cup with a 3-2 win over Inverness in Perth, making his the first manager to win all three cup competitions in Scotland having won the League and Scottish Cups with Aberdeen.
Four months later however Jocky was again the victim of the board’s decision to take a new direction when he was sacked despite being top of the First Division, thus ending a period of service spanning forty-six years.
While standing on the touchline urging his players on as manager is how the younger generation will remember Jocky Scott, it’s with the cuffs of his jersey clutched in his hands scoring a barrow load of goals that older Dees will fondly remember one of the most naturally gifted players ever to wear the Dark Blue.
While some might claim to deserve a place in Dundee’s Hall of Fame, there is no arguing the case of Jocky Scott and he was rightly inducted in Dundee’s inaugural Hall of Fame in 2009 to sit proudly among the elite of the club’s great history.
Honours at Dundee:
Dundee FC Hall of Fame: 2009 Legends Award
(As Player)
Scottish League Cup winner: 1973/74
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-final: 1967/68
Scottish League First Division winners: 1978/79
Scottish League First Division runners-up: 1980/81
Scotland full caps: 2
(As Manager)
Scottish League First Division winners: 1997/98
ALBA Scottish League Challenge Cup winners: 2009/10
Tennents’ Sixes winners: 1988
Appearances, Goals:
League: 298 + 11subs, 117 goals
Scottish Cup: 28, 8 goals
League Cup: 70 + 1 sub, 28 goals
Europe: 13 + 1 sub, 1 goal
Other: 11
Totals: 233, 154 goals
Managerial Record with Dundee:
(1986-1988, 1998-2000, 2008-2010)
P W D L F A
League: 224 90 51 83 303 296 286
Scottish Cup: 24 8 10 6 35 24
League Cup: 15 10 0 5 38 16
S.F.L. Challenge Cup: 4 4 0 0 11 3
Totals: 267 112 61 94 387 339
Jocky’s Journey by Peter Caproni and Norrie Price is available to buy at Dundee Direct
