Alexander Duncan Rennie (27 September 1948 – 4 March 2018) was a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

who played as a defender. He played for

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...

between 1968 and 1975, making almost 200 league appearances, and later managed the club from 1980 until 1985, winning the

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as t ...

title in 1983. He also played for

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

Stirling Albion Stirling Albion Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Stirling. The club was founded in 1945 following the demise of King's Park after World War II. The club currently competes in Scottish League Two as a member of the ...

and

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

and managed

Stenhousemuir Stenhousemuir (; gd, Featha Thaigh nan Clach) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies within the Falkirk (council area), Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is north-northwest of Falkirk and directly adjoins to Larbert in ...

Playing career

Alex Rennie was born in

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

on 27 September 1948. He played for local youth team Gairdoch United during the 1962–63 season. He joined

, where he played in the reserve team. After a brief spell with

, making three league appearances, he joined

in 1968, going on to make 197 league appearances, scoring 7 goals. He was part of the St Johnstone team managed by

Willie Ormond William Esplin Ormond (23 February 1927 – 4 May 1984) was a Scottish football player and manager. As a player, Ormond was well known as one of Hibernian's Famous Five forward line, winning three league championships in the late 1940s an ...

that finished third in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

in the 1970-71 season and also played in their subsequent

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

campaign. Rennie was released by St Johnstone in April 1975. He was offered a contract by

Hong Kong Rangers Hong Kong Rangers Football Club (), often abbreviated to Rangers, currently known as Biu Chun Rangers due to sponsorship reasons, is a Hong Kong football club which currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. They have won the Hong Kong ...

, but ultimately decided to remain in Scotland, signing for

in June 1975. After making 63 league appearances over the next three seasons, an eye injury forced him to retire from playing.

Management career

Rennie was a member of Ormond's coaching staff at Heart of Midlothian in the late 1970s. He took over as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

in January 1980 after Ormond was sacked despite Hearts being top of the First Division. The team remained unbeaten in six matches under Rennie before

Bobby Moncur Robert Moncur (born 19 January 1945) is a Scottish former professional footballer. Moncur is most famous for his role as captain of Newcastle United in the late 1960s and of the Scottish national side in the early 1970s. Moncur was part of the ...

took over and steered them to the league title. After leaving Hearts, Rennie returned to St Johnstone as manager in April 1980. He was instrumental in converting the young

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist, (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland i ...

from a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

to a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

before selling the player to

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

for a club record fee. Rennie remained at the club until 1985, winning the First Division title in the 1982-83 season. He left the club in 1985 after two successive relegations, and later managed

from 1987 to 1989.

After football

Rennie ran a pub in Falkirk with his wife, the Blackmill Inn, and also worked as a driving instructor. Having previously recovered from throat cancer, he died on 4 March 2018 from the effects of oesophageal cancer, aged 69.

Honours

Manager

St Johnstone *

: 1982-83

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rennie, Alex 1948 births 2018 deaths Scottish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Dundee United F.C. players Heart of Midlothian F.C. non-playing staff Rangers F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. managers St Johnstone F.C. players Scottish Football League managers Scottish Football League players Stenhousemuir F.C. managers Stirling Albion F.C. players Scottish football managers Footballers from Falkirk