Andrew Rennie (1901–5 September 1938) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

, best known as a player for

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

. He is Luton Town's second top goalscorer of all time, with 162 goals between 1925 and 1934, 147 of which came in the league.

Playing career

Rennie was a prolific goalscorer in his junior days in Scotland, but on joining Kilwinning Rangers he was moved to

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. Rennie left Kilwinning for English

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to on ...

team

in 1925, still as a defender. He remained playing in that position for two years at Luton, until Luton manager John McCartney moved him back to the

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 ...

line. It was a shrewd decision by McCartney: Rennie scored in his first game up front, and finished the year as the club's leading scorer, with 24 goals in as many games. Rennie did even better during the 1928–29 season, scoring 43 goals in only 41 matches to be the highest goalscorer for the

. Nicknamed "Ratty" due to his short temper, Rennie went on to become Luton's second highest goalscorer of all time – at the time, he was the top goalscorer. His records were broken by Gordon Turner three decades later.

Post-retirement

Rennie died on 5 September 1938 in Luton Hospital following a hernia operation, only four years after leaving Luton and three years after retiring from professional football. He was laid to rest on 8 September 1938 at Luton municipal cemetery, Rothesay Road; he is buried in plot 2040B and has a headstone, "andrew (andy) rennie, a loving husband and father"

References

1901 births 1938 deaths People from Baillieston Men's association football forwards Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Glasgow Scottish Junior Football Association players English Football League players Luton Town F.C. players Kilwinning Rangers F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players {{Scotland-footy-forward-1900s-stub