David White (23 August 1933 – 17 July 2013)
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 ...
. He played as a
wing half
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 ...
for
Clyde Clyde may refer to:
People
* Clyde (given name)
* Clyde (surname)
Places
For townships see also Clyde Township
Australia
* Clyde, New South Wales
* Clyde, Victoria
* Clyde River, New South Wales
Canada
* Clyde, Alberta
* Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...
for his whole career, before managing Clyde,
Rangers and
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
.
Playing career
White was 23 years of age when he joined
Clyde Clyde may refer to:
People
* Clyde (given name)
* Clyde (surname)
Places
For townships see also Clyde Township
Australia
* Clyde, New South Wales
* Clyde, Victoria
* Clyde River, New South Wales
Canada
* Clyde, Alberta
* Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...
from the
Junior
Junior or Juniors may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959
* ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009
* ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010
* ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019
Films
* ''Junior'' (1994 ...
side
Royal Albert. While also working as an
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
,
he played more than 300 games for the Bully Wee and became club captain and acted as player-coach.
Managerial career
He was promoted to Clyde manager after the
Scottish Football Association
The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...
appointed his predecessor
John Prentice as the
Scotland national team manager.
After a year managing the ''Bully Wee'' (which ended in their highest-ever finish of 3rd place in
1966–67), he was appointed as assistant to
Scot Symon
James Scotland Symon (9 May 1911 – 30 April 1985) was a Scottish football player and manager. He also played cricket for Scotland in an age when it was possible to play and excel in several sports.
Footballer
Symon started his professional ca ...
at
Rangers in summer 1967. When Symon left the club just five months later, White was promoted to manager on 1 November.
His reign was generally unsuccessful and he became the first Rangers manager not to win any major honours whilst in charge at the club.
With the expectations of Rangers fans and boardroom high, coupled with the success of
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
under
Jock Stein
John "Jock" Stein (5 October 1922 – 10 September 1985) was a Scottish football player and manager. He was the first manager of a British side to win the European Cup, with Celtic in 1967. Stein also guided Celtic to nine successive Scottish ...
, the pressure began to build on White.
Although he signed
Colin Stein
Colin Anderson Stein (born 10 May 1947) is a Scottish former footballer, who played for Hibernian, Rangers (two spells), Coventry City and Kilmarnock. Stein was part of the Rangers team that won the 1971–72 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and he ...
and
Alex MacDonald who went on to success with the club, a defeat in the
European Cup Winners' Cup
The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...
to
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
team
Górnik Zabrze
Górnik Zabrze Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Górnik Zabrze S.A. or simply Górnik Zabrze (), is a Polish football club from Zabrze. Górnik is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history, winning the second-most Poli ...
in late 1969
which followed a poor start to the
1969-70 season saw White become the first manager to be
sacked in the club's history.
He later went on to manage
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
and guided them to a
Scottish League Cup
The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...
triumph in
1973-74.
Somewhat
ironically the victory in the cup final came against Celtic, the team who had caused him so many problems at Rangers.
His success didn't last however, and Dundee were relegated at the end of the inaugural
Scottish Premier Division
The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) Th ...
season in
1976
Events January
* January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.
* January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.
* January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...
.
White lasted one more year before retiring after failing to get the side promoted;
he gave a first-team debut to future Scotland player and manager
Gordon Strachan
Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. He has since managed Cove ...
.
Later years and death
After leaving football, White spent some time working in a supermarket and was also employed by Lanarkshire car sales boss Ian Skelly. He was also a keen golfer and his son Alan became a local club professional. He died in July 2013, aged 79, following a short illness.[
]
References
External links
Profile at Rangers Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, David
1933 births
2013 deaths
Scottish footballers
Association football wing halves
Royal Albert F.C. players
Scottish Junior Football Association players
Rangers F.C. non-playing staff
Clyde F.C. players
Scottish Football League players
Scottish football managers
Clyde F.C. managers
Rangers F.C. managers
Dundee F.C. managers
Scottish Football League managers
Footballers from Motherwell