George Niven (11 June 1929 – 17 July 2008) was a Scottish footballer who played during the 1950s and 1960s as a
goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
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 ...
and
Partick Thistle
Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...
.
Career
Club
Niven was signed to Rangers from junior side Coupar Angus in 1951 by manager
Bill Struth
William Struth (16 June 1875 – 21 September 1956) was a Scottish football manager. He was the second manager of Rangers Football Club, leading the club for 34 years between 1920 and 1954, as well as being the holder of a number of other positi ...
. He made his debut against
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
on 19 April 1952 in the final league match of the season, which finished 1–1. He spent over ten years at Ibrox and won five league championships, two
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,League Cup, four
Glasgow Cup
The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rules ...
s and three Charity Cups. He made 327 appearances in total for the club.
In February 1962 he joined
Partick Thistle
Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...
. Whilst in Maryhill he would make a total of 232 first class appearances and become an ever present in the ''Jags'' goal. He never missed a league match in three separate seasons: 1962–63, 1963–64 and 1967–68.
He lost his place as number one when old rival from Rangers,
Billy Ritchie
William Ritchie (11 September 1936 – 10 March 2016) was a Scottish professional footballer who was best known for his time with Rangers.
Ritchie started his career at local side Bathgate Thistle before moving to Rangers in 1955. He played b ...
, joined Thistle. After not featuring in the first team all season (his last game coming in a 0–0 draw at Airdrie in April 1968), he left in the summer of 1969. Niven retired from playing shortly after this.
International
Niven never played for the
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the t ...
. It is understood that he has played the most games for Rangers of any Scottish player who has not been capped by Scotland. Niven was selected twice for Scotland, but had to withdraw each time due to injury and was replaced by
Frank Haffey
Francis Haffey (born 28 November 1938) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Celtic and the Scottish national team.
Career
Remembered as one of Celtic's great and more eccentric keepers, Haffey made 201 appearances fo ...