Thomas McCall Smith (4 October 1909 – 21 June 1998) was a Scottish

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player and manager who played as a

centre half 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 ...

for Kilmarnock, Preston North End and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

Club career

Player

Smith, who was born in

Fenwick, East Ayrshire Fenwick is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland. In 2019, its population was estimated to be 989. Fenwick is the terminus of the M77 following its extension which was opened in April 2005, at the beginning of the Kilmarnock bypass. History T ...

, played in juvenile football before signing for Kilmarnock in late 1927. He was out on loan at non-league Galston when the club won the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, but was part of the ''Killie'' team that lost the 1932 final to Rangers after a replay. A good performance for the

Scottish Football League XI The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...

in a 1936 inter-league match against Football League XI attracted the interest of Preston North End, and Smith agreed to sign for the

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

club soon afterwards. He initially had to compete for the position with Billy Tremelling, and did not play in the

1937 FA Cup Final The 1937 FA Cup Final was contested by Sunderland and Preston North End at Wembley. Sunderland won 3–1, with goals by Bobby Gurney, Raich Carter and Eddie Burbanks. Frank O'Donnell's strike on 44 minutes had put Preston ahead. It was the fir ...

defeat by Sunderland. Smith played more regularly during the following season, when Preston finished third in the First Division. The club also had a significant cup run, culminating in the

1938 FA Cup Final The 1938 FA Cup Final was contested by Preston North End and Huddersfield Town at Wembley Stadium. Preston, losing finalists the previous year, won by a single goal. This was their second win in the competition. Background After 29 minutes of ex ...

win against

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

, with Smith lifting the trophy as captain (he was one of seven Scots, including four from Ayrshire, in the Preston team). The outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in September 1939 effectively curtailed Smith's playing career. He continued to play for Preston during the War, winning the

Football League War Cup The Football League War Cup was an association football tournament held between 1939 and 1945. It aimed to fill the gap left in English football by the suspension of the FA Cup during the Second World War. Though it was often referred to in conte ...

in 1941.

Manager

He returned to Kilmarnock in 1945 to serve as their

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 ...

– the club were struggling, having been

mothball Mothballs are small balls of chemical pesticide and deodorant, sometimes used when storing clothing and other materials susceptible to damage from mold or moth larvae (especially clothes moths like '' Tineola bisselliella''). Composition Older ...

ed during the conflict and its

Rugby Park Rugby Park, also known as The BBSP Stadium Rugby Park for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium situated in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock. It was first used in 1899 and is the home of Kilmarnock F.C. Rugby Park has also been used for co ...

pitch requisitioned by the military. Smith took charge of the last wartime season in 1945–46 and the first on the resumption of regular competitions in 1946–47, which ended in relegation.

International career

Smith first won international recognition while with Kilmarnock when he played for

against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the

1934 British Home Championship Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

.Tom Smith
Spartacus Educational. He then took part in a Scottish Football Association tour of the US and Canada in the summer of 1935, but none of the fixtures counted as full internationals. To cap a highly successful year at with Preston, Smith made his second and last official appearance in the 1938 British Home Championship, a 1–0 victory over

;Sat 09 Apr 1938 England 0 Scotland 1
London Hearts Supporters' Club. Three of his teammates at club level also played for Scotland in that match. He additionally played in one wartime international against England.
London Hearts Supporters' Club.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Tom 1909 births 1998 deaths Footballers from East Ayrshire Association football central defenders Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Scotland wartime international footballers Kilmarnock F.C. players Galston F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish football managers Scottish Football League managers Kilmarnock F.C. managers Scottish Football League representative players FA Cup Final players