Torrance Gillick (19 May 1915 – 16 December 1971) 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 ...
Born in Airdrie, Gillick was signed for Rangers in 1933, aged 18, 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 posi ...
, after playing for prominent
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
junior club Petershill. In his first spell with the club, he won the
Scottish 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 sout ...
and
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1934–35, and that summer was sold to Everton for a then record fee for the club, £8,000.
He stayed on
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...
until 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 ...
and during that time won a Football League championship medal in 1939.
During World War II, Gillick "guested" for home-town Airdrieonians and Rangers.Rangers player Gillick, Torry FitbaStats At the end of the war in 1945, Struth brought him back to Ibrox. He developed into a forward with excellent ball control and vision and became a feature in the famous post-war Rangers side, forming a partnership on the right wing with Willie Waddell.Hall of Fame: Torry Gillick Rangers FC In his second spell at Rangers, he won one League Championship medal ( 1946–47), a Scottish Cup in 1947–48 and two League Cup medals ( 1946–47, 1948–49) in addition to several wartime competitions. By coincidence, the last trophy he lifted was the
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 rul ...
with a win over
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
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* Clyde, Alberta
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in October 1949, the same tournament and opponent the first cup he won with Rangers 16 years earlier.
Gillick left Rangers in 1950 but made a comeback Partick Thistle in August 1951. He played one season with the ''Jags'' (managed at that time by his former Rangers teammate Davie Meiklejohn) before retiring to oversee his business interest, a
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland.
Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotl ...
scrap metal firm. He died on 12 December 1971, aged 56, from undisclosed causes, on the same day as
Alan Morton
Alan Lauder Morton (24 April 1893 – 12 December 1971) was a Scottish footballer who played as a outside left for Queen's Park, Rangers and Scotland.
Playing career Club
Morton was born in the Jordanhill district of Glasgow. He grew up in A ...
, also a retired Rangers player.
International
Gillick was
capped
In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...
five times by
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 ...
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 ...