David Bruce Smith (born 14 November 1943) is a Scottish former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager.

Playing career

Primarily a left sided midfielder, Smith started his playing career for

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and moved to

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

in August 1966 for a fee of £50,000. During his time at Ibrox, he made 303 appearances winning the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports 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 ...

in 1971, the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

in 1972. That year, he was voted the Scottish Football Writers' Association's Player of the year. During his career he collected two

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

caps, featuring twice in Friendly matches against the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Coaching career

Smith left Ibrox in November 1974 for

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...

, where he took up a player-coach role. He went on to become a player-manager at

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, who play in the Scottish football system. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite being ba ...

in 1976 and, while there, he transformed the club's fortunes, guiding them to the

Scottish Second Division The Scottish Football League Second Division was the third tier of the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The Second Division was created in 1975, as part of a wider reconstruction of the Scottish Football League (SF ...

championship in 1979. He left Berwick in 1980 and subsequently managed

Huntly Huntly ( or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlements include Keith ...

Gala Fairydean Gala Fairydean Rovers Football Club are a Scottish association football club based in the town of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. The club competes in the , after joining from the East of Scotland Football League in 2013. At the same time t ...

and Whitehill Welfare. Smith spent one close season during his career playing for the Seattle Sounders and the

Los Angeles Aztecs The Los Angeles Aztecs were an American professional soccer team based in Los Angeles, California, that existed from 1974 to 1981. The Aztecs competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1974 North American Soccer League season, 1974 ...

in the NASL and is also known to have played in South Africa.

Personal life

Smith had two brothers who were also professional footballers:

Doug Doug is a male personal name (or, depending on which definition of "personal name" one uses, part of a personal name). It is sometimes a given name (or "first name"), but more often it is a hypocorism (affectionate variation of a personal name) whi ...

, who spent his entire career with

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

, and Hugh, who played for

Forfar Athletic Forfar Athletic Football Club are a Scottish semi-professional football club from the town of Forfar, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League and currently play in . They play their home games at Station Park, in t ...

and Morton.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial record

References

External links

Rangers hall of fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Dave 1943 births Living people Footballers from Aberdeen Scottish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Football League representative players Scotland men's under-23 international footballers Aberdeen F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Arbroath F.C. players Seattle Sounders (1974–1983) players Los Angeles Aztecs players Berwick Rangers F.C. players Livingston F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Huntly F.C. players Scottish Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Scottish football managers Berwick Rangers F.C. managers Peterhead F.C. managers Scottish Football League managers Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Highland Football League managers