John Duffy McCormack (born 25 April 1955) 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 coach who played as a defender and has managed several Scottish clubs.

Career

Born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, McCormack began his playing career in 1976 with

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

, making over 100 league appearances and scoring 24 times before joining St Mirren in 1980. While playing for St Mirren, McCormack acquired the nickname "Cowboy", because he had the same name as a professional boxer with that nickname. He moved to

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

in 1984 before returning to the west of Scotland in 1986, spending single seasons with

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in the . They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United Football Club ...

and

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

before retiring in 1988. Following his retirement from playing, McCormack was employed by

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Ghlaschu'') is the Local government in Scotland, local government authority for Glasgow, Glasgow City council area, Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Glasgow was former ...

for several years, working in sports centres in the city. He then returned to Dundee as a youth coach, before progressing to assistant manager and becoming

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

in 1997. Just months later, McCormack was sacked – despite Dundee leading the

Scottish Football League First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. It was replaced by the Scottish Championship. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 in Scottish footb ...

– and went on to join Queen's Park. In November 2002, McCormack was appointed manager of

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the . The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greenock Morton in 1994 to celebr ...

, guiding the club to the

Scottish Third Division The Scottish Football League Third Division was the fourth tier of the Scottish football league system between 1994 and 2013. History The Scottish football league system had operated with three divisions in the Scottish Football League (SFL) fro ...

title in his first season. After losing a large lead at the top of the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

near the end of the 2003–04 season, McCormack was sacked in September 2004. He also had an assistant manager stint at

Stenhousemuir Stenhousemuir (; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies within the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is north-northwest of Falkirk and directly adjoins to Larbert in the west, where the nearest rail access is located ...

but left within a month to become manager at Scottish Junior football side

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

. McCormack was appointed manager of

side

Albion Rovers Albion Rovers Football Club is a semi-professional football team from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. They play in the , the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system. Founded in October 1882, the club joined the Scottish Foot ...

in May 2007, guiding the side to seventh place in his first season. In June 2008, McCormack left his position to take up an assistant role at newly promoted

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

side

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

. McCormack left the club only two months later, but later won a claim for wrongful dismissal against the club. McCormack returned to the game in September 2009, becoming first team coach at

club Clyde. McCormack was promoted to

on 30 November 2009, after

John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...

was sacked.Clyde announce John McCormack as their new manager

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

, 30 November 2009. McCormack was given a contract until the end of the 2009–2010 season, but he was sacked on 5 April, with the club facing almost certain relegation to the Third Division. Despite making a number of changes to the squad, McCormack had failed to arrest a decline in Clyde's fortunes and left the club in April 2010.

Honours

Queen's Park *

promotion: 2001–02 Greenock Morton *

Renfrewshire Cup The Renfrewshire Cup was an annual association football competition between teams in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The final was generally a Renfrewshire derby contested between the two largest team ...

(2): 2002–03, 2003–04 *

: 2002–03 Albion Rovers *

Lanarkshire Cup The Lanarkshire Cup was an annual competition open to football teams in the Lanarkshire area. The competition is now defunct. The Lanarkshire FA was dissolved in June 1999 when it was merged with the Ayrshire and Renfrewshire FAs to form the Wes ...

: 2007–08

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCormack, John 1955 births Footballers from Glasgow Living people Men's association football defenders Scottish men's footballers Clydebank F.C. (1965) players St Mirren F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Airdrieonians F.C. (1878) players Partick Thistle F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish football managers Albion Rovers F.C. managers Dundee F.C. managers Greenock Morton F.C. managers Queen's Park F.C. managers Greenock Morton F.C. non-playing staff Hamilton Academical F.C. non-playing staff Clyde F.C. non-playing staff Clyde F.C. managers Scottish Football League managers