The Real Mackay Has Gone - We Will Not See His Like Again

DAVE Mackay, who has died in Nottingham, after a long battle against Dementia, was more than a great footballer; he was one of the absolute best players ever to pull on the dark blue of Scotland.

There is nobody alive today to push the claim of Edwardian idol Bobby Walker as Hearts' greatest player. A few very elderly Tynecastle fans might opt for Tommy Walker, but, today's older generation of Hearts fans, notwithstanding the deeds of the Conn, Bauld, Wardhaugh “Terrible Trio”, and in particular “King” Willie Bauld would overwhelmingly vote for Mackay as the Greatest Ever Hearts Player.

He holds the same status at Tottenham Hotspur, where he was the lynchpin of the wonderful double-winning team of 1961 and, significantly, when the readers of the Daily Record voted on the Scotland team of the Millennium in 2000, Mackay was selected; then, when The Herald sports desk team nominated their list of the 50 greatest Scottish footballers, Mackay was in the top five, alongside Jim Baxter, Kenny Dalglish, Jimmy Johnstone and Denis Law – yes, he was that good.

Mackay was born in Edinburgh, into a Hearts-supporting family. He attended Carrickvale Secondary, later to also mould another Spurs and Scotland player, Graeme Souness. On Saturdays, the young Mackay would crawl under the turnstiles at Tynecastle, in order to watch his heroes.

Mackay won his first Scotland honour against Ireland, at Under-14 level in 1949. That same season, when Carrickvale reached the final of the Edinburgh Schools Under-14 Cup, Mackay trod the pitch at Tynecastle for the first time. Legend has it, Hearts immediately spotted his potential, which was confirmed with an Under-15 Scotland cap, against England at Wembley the following year.

By now, it was clear, sooner or later, he would be playing football, for Hearts. The club kept tabs on him as he played Boys Club football for Slateford Athletic; they directed him out to Newtongrange Star, to toughen up a boy who was never going to be a giant, eventually peaking-out at five-foot eight inches tall.

He thrived in the Junior environment, winning a Junior Scotland cap, before, on 1 April, 1952, Tommy Walker signed him as a full-time Hearts' player; making his first-team debut the following season, in a 2-1 Tynecastle loss to Clyde, on 11 November, 1953.

This debut came during his two years as: Sapper D Mackay, 23162786, Royal Engineers, as Mackay did his National Service, during which he represented the British Army. But, once back in Civvie Street, Mackay and Hearts began to make waves.

The legendary Hibs team of the time, with its “Famous Five” forward line, had been cocks of the walk in the capital since the end of World War II, but Hearts gaffer Tommy Walker was signing some impressive young players, such as Mackay and with the Terrible Trio in their pomp, driven on by young wing-halves Mackay and John Cumming, Hearts began to swing the balance of football power in Edinburgh from Leith to Gorgie.

In October, 1954, he was in the Hearts team which beat Motherwell 4-2 in the League Cup final, at Hampden – Hearts' first doemstic trophy since they had won the Scottish Cup in 1906.

In April, 1956, they ended a 50-year Scottish Cup draught, by beating Celtic 3-1 in the final then, in 1958, with Mackay now captaining the side, they won the League, for the first time since 1897, scoring a record 132 goals along the way. Truly this was a new golden age for the club, with Mackay right at the heart of things.

In 1955, he had captained the first Scotland Under-23 team, sadly, they lost heavily to England at Shawfield. He won Scottish League representative honours and, on 26 May, 1957, in the Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, he won the first of an eventual paltry 22 Scotland caps, in a 4-1 loss to Spain in a World Cup qualifier.

Mackay had to wait over a year for cap number two, which came in the final game of the World Cup finals campaign, in Sweden, against France. During that year, however, he scored both for and against “Scotland”, during a series of pre-World Cup trial games.

The 1958 World Cup over, Sir Matt Busby, recovered from the injuries he had sustained in the Munich Air Crash, took over as Scotland team manager, immediately making Mackay his captain. However, he was not retain the position past the two Autumn Home Internationals against Wales and Northern Ireland, with Celtic's Bobby Evans returning to the role for the visit to Wembley in April, 1959.

By then, Mackay had left Hearts, after Tottenham paid a bargain £32,000 for his signature, in March, 1959. He had played 208 games, scoring 32 goals, during his time at Tynecastle.

His commitment to the Gorgie club was life-long. Today, a statement made by Mackay is up on the wall of the home dressing room at Tynecastle.

It reads: 'For as long as I can remember, all I wanted in my life, nothing else, was to play for Hearts, which is my dream team. And to play for Scotland. I had no ambition for anything else. Always Hearts. He even, when he acquirted a Jaguar on joining Spurs, insisted it be re-sprayed from silver to Hearts' maroon.

He left a team at the top in Scotland, for one struggling in the English First Division, but, Spurs boss Bill Nicholson was building something special at White Hart Lane. The wing-halves, skipper Danny Blanchflower – the brains of the team – and Mackay – its heart – were joined in midfield by another Scot, “The Ghost”, John White; this trio would transform Tottenham from also-rans to the team which, in 1961, achieved the first English League and Cup double of the 20^th century.

In 1963 Tottenham would become the first British club side to win a European trophy,when they won the European Cup-Winners Cup. Mackay missed that final, he was recovering from the first of two broken legs he would sustain during his career.

Blanchflower retired, White was killed by a lightning strike, but, Mackay recovered from his broken leg, and from another later-on in his career to become an inspirational Tottenham captain, leading the side to FA Cup glory in 1967.

The leg breaks, plus a reluctance on the part of Nicholson to release Mackay, White and goalkeeper Bill Brown for Scotland duty undoubtedly cost him Scotland caps. It also didn't help that he and Law were blamed, almost as much as unfortunate goalkeeper Frank Haffey for Scotland's 9-3 thumping by England in 1961 – he, although he scored the first of Scotland's three goals that sad afternoon, insisted: "I was there, but, I didn't play."

The SFA Selection Committee of the time, who picked the teams which manager Ian McColl then prepared, left him out of the team for a spell, but, class told and he was re-called, succeeding Eric Caldow as Scotland captain after the Rangers' full-back's international career was ended by a broken leg at Wembley in 1963 - where Mackay's inspirational leadership after taking over the captaincy of ten-man Scotland did much to assuage his hurt from two years previously. This bravura performance indicates, Mackay should have won many more caps.

He also won recognition by the (English) Football League, captaining their representative XI and even playing against the Scottish League on one occasion.

In 1968 he left Tottenham, after more than 300 games, to join Derby County, then managed by Brian Clough. He had by now converted himself into a sweeper, his ability to read the game more than compensating for his lack of inches.

His on-field inspiration, as much as Clough's managerial genius helped turn a mid-table Second Division side into First Division title contenders, however, by the time County did win the League, Mackay had moved-on, to be player-manager at Swindon Town.

His part in County's Second Division title win in 1968-69 saw him share the Footballer of the Year award with Manchester City's Tony Book, on the only occasion this award has been shared.

He stayed a year at Swindon, during which he took his career playing appearances over the 600 mark. He then moved to Nottingham Forest as manager, before, in October 1973, in the wake of Clough's messy departure from Derby, he returned to the Baseball Ground to pick-up the pieces.

In his first season, he took Derby to third in the English League, before, in season 1974-75, he led them to the title. This was the high-point of his British managerial career.

Derby sacked him in 1976, after a por start to the season, he barely rippled the surface at Walsall, before taking-off to spend nine years coaching in Kuwait. He then spent two undistinguished years at Doncaster Rovers and had a disappointing spell at Birmingham City, before returning to the Middle East to coach in Egypt and Qatar, until his eventual retirement from football in 1997.

He was far-more successful in management abroad than in England. He won trophies in Kuwait, Egypt and Qatar. He said the difference was, in the Middle East, the directors allowed him to manage his clubs, in England, they interfered.

In retirement, he settled in a small village in Nottinghamshire, mid-way between Nottingham and Derby. He was always a welcome guest when he returned to any of his former clubs, but he preferred the quiet life, continuing his life-long fitness ethic by talking lengthy walks, in all weathers, in the surrounding countryside.

His contribution to football was recognised by his induction, as one of the 22 inaugural members of the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2004, the same year he wrote a best-selling autobiography “The Real Mackay”. He had also been an inaugural inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 and was named as one of the Football League's 100 Legends, as part of their Centenary celebrations. He was also an inqugural inductee into the Hearts Hall of Fame in 2006 and is in the Tottenham and Derby County Halls of Fame.

Mackay was gladiatorial, he relished the meaty challenges in midfield, but, he was not a dirty player – he was hard but fair. George Best said: “He was the hardest player I ever played against; and the bravest.”

His skill level was high, very high. That great maverick Jim Baxter, used to challenge fellow members of the Scotland squad to a skills challenge, betting he could land the ball in the middle of the cross-bar from 18-yards. He never challenged Mackay to take him on at this: “I knew I would lose”, Baxter admitted.

He was, perhaps, the supreme example of Scotland not knowing how good a player they had, until they no longer had him.

His final years were blighted by the curse of Dementia. He was zealously guarded and brilliantly nursed by Isobel, his indominatable wife of over 50-years – who was from a Hibs-supporting family, until the end. Dave and Isobel had four children – David Junr., Derek, Valerie and Julie, all born in Edinburgh, so that, Mackay insisted, if he had boys and they were born in Edinburgh, they could play for Scotland.

The iconic pictutre of Mackay was taken during a Spurs v Leeds game in 1966, when he responded to being kicked on his twice-broken left leg by Billy Bremner, by grabbing his fellow Scotland captain by the throat. The look on the normally fearless Bremner's face speaks volumes – he was, at that instant, terrified of what Mackay might do to him. It is a picture which Mackay always hated.

A true legend has passed-on.