Ted’s hat-trick of hat-tricks shot him into the World-XI
Ted MacDougall has done many things over the last half-century.
He played for almost 20 football clubs, was capped by Scotland, and coached all over North America.
But his claim to fame is, was and always will be scoring nine goals in an FA Cup tie.
Fifty years ago today, Ted woke up not truly realising that he’d written his own bit of footballing history.
The feat of hitting a hat-trick of hat-tricks for Bournemouth against Margate in an 11-0 win had largely gone unnoticed.
But it didn’t take long for word to spread – just three days later, Ted was lining up alongside Eusebio, Jimmy Greaves and Jimmy Johnstone!
He has just returned to his home in Florida after a trip to Bournemouth, where they have a stand named in his honour.
“Back in 1971, there wasn’t a big fuss about playing Margate in the FA Cup,” recalled Ted.
“It was only the first round of the competition and they were a non-league team.
“I got five in the first half and four in the second. I didn’t take home the match ball – that was needed for next week!
“I had a sport shop in Bournemouth at the time and the next day I was going to a sports goods trade show in London.
“On the way there, I thought I’d buy a paper to see if there was a little mention of our result.
“I was all over the back pages and it was at that point when I realised it was a big deal.
“During the trade show, my name was announced over the tannoy because everyone was looking for me.
“On the Monday, my manager, John Bond, told me that Geoff Hurst was on the phone.
“He wanted me for the World XI that was taking on West Ham in his testimonial.
“I was a Third Division player, rubbing shoulders with all the famous names and facing guys like Bobby Moore. It was unbelievable.”
That sort of occasion couldn’t have been more different from Ted’s upbringing in Inverness.
He said: “My dad played for Inverness Clachnacuddin and we stayed only about 400 yards from the ground.
“When I was 12, we moved down to Widnes. “I had done four years of a six-year apprenticeship as a compositor when Liverpool offered me a full-time contract.
“I had been training with them twice a week. One night, Joe Fagan said: ‘The boss wants to see you’.
“Meeting Bill Shankly felt like meeting God! He asked me to sign professional forms.
“I went home to my mum and dad, suspecting they would tell me to finish my apprenticeship.
“All they said was: ‘Do you think you can make it in football?’. Of course, I said I did.
“I loved my parents because they gave me a chance to change my whole life.
“I am convinced that my upbringing at Liverpool set me up for the career I had.”
Ted’s eye for goal at York City and then Bournemouth led to big moves. Firstly to Manchester United and then West Ham.
During his time at Norwich City, he won seven Scotland caps. He scored three times, including on his debut against Sweden.
He said: “My Scotland career came to a shuddering halt because I said some things about there being hostility to ‘Anglos’. I made an off-the-cuff remark saying the press picked the team and that was me done.
“I didn’t like the way things were organised at the time but I felt a tremendous pride in pulling on the blue shirt.
“It meant an enormous amount to my family and I could never understand the idea that players from English football weren’t as committed to the Scotland team.”
Now 74, Ted is chief executive of GotSport, a firm that provides software to help run sport.
He said, “We do the scheduling for more than 50 professional leagues, including the Scottish Premier League.
“It’s great because I’m still on the periphery of football. I love this game.”