Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
How Shankly broke mould as Dee won league title
is 4.45pm on April 28 1962, and Dundee fans are edging closer to the white lines around the Muirton Park pitch waiting for the man in black to blow his whistle.
Moments later, they get their wish and storm the Perth turf holding aloft their heroes as Alan Gilzean, Alan Cousin, Bobby Cox and Ian Ure are hoisted high on a sea of shoulders.
Sixty years ago today, Dundee achieved their “fairytale” – 1961/62 Scottish First Division champions.
The cream of the crop, top of the tree and now unique. The only top-flight success achieved by any Dark Blues side.
They would go on to terrorise the Continent the next season, falling only at the semi-final stage to AC Milan in the European Cup.
But it is the league triumph, seeing off Scott Symon’s Rangers and Jimmy McGrory’s Celtic, that holds the most special place in dark blue folklore.
Going into the game, success was far from a formality.
Dundee had been on fire in the early stages of the season, winning 18 of their opening 21 league matches.
But a sticky spell beset them mid-season with four straight defeats in February and March before a 0-0 home draw with the Gers got them back on track.
There followed six wins on the spin before a trip to relegation-threatened St Johnstone on April 28.
Saints weren’t giving up their place in the top flight easily but a Gilzean brace either side of half-time settled any Dundee nerves.
In the 67th minute, Andy Penman sealed the deal from a Gilzean set-up, drilling home from 15 yards to confirm a 3-0 victory and their moment of history.
Ayrshireman Ure had been a towering presence in defence since arriving in Dundee four years earlier.
He would go on to feature 12 times for Scotland and enjoyed a lengthy career down south for Arsenal and Manchester United. But his days in Dundee hold great memories and he credits legendary manager Bob Shankly for imposing a new style on the Scottish game.
“They were great days, really wonderful days,” he said in 2020.
“It was fairytale stuff being at Dundee in those days.
“Dundee was a relatively small club, it was a miracle what we did winning the league and getting to the European Cup semi-final.
“Shankly was also before his time in the way his Dundee team played.
“At that time everyone played the same way, it was a long belt up the pitch and chase it.
“We broke the mould a bit and played much more possession.
“Not to the extent they play nowadays, they overdo it at times – we kept our positions on the pitch but passed the ball around but always with an end in mind.
“The goal was to get a cross into the box, something that doesn’t happen so much these days.”
Shankly, though, wasn’t one for grand speeches or over-complicating things for his players.
But Ure says the “steel” of the man was instilled in the team, leading them to become Dundee’s greatest-ever side.
“Bob was great,” Ure, now 82, added. “He was steely, a real rough diamond. A spade was a spade and that’s what he called it.
“He didn’t speak so much, all it took was a look.
“Everyone was slightly afraid of Bob Shankly. He effed and blinded whenever you made a bad mistake but he instilled the attitude in the team.
“He never said too much, before games he would just say ‘go out and do your usual’ and that was it.
“A lot of these things get forgotten about in the mists of time but those days were unforgettable.”