‘Fergie demanded that the Old Firm had to be beaten’ By STEPHEN McGOWAN
FOOTBALLERS are not r enowned f or their attention to detail. Some struggle to remember what they ate for lunch earlier in the day. As Bobby Clark turns 70, however, he can still rattle off Clyde’s Scottish Cup-winning team of 1958 in five seconds flat.
‘It would be McCulloch, Murphy, Haddock, Walters, Finlay, Clinton, Herd, Currie, Coyle, Robertson and Ring.
‘I can still name the 1955 team which beat Celtic after a replay in the Final if you like…’
Sportsmail declined his kind invitation. But in the course of a 40-minute chat, his ability to recall minute details of a career spanning 50 years is impressive. Passing down the lessons learned has been a lifetime’s mission.
During Clark’s 17 years as Aberdeen goalkeeper, team-mates headed f or snooker halls and bookmakers after training. He drove to the local high school to teach PE instead.
For the last 15 years, the former Scotland international has coached an Ivy League college team in Indiana in the United States, leading Notre Dame University to the national college title two years ago. He asked another razor- sharp septuagenarian Dons legend to dole out the prizes.
‘Alex (Ferguson) came out and visited l ast April,’ Clark told Sportsmail. ‘He paid us a nice visit. He was fantastic.
‘We won the Atlantic Athletic Conference league last year and when you win a league here, players get a ring rather than a medal.
‘Alex handed them over to our players and they were very excited about that. We shared some great memories.
‘Towards the end of my Aberdeen career, I helped a guy, Lenny Taylor, wi t h the Aberdeen youth development programme for five years on a Thursday night.
‘Alex would always come down. We used to sit in this little tin dugout while the games were played on that red-blaes car park outside Pittodrie.
‘We took Neil Simpson as our first player. Neale Cooper, John Hewitt, Eric Black, Brian Mitchell, Willie Falconer and Bryan Gunn all followed.
‘We had some fun reminiscing about those days when Alex came out to the States.’
There i s much to remember. Seventeen Scotland caps, 700 firstteam appearances for Aberdeen, a Scottish Cup triumph, a League Cup triumph, and the climactic League Championship medal in 1979-80 which marked both the start of Ferguson’s halcyon days and the end of Clark’s first-team career.
He will reflect on all of this today when he spends his 70th birthday in the same place he spent most of the others. A gymnasium.
‘I used to run, I used to play,’ he said, with a hint of embarrassment. ‘Now I’m reduced to walking uphill on a machine. But I do something pretty much every day.
‘We are playing lots of games just now, so I will put on a video every morning and watch at least half a game while I am on the treadmill, breaking down the next opponent or looking at my own team.
‘So I do something every morning. And when the fitness coach is there, I will work out with two or three other coaches.’
There are few 70-year- olds who can say that. The birthday itself will be a low-key affair. A meal with wife Betty and his three grown-up children and grandkids perhaps. His family utilise a small flat in Lossiemouth for holidays, but call themselves Americans now.
‘ It’s 21 again as f ar as I’ m concerned,’ he remarked on the passage of time. ‘The college season has just begun and I try to forget birthdays now.
‘We have a big game the night before against the University of Virginia, who were l ast year’s national champions. That gets all my attention.’
He will take time out at the end of the day for a familiar ritual. Google offers instant updates on how Aberdeen fare every Saturday.
As the Dons lord over Celtic at the top of the SPFL Premiership, their former goalkeeper’s mind is already drifting forward to October 31. To a feisty resumption of hostilities at Parkhead and a test of the old Fergie mentality.
‘When I played under Alex, we hardly ever lost in Glasgow,’ added Clark. ‘He always said we had to beat Celtic and Rangers. And we had to do it home and away.
‘ I t was never playing for a draw or going backs to the wall, hoping to survive. ‘ When we won the league in 1980, we beat Celtic twice within a twoweek period at Parkhead. We had already beaten them 3-2 at Pittodrie and beat them 1-0 in the League Cup 1-0 second leg at Parkhead.
‘We did the same to Rangers en route to the final where we lost to Dundee United.
‘But we beat Celtic in all the games that mattered.
‘Alex was terrific at that. I always remember him saying time and again: “If Aberdeen are to be successful, they must go to Glasgow and they can’t be scared”.’
Clark’s playing career both peaked and effectively ended at Celtic Park during that title - winning season.
He hurt his back in a 3-1 victory, a second Parkhead win in a fortnight. He limped through to the final day at Easter Road where a 5-0 thrashing of Hibs coupled with a Celtic draw at St Mirren prompted Ferguson’s famous celebratory sprint onto the pitch.
‘I maybe missed one game in the run-in and had cortisone jabs to get me through the others,’ he recalled.
‘It took two years to recover and by the time I was fit again, I was 37 and Jim Leighton was establishing himself as one of the best young goalkeepers in Europe.
‘Jim’s back-up was Bryan Gunn, a future Scotland keeper. There wasn’t much need then f or a 37-year-old back-up keeper with a dodgy back.’
The Aberdeen years remain the fondest memories of his career. The son of a Clyde director and former SFA treasurer, Clark played for Queen’s Park before Eddie Turnbull took him to the north east in 1965.
He moved on the proviso he was allowed to keep teaching in the afternoons.
‘Aberdeen is still the first result I look for every week over here,’ admitted Clark.
‘You need guys who believe they can do it and who can demand the ball on big occasions. You have to enjoy the competition when you are out there.
‘I am ever hopeful. It sounds as if Derek McInnes has them on the right path and people I speak to back home email me expressing some confidence in the regime.
‘Former team-mates like Ian Taylor, Martin Buchan and Joe Harper still send me the odd email.
‘Communications will come out of the blue and there is a former players’ magazine. I get that three times a year and read it cover to cover. I do look forward to seeing what people
It was never a case of playing for a draw or going backs to
the wall
are doing and my brother sends me the Sunday Post along with clippings I might like every week.’
Clark still makes a few headlines of his own. A landmark birthday should be the cue to take time off and spend some with the grandkids. To enjoy himself at the end of a career lasting five decades.
Yet he insisted: ‘I am enjoying myself. I am working with some of the best young players in the country six days a week. Young people keep you young.
‘I am working at a sports institution with three or four nutritionists, sports- science experts, f i tness coaches. These things have developed over the last 10 to 15 years.
‘There are video breakdowns now, so much to learn. Universities are always searching for new ideas.
‘I think back to my year at Glasgow University and three years doing teacher training at Jordanhill. I had to travel over to Hampden for training with Queen’s Park.
‘Here, they go to class and come straight over to the athletics’ facility, then on to team meals.
‘It doesn’t only produce professional footballers. Most come in and think that’s what they will do, but they will also have a degree from Notre Dame, which is one of the best in America.’
There were offers to return to Scotland. As he enters his eighth decade, however, Clark has no regrets.
‘It has been fun at this level because I feel I can make a difference on kids between 18 and 21 when sport is very important,’ he added.
‘I feel I can have a positive influence on their attitude here. As you get older, things like that matter. You see the bigger picture.’