The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dee fan behind the launch of new definitive online guide to Dark Blues.
DUNDEE: Dark Blues fan launches the definitive online guide to Dens Park club
An alleged jumper thief named after the 1967 Dundee team, the game before the Dark Blues’ first-ever match in 1893 and allegations of an insurance scam when a stand at Dens went up in flames for the third time.
That’s just a trio of gems uncovered by a Dundee fan’s tireless trawl through the archives to create a definitive online history of the club including every game, every goal and every player.
It’s been years in the making but Daniel Smith has recently got his Dee Archive, helped by the creators of the successful Arab Archive, up and running.
Putting 127 years of history in one place is no small task but Daniel has been hard at it for the last few months and, though new matches won’t begin again for the Dark Blues until October, is looking for a helping hand from fellow Dees.
He told the Courier Sport: “The point of the website is to show new generations of Dundee fans our history and results and to look back on old match reports, pictures and programmes.
“I’m looking for people to contribute and maybe sponsors to help run the site and resources to make it better.
“I started off around 2013 and I had a lot of memorabilia I had got from my dad so I began a Facebook page to scan them and get them out there. It snowballed from there and I started taking a note of stats and writing match reports for the Dark Blues forum.
“Then Niall Harkins from the Arab Archive got in touch a couple of years ago about doing a Dundee version.
“Unfortunately I didn’t have much time then to do it. But I got back in touch with him in March and asked how we could get a Dee Archive going and it just went from there.
“I was surprised nobody had started anything like that before for Dundee. There are a lot of people who take a big interest in the history of the club.
“I’ve started way back in 1893 and working forward so I’m getting things like referees and opposition players and putting up reports from the games.
“It’s great to get everything out there and feels good to get started. I’ve had a lot of good feedback from people, lots of positive comments – don’t think we’ve had a negative one yet, to be honest.”
It promises to be a treasure trove for any Dundee fan looking into the history of the club and Daniel says he has loved putting in the research and finding out about stories connected with the club, such as a man with 11 middle names, making up the 1967 Dundee side, who was up in court.
Though he admits it may have taken over his life somewhat.
“We had a baby recently and two days after she was born, with my wife in the hospital after everything, here was me looking up Dundee’s formation against Port Athletic!” he joked.
“It is enjoyable but I have maybe taken it a bit far.
“Looking back in the history of the club, I’ve been finding out a lot more interesting stuff.
“I was recently reading about when they built the main stand at Dens back in 1921 or something, it’s good to read about that but then you move on to a story about the old stand where the South Enclosure is now and when that went up in flames.
“There was talk it was intentional – there was a player in the paper saying that’s three times that stand has gone up in flames! You snowball into lots of stories.
“Right at the start of the club’s history I found out about Dundee playing Dundee Harp in a friendly a week before the firstever match against Rangers. It wasn’t an official game but it was good to find out about the first time the players ran out in the colours.
“The favourite thing I came across was a story, not football related, but there was a boy got lifted and his entire name was the Dundee team from 1967.
“His dad was a big Dundee fan and gave his middle names as the last names of the players in the team. That’s probably the funniest one.”
John Arrol Hamilton Cox Murray Stewart Stuart Campbell Scott Wilson McLean Bruce Walsh was charged in Arbroath with nicking 17 jumpers, seven bottles of perfume and 11 baby dresses in 1990.