Eric Caldow
Brilliant full-back for Rangers who won 40 caps for Scotland
ERIC CALDOW, who has died aged 84, was a footballer widely regarded as one of the best full-backs in the history of Scottish football.
He made 407 appearances for Rangers over 13 years, winning the League Championship five times, the Scottish Cup twice and the Scottish League Cup three times, including the treble in 1964. He also won 40 caps for Scotland, though his international career was cut short by a broken leg.
A quiet and unassuming man, as a captain Caldow led by example rather than by fist-pumping exhortation. His speed off the mark meant that he could easily chase down any winger with the temerity to get past him, and his playing style had little of the blood and thunder that often characterised defenders at that time.
As John Grieg, who came into the Rangers side under Caldow’s leadership, recalled: “Very seldom did you see Eric making a tackle – he could just read what the winger was going to do and took the ball off him.” That judgment is supported by the fact that Caldow was never booked playing for Rangers.
Eric Caldow was born at Cumnock in East Ayrshire on May 14 1934. After leaving Cumnock Academy he was an apprentice painter with the local council. His football career began with a local side, Glenpark Amateurs, and on joining Rangers he was first farmed out to Muirkirk, of the Western Junior League, making his Rangers debut in September 1953.
In 1956 Rangers won the League title with Caldow at right-back, although the following season he shifted to the left as Rangers retained the title. The domestic honours flowed, and in 1960 Rangers reached the European Cup semi-final, losing out to Eintracht Frankfurt.
The following season Caldow led Rangers to their first European final, the inaugural European Cup-winners’ Cup final in 1961 – although, having knocked out Ferencvaros, Borussia Mönchengladbach and the mighty Wolves along the way, they lost the two-legged final 4-1 to Fiorentina. Caldow had become the side’s regular penalty-taker but missed from the spot in the first leg.
Domestically, he won his second winners’ medals in the Scottish Cup and the League Cup in 1961-62: Rangers beat Hearts 3-1 in a League Cup final replay, and saw off St Mirren 2-0 in the Scottish Cup final. His fifth and final championship came in 1962-63.
He had won his first Scotland cap in the 2-1 defeat to England at Wembley in April 1957. The following year he went to Sweden for the World Cup, playing in all three games as Scotland finished bottom of their group.
His international career came to an end at Wembley in 1963 when the Tottenham and England striker, Bobby Smith, steamed into a tackle early in the match and broke Caldow’s leg in three places. Though he re-established himself in the Rangers side after nearly a year out of the game, by then he was in his early thirties and did not play for his country again.
In 1965 he won his third League Cup winner’s medal in the 2-1 victory against Celtic, but in the following season, his last for the club, he played only a handful of games, and moved on to Stirling Albion for a season.
He moved south of the border as player-manager of non-league Corby Town, staying for two years before moving back up to Ayrshire to manage the junior side, Hurlford United, then stepped up to manage the Scottish League side Stranraer for two seasons. He later worked in hospitality for Rangers.
Eric Caldow was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2010, and in 2016 featured in a BBC news report about the Football Memories dementia project.
Caldow’s wife, Laura, died in 2013. He is survived by their daughter. Their son died in a traffic accident in 2000.