Signing-on fee paid for a transistor radio
Queen of the South striker Stephen Dobbie picked up the Championship Player of the Month award after his goals so far this season made his Europe’s top marksman. However, at the age of 35, he’s unlikely to be moving on from the Doonhamers. In October, 1965, 21-year-old George Fyfe was Scotland’s man of the moment when it came to hitting the back of the net. The Third Lanark striker had scored 12 goals in 12 games and was attracting attention from bigger sides. Indeed, Fulham boss Vic Buckingham came to Cathkin Park to run the rule over the rising star. George had been in junior football just 18 months before. He recalled: “I was playing for Irvine Meadow and working in a shipyard when Thirds’ manager, Willie Steel, arrived to see me one day. “The chance to join a professional club wasn’t something I was going to turn down. “I was still wearing my overalls when I signed the forms in the back of his car. Then I went back to work.” Third Lanark were a top-flight outfit but on their way down to the Second Division. “I only played a few games in the top league,” George went on. “Then I started getting a regular game at the start of the next season. The goals just seemed to flow and it was a great feeling. “I always loved scoring. When I first started playing football, there were no nets on the goalposts. “Stepping up to the senior game gave me my first experience of hearing the ball hit the back of the net. “We had some good players at Thirds, guys I knew such as Tony Connell and Alan McKay. “Mike Jackson had been with Celtic, and I got good supply from wingers like John Kinnaird. “All I knew about possible interest from other clubs came from little bits I read in the papers. “We had no agents back then, nobody who might have been able to give me a bit of advice.” George bagged 18 goals in 30 league matches during season 1965/66, and he carried on in a similar vein at the start of the next campaign. Four goals against Montrose was followed by a hat-trick against Forfar. Airdrie came up with the cash to buy him – although exactly how much wasn’t clear at the time. George said: “I was told the fee was £5000, and I got a 10% cut from Third Lanark. “I remember buying a transistor radio in a shop and the woman behind the counter had never seen a £20 note! “But a few years later, I met an Airdrie official who told me that the fee had been £8000. It had to be cash and was handed over in an old handbag. “It means I was diddled out of £300 – quite a bit of money in 1966. Looking back, I was maybe lucky to get anything. “It was sad to see Third Lanark being run into the ground by chairman, Bill Hiddleston. “You could see things weren’t going well – we were playing with balls painted white with emulsion – but it was a shock when they folded just six months after I left. “I was the last player Third Lanark sold.” George hit the ground running with Airdrie, scoring a 25-yarder against Dundee United and then a hat-trick in a 7-0 win over Stirling Albion. He said: “Although it wasn’t the full-time football I’d hoped for, Airdrie were a good club and it meant I was back in the First Division. “I’d grown up supporting Rangers, so it was quite a night when we beat them 3-2 and I got one of the goals. “I had two-and-a-half-seasons at Airdrie, but then I had a joint removed from one of my toes and had to give up. George retired from his job as an engineer nine years ago.