Gordon Wallace
It is with great sadness that Raith Rovers learned this morning that former player and manager Gordon Wallace had passed away last night.
His family said he passed after a long and brave battle with ill health.
Everyone at Raith Rovers would like to pass our deepest condolences to his wife Marilyn, children Gaynor, Gordon, Barry and Greig, grandchildren Darren, Sophie, Nathan, Leia and Chloe and great granddaughter Erin.
In the world of football these days, the label of legend can be used to easily. But to Raith Rovers, Gordon was a true LEGEND.
Gordon Wallace once said,
“Of all my clubs, I’ve got the softest spot for Raith Rovers. They gave me a chance. They gave me full-time football. When I stopped playing they made me coach and then I became their manager. All the things you’d want out of a career I got at Stark’s Park.”
Gordon started his career playing for Dundee North End at the age of 16. He had a trial with Leeds United. His father didn’t want him to go to England, but to stay in Scotland and take an apprenticeship. He ended up signing for Dundee on what was then a Provisional Form, where he played as a junior but was tied to the senior club. After two years they released him and he moved to a junior team, Alyth United.
Montrose then signed Gordon and he scored 75 goals in 132 appearances during his time at Links Park.
He then signed for the Rovers and made his debut the following day, at Forfar. He hadn’t met any of his new team mates until he arrived in the dressing room at Station Park. The Rovers won 5-1 and he scored with a header.
Gordon recalled his second game,
“I played the following Wednesday against Dunfermline in a Fife Cup tie and we won 5-4, I scored four goals. Scoring four goals against Dunfermline certainly set me off on the right footing with the Rovers’ supporters. When you go to a new club you want supporters to like you and they obviously took to me after getting four goals”.
Gordon enjoyed working with the Rovers’ manager George Farm as he knew he was a winner.
Rovers had good side in 1966/67 and won promotion to the First Division. they went to Montrose in the second last game of the season needing a result in a very tight promotion fight, and they ended up equalising in the very last minute.
That left them having to win against Queen of the South at home in the last game of the season, and they won 7-2. Bobby Stein scored two that day as a right-back, Ian Lister, Pat Gardiner got one each and of course Gordon Wallace scored a hat-trick.
In the Scottish First Division, Rovers had a balance of experienced and younger players, and from the turn of 1967/68 onwards they hit a fantastic run of form.
Gordon scored 27 league goals, and he had a real purple patch in February and March, and the transformation was unbelievable. He scored more than a dozen goals from about 20 shots at goal, everything he hit went in the back of the net. These goal kept Raith Rovers in the First Division.
Gordon Wallace was voted Scottish Football Writers’ Player of the Year, becoming the first non-Old Firm player to win this honour.
On the 4th of September 1969, Gordon was sold to Dundee for £14,000.
Gordon had great success at Dundee, scoring the winning goal for Dundee verses Celtic in the Scottish League Cup Final. He played in Europe for Dundee against the likes of Cologne and AC Milan.
He had six seasons at Dundee before moving to the USA and playing at Seattle Sounders.
He returned to Scotland as a free-agent and signed for Dundee United, he spent two seasons at Tannadice. Before he returned to Stark’s Park.
Gordon returned as a player firstly and then he became player-manager, when Willie McLean moved to Ayr United. He managed Raith Rovers from the 30th of January 1979 until the 31st of July 1983.
In season 1980/81, Gordon nearly took Raith Rovers into the Scottish Premier League for the first time just coming up short against three fulltime clubs.
In a career that started with Montrose, included six years with Dundee and two seasons across the street at United in addition to two spells at Stark’s Park, Wallace scored 264 league goals in Scottish football. This was a Scottish Football goalscoring record that was only surpassed by Ally McCoist.
Gordon Wallace Raith Rovers
225 appearances 114 goals
1966-1969 and 1978-1983
As a manager Gordon was in charge of Raith Rovers for 235 games.
John Greer
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