Scot Symon

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Infobox/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Scot Symon
Personal information
Full name James Scotland Symon
Date of birth (1911-05-09)9 May 1911
Place of birth Errol, Perthshire, Scotland
Date of death Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Place of death Glasgow, Scotland
Position(s) Wing half
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1930–1935 Dundee 150 (2)
1935–1938 Portsmouth 66 (6)
1938–1947 Rangers 32 (3)
International career
1938 Scotland 1 (0)
Managerial career
1947–1953 East Fife
1953–1954 Preston North End
1954–1967 Rangers
1968–1970 Partick Thistle
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

James Scotland "Scot" Symon (9 May 1911 – 30 April 1985) was a Scottish football player and manager. He also played cricket for Scotland in an age when it was possible to play and excel in several sports.

Career

Symon started his professional career at Dundee in 1930. He then had a three-year spell at English team Portsmouth before signing for boyhood heroes Rangers in 1938. He only played 37 Scottish League games for Rangers but helped the club win the league title in 1939. Symon played cricket for Scotland in 1938, taking five Australian wickets for just 33 runs.[1] He also won a Scotland cap in 1938 against Hungary.[1]

After retiring from Rangers in 1947, he landed his first managerial job at East Fife where he guided them to one of their best ever seasons in 1949 winning the Scottish League Cup and reaching the Scottish Cup Final. He took charge of Preston NE in 1953 where he took them to the FA Cup Final. He returned to Rangers just one year later where he would steer them to six League championships, five Scottish Cups, and four League Cups. He also took Rangers into European football for the first time, guiding them to two Cup Winners Cup finals in 1961 and 1967.

When Symon was sensationally sacked by Rangers in 1967, he was told of the decision by an accountant, 'the board having neither the courtesy nor the courage to sack him in person – even though Rangers were then leading the domestic league table'.[2]

The Scots poet Tom Leonard wrote a poem ‘Simple Symon’ about the matter, one of ‘Six Glasgow Poems’:

see if ah wiz Scot Symon

ahd tell thim wherrty stuff thir team ...

Reportedly Symon rejected an offer to move to a general manager's position.[citation needed] After briefly serving on Dumbarton's board of directors he was appointed manager of Partick Thistle in September 1968. Two years later he assumed the role of Thistle's general manager.

Honours

Player

Rangers

Manager

East Fife
Rangers
  • Scottish League (6): 1955–56, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1960–61, 1962–63, 1963–64
  • Scottish Cup (4): 1959–60, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1965–66

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Independent (London), 17 August 2013

External links

Script error: The function "top" does not exist.

Script error: The function "bottom" does not exist.