Date of birth 3 December 1926 1947–1954 Heart of Midlothian Position Defender Years Team Died February 7, 2010 | Playing position Role Footballer Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland Name Bobby Dougan | |
Date of death 7 February 2010(2010-02-07) (aged 83) | ||
Bobby Dougan (3 December 1926 – 7 February 2010) was a Scottish footballer, who played as a centre half for Hearts and Kilmarnock in the Scottish Football League, having started his career with Shawfield.
The first seeds of the Tommy Walker managerial success were sown by Davie McLean. On 9 October 1948, after a mediocre start to the 1948–49 season Hearts' manager McLean combined three young forwards, Jimmy Wardhaugh, Willie Bauld and Alfie Conn Sr., for the first time. They became dubbed the Terrible Trio and scored over 900 Hearts goals between them (Wardhaugh 376, Bauld 355, Conn 221). The combination of Wardhaugh's dribbling skills and non-stop running, Bauld's cerebral play and prodigious aerial ability, and Conn's energetic, tenacious style and powerful shooting complemented each other well. Their first match as a forward combination ended in a 6–1 defeat of Scot Symon's impressive East Fife team of the era. This was notable as Symon's team had defeated the Maroons 4–0 a matter of weeks earlier.
A few weeks later in December 1948 Tommy Walker left during his third season at Chelsea to return to Hearts. He took the role of player-assistant to manager McLean. McLean's intention was that Walker would be a steadying influence in a developing young team. However, after a single appearance at right-half in a 1–0 home defeat by Dundee, Walker retired to concentrate fully on learning the managerial ropes. Tangible progress was made in the League Championship in 1949-50 when Hearts finished third. As Tommy Walker had become more influential, McLean was co-opted to the Board on 16 March 1950.
McLean's death on 14 February 1951 saw Walker promoted to the position of manager. Walker's reign was to prove the most successful period in the club's history. Walker was always quick to acknowledge the contribution made by McLean and his fatherly interest in the welfare and development of the players. The important foundations Walker inherited from McLean included the Terrible Trio forwards, the full back pair of Bobby Parker and Tam McKenzie and half backs half Bobby Dougan and Davie Laing. To this established core John Cumming had recently broken through to the first team in the left half position he was to dominate for many years. Freddie Glidden was already at Tynecastle but yet to first team debut as was the then schoolboy Dave Mackay.
Dougan was selected once by the Scotland national football team, for a friendly match against Switzerland in 1950. Dougan also played three times for the Scottish Football League picking up a serious ankle injury in the second of those games. This was in September 1951 and kept him out of the game for almost a year.
He picked up a second serious injury in November 1953 this time to his knee. The friendly away to Doncaster Rovers on 9 November 1953 was to be his last as a first team regular. Freddie Glidden covered for Dougan at Centre Half and took over the position. Dougan waited over five months before appearing for the first team again. He only played again for Hearts in friendlies after the serious knee injury appeared. In December 1954 just over a year after injuring his knee he was allowed to join Kilmarnock for a reported fee of £4 300. Dougan had played 125 league games and made 168 first team appearances for Hearts.
He died in February 2010.