Footballer; Born 1923; Died March 17, 2007. BOB CRAMPSEY Injury dealt Davie Letham a savage blow when he stood on the very edge of selection for the Olympic Games at Wembley in 1948.
The Queen's Park defender, who had joined the club in 1940, would have already been notified informally of his selection to join the British Olympic football team.
Previously, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, there had never been fewer than three Queen's Park players in the football side. Letham was ready to carry on the tradition.
However, what would now be called a cruciate ligament injury intervened. On the verge of possible Olympic glory and in his mid-20s, the young star was caused to spend 1948-1950 in Canniesburn Hospital. He eventually made a good, though still only partial, recovery.
He remained a satisfactory centre-half, but his long-term career plan of being a quicksilver wing-half was by now beyond him.
The injury diverted him from a predictable career choice. He had come from one of the great Glasgow football schools, John Street, where he was later a fine PE teacher. Thereafter, it would have been customary either to go to Rangers directly or perhaps spend a couple of years with a smaller Scottish club.
Despite his many and severe injuries, he managed to play 190 first-class matches for Queen's and scored nine goals in that time.
He was interested in the administrative side of the game and subsequently achieved the honour of being president of the club and president of the Scottish Football League. There was the occasional ripple on the way and there was some opposition to the awarding of an administrative post at professional level to someone whose first charge was amateur football, but matters were smoothed over.
Davie Letham was a graceful player with one particular peculiarity - that he tended to run full out with his arms close by his side. He was 15 years at Hampden altogether and he will be remembered as a man who made a considerable contribution on and off the pitch at Queen's Park, and who could, with better luck, have chosen to go by the professional road.
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