Footballer and teacher
Born: March 7, 1938;
Died: September 20, 2016
ALAN Cousin, who has died aged 78 after a short illness, was one of the relatively unsung stars of Bob Shankly's great Dundee team of the early 1960s. His goals played a significant role in the Dee's Scottish League Championship win in 1962.
Quite how Cousin might have fared with Bob Shankly's brother, the perhaps more celebrated Bill is a moot point. While at Liverpool, Bill famously told Steve Heighway: “The trouble with you son, is, your brains are in your heid”. The same could be said, with perhaps more justification, of Cousin, who had an MA Honours degree in classics from St Andrew's University, and who would, once he hung up his boots, become head of classics at Alloa Academy, his old school.
He had played rugby at school; indeed, he only took up football when Alloa YMCA were short of players, scoring twice on his debut, having already played rugby that morning. After this great start, there was no looking back and he was soon winning Scottish Youth caps.
Several clubs were chasing him, but he chose Dundee, thanks in part to its proximity to St Andrews, where he was starting his course, although, his classics professor was not at all pleased that Dundee commitments might prevent Cousin from turning out for the university.
He made his first team debut, at Brockville, on March 3, 1956 – Dundee lost 3-1. He played half a dozen or so games that season, netting the first of his 141 Dundee goals in a 2-1 win over Motherwell on April 28, 1956.
Throughout his time at Dens, Cousin was a part-timer, training on his own on the same St Andrews strand as those iconic shots from Chariots of Fire were filmed. Over his first two seasons, he gradually established himself as a first-team regular.
Dundee's form was somewhat up and down at this time, but Cousin's burgeoning talent and his goal-scoring earned him a first Scotland call-up, a goal-scoring one too, when he appeared for the under-23 team which lost 1-2 to Holland in Amsterdam.
He won a second under-23 cap, in 1960, in an exciting 4-4 draw with England, at Ibrox on March 2, 1960. Eight of that Scotland team went on to win full caps, Cousin was one of the overlooked trio, along with St Mirren's Jim Riddell and Hearts' Billy Higgins.
Also, in September 1958, he won two Scottish League “caps”, scoring the second of Scotland's five goals in a 5-0 win over the Irish League, at Windsor Park, before, three weeks later, helping the League XI to a narrow 1-0 win over the League of Ireland at Ibrox. However, that step-up to a full cap never happened.
With the arrival of Bob Shankly, to replace Willie Thornton, the man who had signed him, Cousin's fortunes soared. He was still a part-timer, now teaching at Alloa Academy and training with Falkirk. This did not prove a handicap as, in 1961-62, the 'Dee won the League for the first and thus far only time, finishing three points clear of Rangers.
The forward line of Gordon Smith, in his last hurrah after serving Hibs and Hearts, Andy Penman, Cousin, Alan Gilzean and Hughie Robertson sparkled – never better than when beating Rangers 5-1 at Ibrox on November 11. The other four were capped by Scotland, as were Ian Ure and Alex Hamilton, but not Cousin, whose twin-striker partnership with “Gillie” supplied many of the goals.
The following season saw Dundee reach the semi-final of the European Cup, along the way seeing off the likes of Cologne, Sporting Lisbon and Anderlecht, before it all ended against eventual winners AC Milan. The Italians won 5-1 in the San Siro, but Cousin got the 'Dee goal, making him the first Scot to score in that iconic arena (unless Denis Law scored there for Torino).
As that great team broke up, Cousin's role changed. He stepped back into midfield, but continued to contribute, being a member of the Dundee team which lost to Rangers in the 1963-64 Scottish Cup final.
Shankly left for Hibs, but returned to Dens Park in November1965 to sign Cousin, for £15,000. He spent four seasons at Easter Road, playing 120 games, before winding down his career at Falkirk. He was also one of the pioneers of that modern-day staple, “the stepover”, only, back then it had a different name and Cousin was lauded as “The King of the double shuffle”. He was also inducted into the Dundee Hall of Fame in 2011.
He was also an accomplished cricketer, spending nearly 20 years playing for Clackmannanshire in the Scottish Counties Championship. He also became head of classics at Alloa Academy, before transferring to Lawrencehill Academy, where he was deputy headteacher.
Alan Cousin also played tennis well and took great pride in the accomplishments of his sons, Michael, who followed his father into teaching and is now a professor at Edinburgh University and Martin, who is forging a great reputation as a concert pianist. They and their five grandchildren survive him, along with Anita, Alan's wife of 54-years.
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