Footballer
Born: March 1, 1934;
Died: December 10, 2016
TOMMY McCulloch, who has died aged 82, was a member of the last Clyde team to win the Scottish FA Cup in 1958.
Born in Glasgow, the son of Joseph (a delivery driver with The Daily Record) and Johanna McCulloch, the young Tommy was educated at Queen’s Park Secondary School on the south-side of Glasgow.
He signed for Junior club Bridgeton Waverley in July 1956 and played one game at senior level with Dumbarton before joining Clyde in the summer of 1957.
He did not have long to wait for his first-team debut when a flu-epidemic hit the Shawfield club that September. Amongst those laid low was regular goalkeeper Mike Watson and McCulloch found himself pitched into the starting line-up on the 28th of the month – a League Cup Semi-Final against Celtic at Ibrox Stadium.
Celtic won 4-2 – but McCulloch retained his place for the league game with Dundee before making way for the fit-again Watson. Come November however he had reclaimed the ‘keeper’s jersey and would retain his place for a remarkable 63 consecutive games, including a successful Scottish Cup campaign for the second time in four years as Clyde lifted the national trophy with a 1-0 win over Hibernian courtesy of a Johnny Coyle goal in a Hampden Final watched by no fewer than 95,000 spectators. Where one wonders have they all gone?
Clyde had finished an impressive fourth in the top division that season – albeit trailing champions Hearts by fully 20 points – and the following month McCulloch was back at Hampden with the Bully Wee to add the Glasgow Merchants’ Charity Cup to the Scottish with a 4-0 defeat of Rangers.
1958 was a good year for Clyde – a third trophy was added in October of that year when – following a goalless draw at Hampden – another Coyle goal took the Glasgow FA Cup to Shawfield with the only goal of the game against Rangers in the Ibrox Replay.
There were two more Scottish Cup semi-final appearances in 1960 and 67 – both lost – against Kilmarnock and Celtic and third place in the top division in Season 1966-67. There was even a European experience when Clyde played RC Lens of France in the Anglo-French Friendship Cup.
McCulloch was always a part-time professional while with Clyde – an electrician by trade, he worked with the Turner Group where he met his future wife Helen MacNeill from Mull. The couple were married on April 5, 1960.
The goalkeeper served Clyde faithfully for 15 years, making 506 appearances, achieving 110 shut-outs – a total that ranks him amongst the top three club servants in the post-war era, his final game coming in April 1972 in a goalless draw with Airdrieonians at Shawfield.
He played with Hamilton Accies for a season, making 12 league appearances, before hanging up his gloves. He was inducted into the inaugural Clyde Hall of Fame in 2011.
Outside of football Tommy McCulloch worked as an auto electrician with the GPO, as a BT engineer and in the planning department before taking early retirement at the age of 58.
He had taken up golf as his football career was coming to an end and was a member of Cowglen Golf Club on the south-side of Glasgow where he lived quietly and was popular with the neighbours who admired the garden lovingly tendered by Helen.
Throughout his life the goalkeeper maintained his links with Clyde Football Club, whose former physiotherapist Tom Craig was his closest friend and whose three children Marjorie, Tracy and Scott regarded him as their Uncle Tam.
Helen predeceased her husband in 2013 following 53 years of marriage.
Tommy McCulloch died following a long struggle with Parkinson’s. He is survived by sons Alan and Thomas and daughter Morven.
ROBERT MCELROY
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