THERE are people who care about football, people who love football, people who are obsessed by football; and then there is Douglas Smith. The name may not ring any bells, even for some well versed folk in the game in this country, but this remarkable man has devoted 50 years of his life to nurturing some of the finest players who have ever been born in Scotland.

He is the man who has been manager, father figure, counsellor and friend of the thousands of youngsters who have played for one or more of the teams under the banner of Drumchapel Amateurs.

Outside of Queen's Park, the team he founded has become the best known amateur side in the country, a club which spends much of its time accepting invitations to represent Scotland all over the continent.

The celebration of the half century of the club will be climaxed at a gala reunion dinner in Glasgow tonight when some of the great names that learned their trade under the watchful eye of Smith will be present.

Among the multitude of stars who have worn the Drumchapel shirt are Sir Alex Ferguson, Asa Hartford, John Wark, Jim Cruickshank, John Robertson (now Celtic assistant manager), Archie Gemmill and a legion of others.

A Cambridge graduate in engineering, Smith began the Drumchapel story when he was invalided out of the army in 1949 with his leg in plaster. He joined Arnott Young, a shipbreaking company in which his father was managing director, and recalls earning #300 a year (''Not such a bad screw in those days''). Eventually he became chairman but in time the company was taken over by Tarmac. When the entire shipbreaking business in the country collapsed in the seventies, he ''played about a little, doing various things'' although he says his full-time working life ended when he was 53 in 1980.

By then he was well established as the man behind the ''Drum''. He came home from the services to the village where was he born, which was all Drumchapel was at the time, to discover that the local Boys Brigade team was being run by the older boys. ''It was a dreadful team,'' he says, ''so I was given it to run. They had never won a match. I discovered they had ignored the younger boys completely and some of them were really good players. We started working with them and in the first year we had great success. In September 1950 we joined the Scottish Amateur Association and played in a league that doesn't exist any more.''

Two years later the name was changed from First Drumchapel BB at a point when Smith confesses ''we had become football mad''. Not only was one team playing in the Churches League but another in the Scottish Amateur League, with two other sides in other competitions.

''I was called up to see Willie Allan, secretary of the SFA who said: ''Mr Smith, you have First Drumchapel BB Company playing in two different leagues under two different associations.You are not allowed to do that. You will have to change the name of one of the teams.''

He changed one to Drumchapel BB Amateurs and, as they had joined the amateur association, he dates the birth of Drumchapel Amateurs to that year.

However, the BB aspect of the club had been suffering from this obsession with football and it was decided to split the two, taking the BB away from the name.

''The BB company became the Second Glasgow and was very successful, although now, sad to say, it has declined rapidly.''

He did spend a great deal of his own money in the process of building the club which by now had become his passion. ''I did nearly go bankrupt at one time but my problem is that I have always believed in trying to do things well.

''We used to do things that were a bit daft in the early days. We wanted this to be a little special. We were a youth team then and a lot of the boys played for their school teams in the morning and for us in the afternoon. We decided to take them to lunch at Reid's tea rooms in Glasgow. There they were in the Tudor room in one alcove and in another was the Queen's Park First XI. I think it cost about one shilling and ten pence but we had about 20 or 30 boys turning up.''

He also paid #150 a year to three different junior clubs to use their grounds when they were playing away from home, which began the relationship with Duntocher Hibs that would lead to the acquisition of their ground.

Before that they had played on black ash park in Drumchapel which was fondly referred to as ''The Dump''. They also spent time playing at Dumbarton's ground, Boghead, and Rangers offered to let them play at The Albion opposite Ibrox.

The problem with that was that, at the time, this ex-BB team played in green-and-white hoops. ''You have to remember that in the late forties clothes were still rationed and teams played in all one colour. We played in white and then were given a second-hand set of jerseys from Singers which were green-and-white hoops. The boys bought white pants and green and white socks and when we wanted a new strip we stuck by the hoops. We played in that strip for many, many years until it seemed to be being taken the wrong way and we changed to red. ''But on Sunday the old boys, including Alex Ferguson, have requested to play in the green-and-white colours in the game we are staging.''

However, while Scot Symon, the then Rangers manager, accepted the hazards in playing at The Albion in Celtic shorts and crossing the road to change before and after games were too great, he was none the less a great friend to the amateur side.

Smith had been looking around trying to find a ground Drumchapel could call their own, and once offered #4000 for the Barclay Curle ground in Crow Road, Glasgow - ''I had no idea where I would get the money, but was told I was #76,000 light. Now it is full of luxury housing. But then Duntocher went bust after a fire in the pavilion and we offered to buy the ground for #1000 but they asked if we would make it #1200.

''The deal was over three months with #200 down. If we couldn't pay the #1000 remaining by then they were to keep the #200.''

Douglas thought the #200 which was his, naturally, was a goner when they neared the deadline and in despair took the bull by the horns and decided to ask Rangers for money and, if they refused, he would ask Celtic.

''Until then we had never taken any money or strips or balls from senior clubs for players. I had seen so many cases of people running clubs and being accused of making a major profit for themselves that I felt it best to take nothing.''

However, having worked out that the whole cost of renovating the ground would come to #14,000 he then began a pestering campaign which in the end brought in a #4400 grant from the Scottish Education Department. He wrote to every club in the country asking for help to make up the difference and in total was offered a derisory #60.

Resilience is Smith's second nature, however, and he asked to see Symon. In his nervousness when they met at Ibrox, he asked for more than he had intended, #3000. Symon said: ''Yes, certainly,'' and he arranged it there and then. ''He wanted us to train at Ibrox which we did and stayed for three years. They were wonderful to us.''

However, that changed later under a different regime when he was asked by manager Davie White about how many Catholics were in his teams training at Ibrox. It turned out to be about 50% - ''We are not a religious club'' - and they were told that, as their own ground was close to completion, they could train until then and finish off at that point. ''One director, it seemed, was uneasy about it.''

Smith looks forward immensely to the reunion dinner, but typically he has an eye for the main chance. ''It is going so well that I can see us raising a good sum for the club. That would be great. I am determined to leave the club healthy financially and the ground self-sufficient when I go.''

That is likely to be a long time yet. He may be 73 but Smith, benefactor extraordinaire, is taken aback when you remind him of his age. ''I feel ony about two or three years older than the boys I work with.That is what working with youngsters does to you. They are my life and I tell you I have been a very fortunate man.''