Footballer
Born: September 20, 1932;
Died: June 20, 2016
WILLIE Logie, who has died aged 83 after a long battle against Parkinson's disease, was a footballer who had his 15 minutes of fame during Rangers' first European Cup campaign 60 years ago.
However, the then 23-year-old left-half earned an unfortunate place in football history when, six minutes from the end of Rangers' European Cup, first round, second leg against Nice, he was sent off after his tackle on Nice's Argentinian forward Ruben Bravo started a mass brawl. Contemporary reports suggest Logie's tackle might have passed without comment in Scotland, but Bravo retaliated with his fist, other players dived in and, with the Italian referee (according to even The Herald's reporter) "losing it", the pair were sent off.
Logie immediately made his way to the dressing room; the Argentinian was more-reluctant. But order was restored, the French side won the game 2-1, to square the tie, before going on to eliminate Rangers 3-1 in a Paris replay, two weeks later.
The incident was the most notable episode in Logie's 23 first team games for Rangers and ensured his unfortunate place in football history as the first British player to be sent off in European competitions.
Born in Montreal, he was raised in the Riverside area of Stirling after the Logie family returned to Scotland. He left school to take up a joinery apprenticeship, while playing football at weekends.
While with Cambuslang Rangers, he was signed by Rangers, making his debut in a 1-0 loss to Kilmarnock, at Ibrox, in September, 1956. The following Saturday he played in his first Old Firm game, a 2-0 Rangers win, during which he hit the Celtic bar with one long-range dipping shot.
In all, he played 16 first-team games that season, mainly as one-third of a half-back line alongside two Rangers and Scotland legends, the great Ibrox captain George Young, and future Scotland manager Ian McColl. He had a sufficient number of appearances that season to earn him a League Championship medal at the end of it.
By then, however, his Rangers' career had peaked. He played 23 games in all competitions that season. Harold Davis came in to claim the number six shirt and Logie left Rangers.
It was not the end of his senior career, however - he joined Aberdeen in April, 1958, before playing out his career with Arbroath, Brechin City and finally, Alloa Athletic.
It was then, back "on the tools" as a joiner, spending many years working with the well-known firm of Rj McLeod, and, occasionally on-holiday, having to persuade people he was not, as they had thought, Sean Connery.
As a teenager, he had completed his national service with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, mainly in the far East, seeing service in Hong Kong and Singapore, and active service during the Korean War.
In 1954 he married childhood sweetheart Catherine, who pre-deceased him in 2013. They had two sons, Martin and Greig, who survive him, along with his six grandchildren and one great-grandchild, and his two sisters, Muriel and Marion.
The Logie family remember a happy, joking family man, a born story-teller and comedian who, until his illness made it impossible for him, liked pottering about in his garden. The football world remembers a young man who unfortunately for him made an unwanted piece of history.
MATT VALLANCE
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here