David "Davie" Ditchburn Meiklejohn (12 December 1900 – 22 August 1959) was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 professional footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 most famous for his time with Scottish club Rangers

Rangers F.C.

Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...

.

Career

Born in Govan

Govan

Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....

, Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Meiklejohn joined Rangers from junior

Scottish Junior Football Association

The Scottish Junior Football Association is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association and is the governing body for the Junior grade of football in Scotland. The term "Junior" refers to the level of football played...

 club Maryhill F.C.

Maryhill F.C.

Maryhill Football Club are a football team based in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland. Members of the Scottish Junior Football Association, they currently play in the West Region, Central Division Two....

 in 1919 and spent the rest of his playing days with the Ibrox

Ibrox Stadium

Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium located on the south side of the River Clyde, on Edmiston Drive in the Ibrox district of Glasgow. It is the home ground of Scottish Premier League club Rangers and has an all-seated capacity of 51,082...

 club.

He played 563 games, scoring 46 goals and winning 12 League Championships

Scottish Premier League

The Scottish Premier League , also known as the SPL , is a professional league competition for association football clubs in Scotland...

 and 5 Scottish Cup

Scottish Cup

The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...

s. On 5 September 1931, he captained the Rangers side in the Old Firm

Old Firm

The Old Firm is a common collective name for the association football clubs Celtic and Rangers, both based in Glasgow, Scotland.The origin of the term is unclear. One theory has it that the expression derives from Celtic's first game in 1888, which was played against Rangers. However, author,...

 game which saw the Celtic

Celtic F.C.

Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...

 goalkeeper John Thomson

John Thomson (footballer)

John Thomson was a football goalkeeper for Celtic and Scotland who died as a result of an accidental collision with the Rangers player Sam English during an Old Firm match at Ibrox.-Early life:...

 accidentally killed contesting for a ball with Rangers' Sam English

Sam English

Samuel English was an Irish football player who played for several clubs, but is mainly remembered for his time with Rangers.-Early life:He was born in the hamlet of Crevolea in Aghadowey, Northern Ireland...

. Meiklejohn is credited with having realised the seriousness of the situation and gestured to calm the home support whilst the injured Thomson was being attended to.

He was capped 15 times by Scotland

Scotland national football team

The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

 during an 11 year international career. He also scored 3 times and captained the side six times. He made his debut against Wales

Wales national football team

The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales , the governing body for football in Wales, and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team have only qualified for a major international...

. Meiklejohn also represented the Scottish League XI

Scottish League XI

The Scottish League XI is a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture between the English and Scottish leagues was only second in...

 six times.

Meiklejohn retired from football in 1936 and took a job with the Daily Record

Daily Record (Scotland)

The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...

newspaper. In 1947 he became manager of Partick Thistle.

He collapsed and died, aged 58, in the director's box at Broomfield Park

Broomfield Park

Broomfield Park was a football stadium in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, home of Airdrieonians F.C. from 1892 until it was closed after the 1993-94 football season....

, home of Airdrieonians. On 15 November 2009 he was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame

Scottish Football Hall of Fame

The Scottish Football Hall of Fame is located at the Scottish Football Museum. Inductees are picked each year by fans and a committee selects the eight finalists who are inducted at an annual dinner....

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External links