A History of Dundee United Football Club
Inspired by the examples
of Hibernian in Edinburgh and Celtic in Glasgow, the Irish community in Dundee
formed a new football club in 1909, following the demise of Dundee Harp. Originally
called Dundee Hibernian, the club took over Clepington Park (renamed Tannadice
Park) from Dundee Wanderers and played their inaugural game on 18 August 1909
against Hibernian, with the match ending in a 1-1 draw. The club was saved from
going out of business in October 1923 by a group of Dundee businessmen. They decided
to change the club's name to Dundee United in order to attract a wider appeal.
The name Dundee City was considered but was protested by city rivals Dundee.
For
many years, the club languished in the lower reaches of the Scottish league, competing
in the top division only four seasons, until the appointment of Jerry Kerr as
manager in 1959. Kerr ended the club's 28-year absence from the First Division
in his first season in charge, winning promotion through finishing second in the
Second Division. Some notable players from this period included forwards Dennis
Gillespie and Jim Irvine, and defenders Doug Smith and Ron Yeats (who went on
to captain Liverpool in the 1960s).
In the following season, United finished
in the top half of the league (one place above city rivals Dundee, a Dundee team
that won the league in that era), where the club would stay with few exceptions
for the next 35 years. The sixties were highlighted by the playing skills of the
some notable imports from Scandinavia: Orjan Persson, Finn Seemann, Lennart Wing,
Finn Døssing and Mogens Berg. These players also helped give United their
first taste of the European scene, where they sensationally eliminated Barcelona
in 1966, who were the then-holders of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (now known as
the UEFA Cup).
Jim McLean, who was a coach at city rivals Dundee F.C. at the
time, took over from Jerry Kerr in 1971 and the most successful era in the club's
history began. Up until this point, United was the smaller and less successful
of the two Dundee-based football clubs. Infact when Dundee United knocked Celtic
out of the Cup a decade or so earlier, it was a comparable giant killing to the
famous 1-0 victory of Berwick Rangers, over Glasgow Rangers of the 1960s. However,
this would change as McLean (and for a time, with assistant manager Walter Smith)
took United to their first ever Scottish Cup final in 1973-74. They achieved a
record high of third place in the Scottish Premier Division in 1978 then again
in 1979, before guiding the side to several major honours; the first by winning
the Scottish League Cup in 1979-80, with the trophy being retained the following
season. McLean's use of youth was seen as key in the club's success for the next
two decades.
Dundee United's best season came in 1982-83 when they won the
Scottish Premier Division title for the first time in the club's history, with
what was then a record number of points and record number of goals scored. With
Celtic equal with them on points, and very close in number of goals scored, and
with Aberdeen the 2-1 Victors of the European Cup Winners Cup that season, not
many points behind, and also in close competition for the title right o the end.
This United team, used very few players and had had a not all that good tour before
the season. By then, United had already established a reputation in Europe with
impressive wins over sides like AS Monaco, Borussia Mönchengladbach, PSV
Eindhoven, Anderlecht and Werder Bremen.
In the resulting European Cup, United
reached the semi-final stage in their first run, only to be narrowly eliminated
by A.S. Roma. After winning the first leg 2-0, United lost 3-0 away, although
the Italian side were later fined for attempting to bribe the referee.
The
pinnacle of their achievements in Europe came later in 1986-87 when United became
the first Scottish club to reach the final of the UEFA Cup. Along the way, United
repeated their earlier 1966 feat of again eliminating FC Barcelona then managed
by Terry Venables and featuring British players Gary Lineker, Mark Hughes and
Steve Archibald, with victories home and away. United are the only British side
to achieve this in any European competition, with a record of four wins from four
games.
Although they failed to beat IFK Göteborg in the two legged final,
there was glory in defeat as FIFA awarded a first-ever Fair Play Award to the
club for the sporting behaviour of the fans on a memorable night at Tannadice
Park. In reality reaching a Uefa Cup Final is comparable to winning a trophy.
It makes your club mentioned across Europe, and is a honour for Scotland too.
During
those years, Dundee United and Aberdeen broke the traditional dominance of the
Old Firm in Scottish football, and the two clubs became known as the New Firm.
As Dundee F.C. were not always in the top flight at that time, the New Firm derby
had superseded the Dundee derby. With at times the stadiums near to full, for
a series, which included title deciders, cup finals, and many Semi Finals.
Dundee
United had come a long way under McLean, progressing from comparative obscurity
to become one of Scotland's foremost clubs. However, after nearly 22 years at
the helm he relinquished the position in the June 1993, whilst remaining Chairman
of the Club.
Filling his shoes was the first continental to be appointed manager
of a Scottish club - Ivan Golac. He inherited a healthy legacy with some of Scotland's
finest young talent, though his first action was to sell Duncan Ferguson to Rangers
for a fee of £4 million, breaking the record transfer fee involving two
British clubs. According to one source, United had already turned down £3million
bids from Bayern Munich, Leeds United and Chelsea before accepting Rangers' record
bid.
In Golac's first season, he brought the Scottish Cup to Tannadice Park
for the first time in 1994 after six previous failures, thus completing the full
set of domestic honours for the club. United beat Rangers 1-0 with Craig Brewster
scoring the winner from close range, sparking headlines of 'seventh heaven' in
various newspapers.
However, the club's fortunes took a turn for the worse
after this, as despite enjoying a relatively average campaign in season 1994-95,
a late run of defeats, culminating in a 1-0 defeat at home to Celtic on the last
day, saw them relegated to the First Division. Despite being title favourites
at the lower level, they eventually finished second. This left them facing a two
leg playoff against Partick Thistle for the right to play in the Premier Division
in the 1996-97 season. Dundee United won 3-2 on aggregate, thus becoming the only
club to be promoted through this short-lived play-off system.
In recent years
the club has struggled to maintain such success, much like the previous provincial
powers of Scottish football. In 1997-98, United reached the League Cup final,
but lost 3-0 to Celtic. United reached their first Scottish Cup final for eleven
years in 2004-05, only to be beaten by Celtic again, 1-0.
Click here to view cottages in Tayside, and Dundee
This history is up to the end of 2006.
Dundee United have won 1 Scottish League Championship,
1 Scottish Cup, 2 League Cups, been Uefa Cup Runners Up once, been Scottish Cup
Runners up 7 times, and League Cup Runners Up 3 times. With 7 League Championship
3rd places, and 2 European semis, and 4 European Quarter Final reachings. Upto
the start of the 2006-2007 season.
Here are some more sites,
Links to our 100s of websites, http://www.lonympics.co.uk/
Why Scottish teams should not join the English League
A site on football http://www.lonympics.co.uk/TRY.htm
(1)A site saying the best scottish sport team results ever, including what were these British Cups,
(2)A site listing all World Club Championship wins, including Scottish 19thC wins
Aberdeen interesting facts site
A Multiple Choice Quiz on Aberdeen FC
A Multiple Choice Quiz on Inverness Caledonian Thistle
A list of which nations have won the Most European trophies,
The Teams of the decade, from the 1870s-1950s, in Scottish Football
A Multiple Choice Quiz on Scottish Football