| Brian Whittaker |
 Brian John Whittaker was born on Sunday, 23rd September, 1956, in Glasgow. The 6' 0 (11st 0lbs) defender signed for Bertie Auld's Thistle on Friday, 26th July, 1974, having most recently been with Sighthill Amateurs. Aged 18, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 26th April, 1975, in a 2-2 draw away to Clyde in the SFL First Division. Brian scored his first goal for Thistle on Saturday, 13th March, 1976, in a 5-0 win at home to Meadowbank Thistle in the Spring Cup. He scored the last of his 6 goals on Saturday, 15th January, 1983, in a 3-1 win away to Clydebank in the SFL First Division. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 13th August, 1983, in an 8-0 friendly win away to Hawick Royal Albert, having clocked up an impressive 358 appearances as a Jag. His club-list included Partick Thistle, Celtic, Heart of Midlothian and Falkirk. Brian died on Sunday, 7th September, 1997, in Edinburgh, aged 40. |
 Brian Whittaker arrived from Firhill from Sighthill Amateurs, a rich source of talent for Thistle over the years, at the start of the 1974-75 season. The classy left sided full-back would spend his first season at Firhill in the reserves but did enjoy success at that level. In April 1975 with an otherwise disappointing season drawing to a close, Thistle would fail to secure a place in the first Premier Division. However the reserve side carried off the Scottish Reserve Cup defeating Dundee 2-1 in the Firhill final. The victorious side included a number of first team stalwarts of seasons to come was as follows: Billy Thomson, Jim Holmers, Brian Whittaker, John Kennedy, Bobby Clark, Ian Gibson, Tommy Rae, Frank Coulston, John Marr, Steve Chalmers and Archie Lochrie. Subs: Jim Kelly and Danny McCluskey. The following season, Thistle made light work of winning the first ever First Division title in Scotland's new three division format. At home the team lost just one League game all season. That game, against Airdrieonians on a foggy afternoon in October, just happened to also be Whittaker's first team debut. That was Whittaker's solitary appearance in the League that season - his first team appearances other-wise being a League Cup-tie with Clydebank and to the inaugural and only Spring Cup competition. Whittaker played in seven of Thistle's eight games in that competition and once established in the first team he was rarely out of it. In season 1976-77, Thistle's centenary season and first in the Premier Division, he played in every League game - a feat he would repeat two years later. In 1977-78 and 1979-80 he missed just one League game each season, and the following campaign he missed two. Not until season 1981-82, when Thistle were relegated from the Premier Division, was Whittaker missing from the first team for any significant period of time. Although a near permanent feature in the Thistle squad Brian was anything but a prolific goal scorer, but as a defender that was perhaps no great surprise. On only six occasions did Whittaker find the net for the club, with the pleasant habit of chipping in with the occasional goal against Rangers. The first of his sextet was the winner in a 2-1 win against Rangers at Firhill in October 1976 and he also scored in a 1-1 draw against the same opponents in April 1981. The kind of consistency that Whittaker demonstrated naturally brought him to the attention of others. Although called up into the Scotland Under 21 squad he wasn't capped at that level. He did, however, twice line-up for the Scottish League, appearing against the Irish League in 1978 and against the Italian League in 1980. In addition he was included in the Scotland Select team that faced Rangers in John Greig's testimonial match. Back at Firhill the introduction of the Freedom of Contract severely hampered Thistle's chances of holding on to their top players. In the summer of 1979 they lost Colin McAdam, Jim Melrose and Ian Gibson and for a while it looked as if Whittaker would join them. Whittaker had trial periods in Germany with Hertha Berlin and Borrusia Dortmund and in general made little secret of his desire to play his football at a higher level. As it turned out, Whittaker would have to wait a few years before getting his move but in the meantime his reputation with the Thistle supporters had been damaged. The last of Whittaker's 358 appearances for Thistle came on 9 August 1983 when he played against Celtic in a Glasgow Cup-tie at Firhill. A few days later he, ironically enough, became a Celtic player with John Buckley coming in the reverse direction as part of the deal. Whittaker lasted just one season with Celtic making ten first team appearances. He enjoyed altogether more success with his next club, Hearts. He made over 150 appearances in his six years at Tynecastle and was part of the squad that came so close to winning the League and Cup double in season 1986. His playing career was roundced off with a spell with Falkirk before he returned to Tynecastle to take up a position on the Hearts coaching staff. In September 1997 Brian was tragically killed in a car crash. He was just 40 years of age. |
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