| Colin Jackson |
 Colin Macdonald Jackson was born on Tuesday, 8th October, 1946, in London. The 6' 0½ (12st 5lbs) defender signed for Peter Cormack's Thistle on Monday, 25th October, 1982, having most recently been with Morton. Aged 36, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 30th October, 1982, in a 1-1 draw at home to Heart of Midlothian in the SFL First Division. There were no goals for Colin during his time with Thistle. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 30th April, 1983, in a 2-1 defeat away to Dumbarton in the SFL First Division, having appeared as a Jag on 22 occasions. His club-list included Banks O' Dee, Sunnybank, Rangers, Morton and Partick Thistle. Colin died on Saturday, 6th June, 2015, in Glasgow, aged 68. |
 Colin was born in London, but grew up in Aberdeen, starting his football career whilst still a schoolboy in the juniors with Banks O' Dee. He signed provisional terms for Rangers in 1962, but continued his football with Sunnybank to gain experience, before moving down to Glasgow a year later. Not many players break the 500 appearances mark for one club, and to do so where the demands are notoriously high, speaks volumes for the man who would be inducted into the inaugural Rangers hall-of-fame in 1999. The big centre half was at Ibrox for the best part of 20 years, spending a couple of seasons in the third team then reserves before getting his first competitive start against Partick Thistle on New Years Day 1966, just as he'd turned 19. He won three league titles, three Scottish Cups and five League Cups during his time at Ibrox, doing the classic domestic treble in both 1976 and 1978. Perhaps his greatest highlight was guiding Rangers to the European Cup Winners Cup in 1972, playing in 7 of the 8 matches, albeit it was agonising for him when he turned on his ankle on the eve of the final, a training mishap which sidelined him from the main event against Dynamo Moscow in Barcelona. The big man was finally recognised, in his 29th year, as being international class by Scotland manager Willie Ormond in the springtime of 1975, from when he had a run of 8 caps in a 13-month period. Following on from Jimmy Walker (American), David Harvey (English) and Paul Wilson (Indian), London-born Colin was the fourth non-Scot to join our internationalists club wearing the lion rampant on his chest. On 16 April 1975 he made his debut in a 1-1 frienly draw in Sweden and, following an early injury to Martin Buchan, made his home debut a month later in a pleasing 1-0 win over Portugal, another friendly, with former Jag Arthur Duncan making his international debut that night. Colin kept his place 4 days later for the British Championship encounter versus Wales in Cardiff, partnering Gordon McQueen at the heart of the defence. Scotland came back from two down at half-time to salvage a 2-2 draw, bossing the second half, and it was Colin who started the comeback in the 52nd minute, heading in Derek Parlane’s cross. Bruce Rioch squared it 8 minutes later with a powerful shot. Keeping his unbeaten run going, the big man appeared in Euro Qualifiers against Denmark (a 3-1 win) and Romania (a 1-1 draw) before the year was out. In May 1976, Colin's intertnational career finished in superb style with 3 Home International wins in the space of 10 days. For that quickfire campaign, Willie Ormond opted for the Rangers central defensive partnership of Tom Forsyth and Colin Jackson and it paid off with a triptych of Hampden wins over Wales (3-1), Northern Ireland (3-0) and England (2-1). The match against England was a real classic in front of 85,167. Don Masson cancelled out Mick Channon's early goal before Kenny Dalglish famously nutmegged Ray Clemence to give Scotland the 2 points and the title. That was perhaps Colin's best match in a Scotland shirt, but it also turned out to be his last. Martin Buchan, Tom Forsyth and Gordon McQueen would be rotated in the months and years that followed. Colin could always point to his 8 game unbeaten run with less than a goal-per-game conceded and make a case that he deserved more caps. Colin started 1982-83 as a Morton player on a monthly contract basis, but Partick Thistle manager Peter Cormack seen him as an ideal fit to help with our quest to bounce-back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, and signed the 36-year-old to terms in late October 1982. Colin showed his class until the end of the season, marshalling the Thistle defence, but the Jags fell just short, 6 points behind the champions, St Johnstone. He left Thistle at the end of that season, returning to Morton for the start of 1983-84, turning out on a handful of occasions before retiring to become a partner in an East Kilbride printing venture. Colin is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists → |
| (WS) |
8 caps, 1 goal
d. Glasgow, 2015 (68)
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