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| Dougie Baird |
 Douglas Francis Hogg Baird was born on Tuesday, 26th November, 1935, in Falkirk. The 5' 8 (10st 6lbs) defender signed for David Meiklejohn's Thistle circa Monday, 29th August, 1955, having most recently been with Armadale Thistle. Aged 19, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 10th September, 1955, in a 1-1 draw away to Dunfermline Athletic in the SFL First Division. Dougie scored his only goal for Thistle on Saturday, 2nd November, 1957, in a 3-2 defeat at home to Third Lanark in the SFL First Division. He played his last game for the club on Wednesday, 31st August, 1960, in a 2-1 win away to Celtic in the League Cup, having clocked up 182 appearances as a Jag. His club-list included Armadale Thistle, Partick Thistle, Nottingham Forest, Plymouth Argyle, Tavistock and Hamilton Academical. Dougie died on Saturday, 23rd November, 2002, aged 66. |
 Dougie Baird joined Thistle as a defender in the late summer of 1955. He joined from Armadale Thistle, where he was an amateur player. His Jags career spanned 6 seasons, from 1955/56 to 1960/61. In the 1955/56 season, he played on 17 occasions, including 4 friendlies. One of the friendly matches was against Tottenham Hotspur on 14 November 1955. A 14,000 crowd saw Spurs win 1-0, and the match was to celebrate the official opening of the Firhill floodlights. Dougie took part in the opening part of the season, but didn’t play in the first team for the later matches – and missed the 9-1 drubbing of Queen of the South at Firhill in the SFL First Division match on 25 September 1956. A crowd of 15,000 were at the Wednesday evening match, and certainly had no inkling of what was to follow, with Wright opening the scoring for the Jags. A Sharp hat trick, Crawford scoring 2 and goals from Wright (his 2nd) Ewing and MacKenzie ensured a miserable night for the visitors. May 1956 saw Thistle embark on a whistle-stop tour of the Highlands. They did go by train. Dougie played in all 3 matches. To start, an Inverness Select beat the Jags 2-1. Then a 6-3 victory over Nairn County was followed up by a 4-1 win over Elgin City. The 1956/57 season saw Dougie play on 18 occasions, including 2 friendly matches. Thistle went all the way to the final of the League Cup this season. After a 0-0 draw, Celtic won the Cup Final replay 3-0. Dougie, however, didn’t play in any of the League Cup campaign matches. In 1957/58 Dougie played on 46 occasions, including a total of 31 league matches, out of the 34 scheduled. A solid Jags performance over the season saw them end up in 6th position in the League. Dougie played in former Jags defender Jimmy McGowan’s testimonial on 2 December 1957, against a strong Glasgow Select at foggy Firhill. The opposition included Bobby Shearer; Harry Haddock; Bobby Evans and Don Kitchenbrand. Thistle went down 3-2 in what the Evening Times called a “Bumper benefit for McGowan”. The 1958/59 season saw Dougie play on 44 occasions, including the 2-1 win over Celtic in the League Cup semi-final at Ibrox, in front of a 45,000 crowd. Dougie was injured and didn’t play in the Cup Final defeat against Hearts at Hampden. At the tail end of the season the Jags were roasted 10-1 by Dunfermline at East End Park. The Pars needed to win by a large margin to avoid relegation, and thereby succeeded in avoiding the drop by 1 point. During the 1959/60 season, Dougie played in 50 matches, including 1 friendly. In this most prolific season he missed only 1 league match, against Ayr United. He played in the season’s Glasgow Cup defeat by Rangers, where the Jags lost 2-1 at Hampden. In the 1960/61 season Thistle won the Glasgow Cup, beating Celtic 2-1 at Hampden. Dougie played in only the opening match of the Cup, a 5-1 win over Queen’s Park. All in all, Dougie played for Thistle on 182 occasions. Dougie did receive official recognition whilst at Firhill. In 1956 and 1957 he was selected for a couple of Combined Services XI matches. In December 1958, he was selected and played in the Scotland under 23 side defeated 2-1 by Wales at Tynecastle. He played for a Scottish league select versus a Scotland XI in an International Trial at Ibrox. In May 1959, he played for a SFA XI against Jutland in Aarhus, the match ending in a 3-3 draw. His final representative appearance was for the Scottish League in a 4-1 victory against the League of Ireland at Dalymount Park Dublin on 2 September 1959. The “Green on Green” Plymouth Argyll site takes up Dougie’s story: “In September 1960 he moved south to join Nottingham Forest for £10,000, going on to make 32 appearances in a two-year stay. In 1963 Argyle’s caretaker manager Andy Beattie, who managed Baird at Forest, brought the 28 year old to Home Park to begin five seasons with Argyle, mostly at left back, but sometimes on the right or at half back. On leaving Home Park he moved into local non-league football with Tavistock, where he stayed for two years.” The Hamilton Academical Memory bank then picks up on Dougie’s return to Scotland. “Tommy Ewing had been at Firhill at the same time as Doug and when Tommy became Manager to Accies he made him first team coach and he also turned out for the side in an emergency in 1970. Coached Dunipace Juniors in 1971.” Dougie passed away on 23 November 2002, at 66. |
| (DMAC) |
