Retired (and slightly portly) footballer Derek Johnstone with councillors Susan Baird (later a Lord Provost) and Hugh McRae at the opening of a new all-weather football pitch at Greenfield, photographed for the September 1987 issue of Glasgow City Council's newspaper The Bulletin. The pitch consists of a layer of decompacted top soil covered by 7 inches of coarse sand, and it was designed to take over 15 hours play a week while remaining unaffected by rain.
Born in Dundee, Derek Johnstone became an overnight sensation at the age of 16 when he scored the only goal of the game for Rangers in the final of the 1970 League Cup against Celtic. Excellent as a striker and as a central defender he made 369 appearances for Rangers, scoring 131 goals, before retiring in 1986 and becoming (briefly) manager of Partick Thistle. Johnstone was Scottish Player of the Year in 1978 and was capped fourteen times for Scotland. He won the European Cup-Winners Cup with Rangers in 1972 and domestic honours included three league championships and five Scottish Cup winners' medals. He became a sports broadcaster with Radio Clyde.
Reference: Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection, Bulletin Photographs
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
all-weather football pitches, broadcasters, Bulletin, councillors, European Cup-Winners Cup, football commentators, football managers, footballers, Glasgow Rangers FC, lord provosts, Players of the Year, Radio Clyde, Scotland football team, Scottish Cup, Scottish League, Scottish League Cup