Memories of a Scottish football genius, by family members who knew him best

Smile, it says. A beaming Jim McLean, one half of his face cast in black and white and the other half in washed out tangerine, stares out from a promotional poster for a play about the legendary Dundee United manager. It captures the attention of anyone walking in, as I did last week. But what really stopped me in my tracks was the sight of Colin, McLean’s eldest son, sitting below it.

Now 63, he is the absolute spit of his father. Actor Barrie Hunter did a superb job playing McLean in the aforementioned Smile, which premiered at Dundee Rep in February 2020. The make-up team worked hard to turn Hunter into that stentorian and complex football manager with a combover that we know so well. One wonders, given the likeness, whether the producers ever thought it might just be easier to put Colin through a course at RADA.

Few people knew McLean as well as Colin, although he has almost zero interest in football. “I was not sporty,” he tells me. “More science-y – and computers.”

He also doesn’t look as though he’s about to treat this journalist interloper with the contempt his father sometimes displayed towards members of the fourth estate. Although of course this is the cartoonish image of the man, the one Smile, written by Phil Differ, commendably steered away from. The play distinguished itself by being an intelligent attempt to get to the heart of what made the intense McLean tick.

“The worry was he could try to make a play about the ‘character’, the shouty, sweary version,” says Colin. “We were a bit wary. Thankfully he went after the rounder portrayal.”

Everyone remembers where they were when they heard Jim McLean had died. You don’t have to be a Dundee United supporter. For my part, I was in Hamilton, which looking back now seems relevant to note. McLean, who was born in Larkhall, began his senior football career at Hamilton Accies. I was working at their game versus Celtic when news began circulating that McLean had slipped away aged 83 following a long battle with dementia. Boxing Day, 2020. Five years ago today. Yes, really. It’s been that long.

The McLeans have gathered in the family home to share some thoughts and memories. Understandably, it’s a difficult time of year. As well as Colin, there’s Doris, Jim’s widow and gracious host who’s now 84, and Gary, the only true Dundonian out of the lot of them, he tells me. “A proud East Coaster!” he says. He was born in the city’s old Maryfield hospital despite the fact his dad was playing for Kilmarnock at the time.

The McLeans – then numbering only Doris, Jim and three-year-old Colin – moved to Dundee after Jim signed for Dundee FC in 1965. Unable for whatever reason to connect with the supporters, the forward endured an unhappy spell at Dens – “the most miserable time of my soccer career,” he writes in Jousting with Giants, his autobiography published in 1987 – and signed for Kilmarnock. His last competitive appearance for Dundee was a Fairs Cup semi-final second-leg clash against Leeds United at Elland Road.

Unhappiness on the other side of divide

Despite what he described as a “feud” with the fans and a distant relationship with directors, he was allowed to train at Dens Park for a couple of days a week while at Kilmarnock because the family were settled on Tayside.

Gary’s arrival in October 1968 made these roots deeper still, as did his father agreeing – after much persuasion from mentor John Prentice – to return to Dundee FC as coach. It proved a brief stay. After hearing Prentice was planning to emigrate to Australia and knowing he wasn’t being considered for the top job at Dundee, he accepted an offer to cross the road to succeed Jerry

Kerr as manager at Dundee United. It was a short journey with huge consequences, one of which was a shift in power balance between the city clubs on the way to United becoming champions of Scotland in 1983. Another upshot was Gary getting a motorbike, following 1980’s League Cup final victory over Dundee.

Gary had caught the football bug more than Colin and was extra invested in the outcome that afternoon at Dens Park. “Dad said if they won, you’d get a motorbike,” recalls Doris, now sitting on a sofa in the living room with a stunning view of the Tay. We have all moved through to more comfortable seats to continue chatting. “Gary was right over after the game,” she adds. “‘Can we go tomorrow and get my motorbike?’”

Gary confirms that McLean was true to his word following the 3-0 win. Amid all the hullabaloo in the days afterwards, Gary got his bike – a Honda 80cc ‘dirt bike’ that he could scramble about on in fields outside Dundee.

Now a fit-looking 57, he is already a year older than when his father stepped down as United manager in 1993 and moved ‘upstairs’. McLean later regretted the time he devoted to Dundee United at the expense of his family, but no apology seems necessary.

“We didn’t know anything different,” shrugs Gary. “You were brought up a certain way and you don’t know that’s different to other people. It is just normality.” And who could complain about being in the actual dugout, as Gary was, when United beat Barcelona in the Nou Camp.

They all had one last Christmas Day together in 2020. Britain was in the grip of a pandemic and a new phase of stricter measures was due to come into effect the following day. Stadiums were silent and bars were empty. Jim was in a nursing home nearby. Time was getting short. “We had been there since early morning on Christmas Day,” says Gary. Covid policy meant that even then, with the end drawing near, they had to stand outside his window.

“I was not going to go home,” remembers Doris. “But they made me go home. They said it could have been hours and hours and hours. I was not long in the house when I got the phone call.”

Pandemic restrictions and magnificent statue

Jim McLean’s funeral ought to have been a major, stop-the-traffic event. However, due to restrictions in place at the time, only 20 people could attend. Aside from family, there was little room for anyone else. None of his old Dundee United players were present.

There were never any plans to hold a memorial event at a later date but Smile, which opened earlier in the year, was a fitting tribute. A magnificent, illuminated statue of McLean, meanwhile, has stood on sentry duty at Tannadice since 2021.

It’s good to have been able to sit down with the McLeans. Although Doris attended a game last season along with Amanda Kopel, widow of former United player Frank, visits to Tannadice are getting rarer. Links are becoming fainter. A footballing dynasty is fading away.

Willie, Jim’s elder brother and former Motherwell manager, will be 91 in April. Ex-Rangers and Kilmarnock player Tommy, now 78, is battling illness. Both were at the funeral five years ago when mourners socially distanced two to a pew and said goodbye to, yes, a football genius, but also a brother, husband, uncle and dad.