Davie Provan has died

[Little General 80]

very sad news

 

http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/davie-provan/

[BrahimHemdani 1]

As I said in the match thread, I sat beside him at the abandoned game at Tannadice and often saw him at away games, Motherwell comes to mind. He was a true fan.

 

He was the reserve left back in the days when there was a first team and reserves, none of this squad nonsense.

 

He got his big break (no pun intended) when Eric Caldow broke his leg at Wembley, and he took over in the Rangers team. When Caldow came back and Bobby Shearer retired he was a regular at RB for several seasons until moving to Plymouth via Crystal Palace.

 

RIP Big Man

 

Although he was the reserve LB and got his chance in that position he told me he much preferred playing RB because he was right footed.

[26th of foot 6,055]

Davie was the regular left back when I began attending. Like his successor, Billy Mathieson, he was big, strong, and unassuming.

 

Thoughts with the family.

[boabie 230]

Davie was a very nice guy I had the fortune to speak to a few times.

I seem to remember a game against the manks when our keeper , Billy Richie [?] got injured. He went to outside left, big Davie took over in goal, and Davy Wilson moved to left back.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Davie was a very nice guy I had the fortune to speak to a few times.

I seem to remember a game against the manks when our keeper , Billy Richie [?] got injured. He went to outside left, big Davie took over in goal, and Davy Wilson moved to left back.

 

Quick bit of googling and found this on FF (yes I know but it's in a good cause today).

Having spent five seasons playing in the Reserves, Davie Provan finally broke into the Rangers first team after Eric Caldow's unfortunate leg break at Wembley at the tail end of the 62-63 season.

 

Provan had actually made his Rangers debut four years earlier in April 1959, as a Left Back in place of Eric Caldow, who happened to be playing at Wembley that afternoon for Scotland.

It would be almost two years before Provan made his second appearance in a Rangers shirt, this time as a right back in Feb 61'.

He would make one more appearance that season, as a left back.

By the time Davie Provan replaced Eric Caldow in April 63', he had made only 6 appearances in his 5 seasons at the Club.

By the end of May 63, Provan had played every minute of 16 competitive Games in 48 days!

 

Such was the severity of the winter that 62-63 season, Rangers still had 12 League games to play after Caldow's cruel break in April.

They also faced a Scottish Cup Semi Final, a Final, and a Final replay, and if that wasn't enough, a prestigious friendly against Arsenal at Highbury was squeezed in there as Rangers were forced to play 6 games in 12 days.

Davie Provan played in all 16 games as Rangers marched on to a glorious Double of League Championship and the Scottish Cup.

That left side trio of Baxter, Brand and Wilson in front of Provan, scored 27 goals between them in those 16 games.

The highlight of course being that famous 3-0 (v Celtic) 'easy easy' Scottish Cup Final Replay, that completed the Double.

 

The following season 63-64, saw a fantastic Rangers side sweep all before them to lift the Treble for only the second time in history.

The team for most of that season

Ritchie, Shearer, Provan, Greig, McKinnon, Baxter, Henderson, McLean, Forrest, Brand, Wilson:

The great Jimmy Millar being out injured at the start of the season, allowed teenage sensation Jim Forrest to burst onto the scene, with 39 goals in 38 games, before injury finished his season in March.

Millar still managed 28 appearances and capped off a fine season with 2 goals in the Scottish Cup Final (3-1 v Dundee), to secure that Historic Treble

Davie Provan played in 51 of the 52 games that famous season.

Provan also took up the responsibility of taking penalties and scored three in three games inside a week in Dec 63'.

Couple of interesting notes;

After only 6 League games into that season, Provan took Caldow's place in the National team, making his debut at Windsor Park.

Remarkably, after just over one year as Rangers left back, Provan had collected an incredible 5 Winners Medals (2 Championships, 2 Scottish Cups, and a League Cup), and had forced his way into the Scotland national side.

In that time he also faced Celtic 7 times.

The first game ended 1-1, the next six games saw Rangers win all six, scoring 14 goals and conceding only 1.

I don't recall the great Jimmy Johnstone getting much of a mention back then.

 

When the much awaited return of Caldow came, it was Captain Bobby Shearer who made way for him, as Provan retained his starting place in the side at Right Back.

64-65 saw Rangers lift the League Cup in October with a 2-1 win over Celtic in the Final.

This was Rangers Sixth consecutive domestic Trophy in the 18 months, since Provan had come into the team,

In what could be argued, as Rangers most successful period ever.

 

Davie Provan played in every minute in all of Rangers 54 games that season.

 

In fact, it was 55 games if you count the Glasgow Cup game v Celtic played at the end of that season, where Provan actually replaced Norrie Martin in Goal.

Rangers were unfortunately reduced to 9 men through injury when Rodger Hynd (ankle) was taken off and immediately went to hospital, and George McLean (gashed shin) did not reappear for the second half.

(this was typical of the sort of tactics that the recently appointed new Celtic manager Jock Stein would employ to gain an advantage)

This was in the days before substitutes when the injured could not be replaced.

Goalkeeper Martin also suffered a broken finger, that forced him to swap shirts with Davie Provan going in goals, and Martin having to play up front as an auxiliary striker for the remainder of the game.

 

In the summer of 65' Rangers went out and bought the Danish International right back, Kai Johansen.

Provan was switched back to Left Back, as Caldow made may for Johansen.

That 65-66 season saw Provan recalled to the Scotland team by new manager Jock Stein for the World Cup qualifier v Italy at Hampden.

Everyone remembers Scotland's right back for the night, John Greig, who scored that dramatic late winner, in one of Scotland's greatest ever wins,but few remember that Scotland's left back that famous night was Davie Provan.

(Ronnie McKinnon also made his Scotland debut that evening, as the three man Rangers/Scotland defence held the Italians to zero)

That season ended with Rangers collecting the Scottish Cup with a Kai Johansen special against Celtic in the replayed Final.

Provan played in 49 of the 51 games that season.

 

The 66-67 season was a bitter pill to swallow in many ways.

Robbed and cheated in the League Cup Final, as we went down 0-1 to Celtic.

Humiliated in the Scottish Cup by Berwick Rangers.

Pipped for the League Title in the last game of the season at Ibrox to Celtic in a 2-2 draw.

Going all the way to the European Cup Winners Cup Final, without a striker, when we got there!

Provan again played in all but 2 of the 54 games played.

 

Two league games into the 67-68 season, and only four months after Celtic had been crowned European Champions, Rangers defeated them 1-0 at Ibrox, in front of 90,000 fans, thanks to a wonderful solo goal from Orjan Persson.

Unfortunately the beauty of this goal and this win was overshadowed by a filthy crude tackle in the 4th minute of the game by Celtic's Bertie Auld, that resulted in a horrific broken leg for Davie Provan.

 

From the time that Eric Caldow suffered a broken leg in April 63' until Provan himself suffered the same fate in Sept 67'

Davie Provan had played in 229 of Rangers 234 games.

No other Rangers player (and that includes Greig and McKinnon) made that many appearances during that period.

 

Provan never fully recovered from that shocking tackle.

He did return to the side some 15 months later in December 68', as Rangers went on a 5 game winning streak (conceding only one goal), that included a 1-0 league win over Celtic at Ibrox in the New Year fixture, but he was never the same again.

He played in 25 games for Davie White, and only 2 under the recently appointed Willie Waddell, and made his final appearance for Rangers on March 28th 1970 in a League match at Ibrox.

 

One month later on April 28th, Davie Provan, along with Jim Baxter, was given a free transfer.

Edited November 26, 2016 by BrahimHemdani

[boabie 230]

I stand corrected BH - Norrie Martin it was !

Norrie broke either his collar bone or arm when I was very young so was usually stand-in to Billy Richie when I was attending Ibrox as a kid.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I stand corrected BH - Norrie Martin it was !

Norrie broke either his collar bone or arm when I was very young so was usually stand-in to Billy Richie when I was attending Ibrox as a kid.

 

Not at all Sir. I posted it as a tribute to DP not to pull you up for a memory lapse from 50 years ago!

[JFK-1 1,693]

Sympathies to his family.

 

[compo 6,980]

A good left back and stalwart in our defence .R.I.P.

[boabie 230]

Willie Henderson recalls in one of his 60's biographies how Yogi Hughes terrorised Kai Johansen during the 5-1 Glasgow cup match. So for the next cup final a short time later we switched big Davie on wings with Kai . Yogi gave Davie as hard a time in a game that ended up as a draw. Davie and Kai got put back to their normal positions for the replay - Kai scored the winning goal .

Edited November 27, 2016 by boabie
Made a mess of it. Whisky to blame.