Finishing a shift at the Waverley Hotel, he would journey along Caledonian Road, up the Dunkeld Road and into Muirton Park to watch a team quickly becoming his favourites.
Whether a brisk walk, jog or sprint, making the 2pm kick-off was always the mission. And the keen teenager was usually successful.
Donnie McPhee’s early association with St Johnstone had commenced and when 1952 came around the time had arrived to proudly purchase his first season ticket for the famous enclosure.
The Perth club was languishing down towards the lower region of Division B under manager Jimmy Crapnell but that did not matter a jot for Fair City born and bred Donnie.
Good days were ahead but perhaps he himself could not have predicted the path, journey and impressive loyal longevity that would come of this new beginning bristling with opportunities.
But last Saturday his smiling figure stood outside the home of the Saints - now McDiarmid Park - after happily committing to another year of highs and lows, twists and turns and memories to last a lifetime.
Donnie is now officially into his 70th consecutive year as a season ticket holder.
“Apart from my family, St Johnstone is the only other thing I think about,” laughed Donnie, who turns 91 on Friday.
“You can ask my wife and she’ll tell you... if they get beat, she doesn’t think I should come home!”
One of his earliest memories was a home League Cup game against Albion Rovers in season 1945/46.
“I remember various games and I was there when Willie McIntosh scored six goals out of nine against Albion Rovers in the cup,” reminisced Donnie. “That was before I went to do my national service.”
When Donnie had acquired his first season ticket seven decades ago he was working - after his stint at the Waverley and then national service - at Royal Navy (RN) Stores in Almondbank. Not long before he had been in the Middle East.
It was a job where, across the years, he would work with some of the part-time Perth players including the likes of Jim Goldie and Matt McVittie.
“I started going to Muirton Park and we were in the enclosure,” Donnie recalled.
“That is when we got our first season ticket for the ground. It meant you didn’t need to queue up because there was a special turnstile for coming in. You used to have to queue up Florence Place to get in.”
Donnie’s loyalty to Saints was standing up to the early test of time and away trips were regularly being penned in the diary. One memorable adventure was up to Forfar in season 1955/56.
“When I came back from the army I really did support them and went everywhere,” Donnie said with a smile.
“We went to play Forfar and it was snowing heavily, so we thought the game would be off. Forfar were well in front, 3-0 I think it was. At half-time they had to re-do the lines and clear the snow.
“With 10 minutes to go we were still getting beat and the referee called it off. He was the most famous referee to ever enter Muirton. We replayed the game in April and Joe Carr scored the one goal that won us the game.”
The Joe Carr-inspired side of the late 1950s early 1960s was a favourite of Donnie’s and he also would later enjoy watching Saints go toe-to-toe with the Lisbon Lions in the 1969 League Cup final.
A Bertie Auld finish after just two minutes would prove to be the only goal of the game but watching his team on such a grand stage was a particularly special moment.
That - and the European nights that would follow against Hamburg, Vasas Budapest and Željezničar Sarajevo - were certainly pinch yourself kind of experiences. It was not all blue and white roses, though.
The club would experience spells of financial uncertainty and Donnie chuckled: “I had joined a supporters’ committee and I recall, on one occasion, before it went really bad, one of the directors came and asked us for two or three hundred pounds to buy a player!”
At the end of the 1985 season, the team was going nowhere and the company was in grave danger of heading towards oblivion. There were no substantial assets and no money to bring in any decent players.
The impressively written Saints history book - Manifest Destiny - continues that the bank was largely in control of what the club could do. But there was a saviour in Geoff Brown, who took hold of the reins when all looked lost.
“I’ll tell you one thing, if it hadn’t been for Geoff Brown and his family, there would not have been a St Johnstone,” said Donnie, who also hailed the late Bruce McDiarmid.
“I have the greatest faith in Geoff and great admiration for him.”
By this point, Donnie had happily been attending the football with his son, David, who quickly had the Saints bug too.
“David is even keener than me now,” Donnie says. “I don’t go to too many away games now. He goes everywhere.”
Donnie was more than happy to fast forward to 2014 which was, of course, the year the Fair City’s finest lifted a first piece of major silverware under manager Tommy Wright.
That 2-0 Scottish Cup final win at Celtic Park is forever etched in the memory and Donnie beamed: “I was ecstatic.
“I couldn’t get to the semi-final and I can’t quite remember the reason. I think it was an army reunion. But I had to go to the final. Whatever I was supposed to do, I cancelled it and made sure I was at the final.
“Honestly, your heart lifts. We were really the underdogs - everyone thought Dundee United would win. When Anderson and MacLean got the goals, you just couldn’t believe it.”
The smiles and special times of that May 17 cup win continue to linger in Perth today and some suggest the blue and white confetti from the Sunday after-party can still be seen fluttering in the city centre sky.
Successful times would continue with top six finishes, European football and then, in 2021, the unfathomable cup double success at Hampden. The League Cup and the Scottish Cup hoisted high in the same season.
Certainly, Donnie would have ventured through to the east end of Glasgow to watch the incredible quest in person but coronavirus lockdown rules meant both finals had to be taken in from back home.
Donnie, who was grateful to receive a crate of goodies from Saints in the Community during lockdown as well as speak to Tommy Wright and Henry Hall over the phone, said: “I had to watch the finals on the television.
“My granddaughter Caitlin came and sorted it all for me so I could watch them – she’s a Saints season ticket holder now too.
“In a way it was disappointing that I wasn’t there. But, as usual, you were just over the moon. Nobody believed they could do the double.”
Ever since McDiarmid Park opened in 1989, Donnie has called the Main Stand home and he is a very familiar face in the Campbell Suite where he is never short of meeting friends old and new.
“A personal friend of mine when he was playing - and I always remember him - was Kenny Aird,” Donnie explained.
“They have a reunion every so often and he always makes a point of speaking to me. At the last game of the season, our former captain Jason Kerr and Ali McCann were both in too.”
Like those former Perth stars, Donnie was relieved that Saints were able to escape falling through the Premiership trap door last season by defeating Inverness over the two-legged play-off.
And he was a big fan of the atmosphere created on what turned out to be a night to remember for all the right reasons.
“We seem to have quite a good support now, don’t we? That is needed I think,” Donnie told the PA.
“Even at the friendly (against Cove Rangers) they were making themselves heard.”
After picking up his 70th consecutive season ticket before the Cove Rangers friendly, Donnie was presented with a signed gift from the club and is as proud as ever to be supporting the Saints.
He concluded: “I’m just St Johnstone mad. I could spend a fortune elsewhere because I have friends who are Celtic and Rangers supporters. But Saints is the only team.
“Long may they continue.”
