To coincide with last week’s 40th anniversary celebrations of Dundee Utd winning the Scottish Premier League, a BBC pal sent me a clip of the late, great Jim McLean when he appeared on my old Monday night TV show Offside. (Feel free to check out the footage @therealtamcowan on Instagram.)
To the sheer delight of the studio audience, the famously crabbit-faced Tannadice boss joined in the fun from start to finish and, a tidy player back in his day with Kilmarnock, he even beat my other guest Tommy Sheridan in a keepy-uppy contest. (This, of course, was a couple of years before Tommy went on to prove NOBODY could beat him at keepy-uppy…)
In fact, I didn’t even have to use my secret weapon – a Ken Dodd-style tickling stick tucked beneath my chair – to make Jim smile. Yep, he was terrific fun and I still get goosebumps when I think of him coming up to me in the green room after the show, shaking me by the hand and saying how much he’d enjoyed himself.
Jim was also on top form a few weeks later, sitting alongside fellow columnists including me and Stuart Cosgrove at the Daily Record sports desk Christmas lunch. After about four unforgettable hours of stories, jokes and general hilarity, I’ll never forget his parting shot as the great man headed to Central Station for the train back to Dundee. “Right, that’s enough fun for me,” he said. “I’m away up the road to put my cheeks back in the fridge…” Brilliant!
Anyway, folks, I was thinking of Jim McLean’s beaming smile this week when the nation witnessed something else you wouldn’t expect from another football great… That’s right – legendary hardman Graeme Souness in floods of tears on live TV. The former Liverpool, Rangers and Scotland hero broke down on breakfast telly while being interviewed about his forthcoming swim across the English Channel to raise money for the charity DEBRA. And I bet I wasn’t the only viewer who was also reaching for the hankies.
To be honest, I wasn’t really surprised to see the big man getting a bit emotional. I’ve seen this side of Souness before (whisper it, but he’s actually a big softie!) when he was our special guest four years ago at the annual bash for the St Andrew’s Hospice in Airdrie.
On the afternoon of the event, I’d heard big-hearted Graeme had popped into the hospice to visit Fernando Ricksen – the former Rangers player who was bravely battling MND and would pass away peacefully just weeks later – and, when I mentioned it in our Q&A at night, yep, the tears welled up in his eyes.
Souness is hoping to raise £1million to help kids with epidermolysis bullosa disorder (like his wee best pal Isla from Inverness) and I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing him all the very best. If you’d like to sponsor Graeme and his team – and this is a classic example of every penny helps – please go to donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/debraswim.
I’ll get the ball rolling by donating my fee for today’s column to a terrific cause. Good luck, Graeme. For a 70-year-old man with a history of heart problems, it’s fair to say swimming the English Channel is quite a challenge. In fact, how many Rangers fans who still worship the man they affectionately call The Magnificent B*****d must be thinking: “Why doesn’t he just walk it…?”
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