Torry Gillick

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Torry Gillick
Personal information
Full name Torrance Gillick
Date of birth 19 May 1915
Place of birth Airdrie, Scotland
Date of death 16 December 1971(1971-12-16) (aged 56)
Place of death Glasgow
Height 5 ft 7+12 in (1.71 m)[1]
Position(s)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Petershill
1933–1935 Rangers 46 (34)
1935–1945 Everton 119 (40)
1945–1950 Rangers 58 (25)
1951–1952 Partick Thistle 7 (1)
Total 230 (100)
International career
1937–1938 Scotland 5 (2)
1940–1943 Scotland (wartime) 4 (1)
1947–1948 Scottish League XI 3 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Torrance Gillick (19 May 1915 – 16 December 1971) was a Scottish footballer who played as a winger for Rangers, Everton and Partick Thistle, and for the Scotland national team.

Club career

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Born in Airdrie, Gillick was signed for Rangers in 1933, aged 18, by manager Bill Struth, after playing for prominent Glasgow junior club Petershill.[2] In his first spell with the club, he won the Scottish League and Scottish Cup in 1934–35,[3] and that summer was sold to Everton for a then record fee for the club, £8,000.[4]

He stayed on Merseyside until the Second World War and during that time won a Football League championship medal in 1939.[5]

During World War II, Gillick "guested" for home-town Airdrieonians and Rangers.[6][3] At the end of the war in 1945, Struth brought him back to Ibrox.[7] He developed into a forward with excellent ball control and vision and became a feature in the famous post-war Rangers side, forming a partnership on the right wing with Willie Waddell.[4] In his second spell at Rangers, he won one League Championship medal (1946–47), a Scottish Cup in 1947–48 and two League Cup medals (1946–47, 1948–49) in addition to several wartime competitions.[3] By coincidence, the last trophy he lifted was the Glasgow Cup with a win over Clyde in October 1949, the same tournament and opponent the first cup he won with Rangers 16 years earlier.[3]

Gillick left Rangers in 1950 but made a comeback Partick Thistle in August 1951. He played one season with the Jags[8] (managed at that time by his former Rangers teammate Davie Meiklejohn) before retiring to oversee his business interest, a Lanarkshire scrap metal firm. He died on 12 December 1971, aged 56, from undisclosed causes, on the same day as Alan Morton, also a retired Rangers player.[6][4]

International

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Gillick was capped five times by Scotland between May 1937 and November 1938.[9] He also played in four unofficial wartime international matches,[10] and was selected three times for the Scottish Football League XI in the late 1940s once he returned to Rangers.[11]

References

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  1. ^ "Everton. Not stampeded". Sunday Dispatch Football Guide. London. 23 August 1936. p. iv – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ John Litster (October 2012). "A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players". Scottish Football Historian magazine. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d Rangers player Gillick, Torry, FitbaStats
  4. ^ a b c Hall of Fame: Torry Gillick Rangers FC
  5. ^ Gillick, Torrance 'Torry', Everton Encyclopedia
  6. ^ a b Lamming, Douglas (1987). A Scottish Soccer Internationalists Who's Who, 1872-1986. Hutton Press. ISBN 0-907033-47-4.
  7. ^ "The Caskie affair – a fresh look at the Rangers v Dynamo Moscow match of 1945". Scottish Sport History. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  8. ^ Torry Gillick, The Thistle Archive
  9. ^ Torry Gillick at the Scottish Football Association
  10. ^ "Scotland player Torrance Gillick (including unofficial matches)". London Hearts Supporters Club. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  11. ^ SFL player Torrance Gillick, London Hearts Supporters Club