Seeing Pat Quinn featured in a Hibs line-up on April 19 prompted an old friend to get in touch.
“I remember you telling me tales of Pat Quinn during your time with East Fife,” said Willie Donnelly, of Monifieth.
“One story in particular stands out when he locked the team up in a hotel, dropped you from the team for a big game and brought you back straight after.”
I was with East Fife in their promotion-winning season of 1970-71 — and we were winning most games.
One setback, though, came on New Year’s Day 1971.
That was in the days of playing two games over that period, with a match on New Year’s Day and another scheduled the following day (January 2).
East Fife were playing Raith Rovers — under former Methil manager Bill Baxter — at Stark’s Park on January 1, followed 24 hours later by a home match against Alloa Athletic.
Manager Pat Quinn arranged for the team to spend two nights in a Leven hotel.
It was, to put it mildly, quite boring in that establishment on Hogmanay.
This was still mainly the time of black and white TV and also was the pre-mobile era (around 30 years prior!).
I remember one of the highlights of my evening was queuing up at the payphone to get in touch with my family and girlfriend.
To further add to my woes, I was not selected to play against the Kirkcaldy side and watched the 2-1 defeat from the stand along with over 8,000 more spectators.
We just didn’t play well at all and Raith could — and should — have won more handsomely.
As I made my way down to the despondent dressing-room after the game, player-boss Quinn caught me at the door and said: “You are in the starting line-up tomorrow, Big Man!”
Although I stood at just 5ft 10in in my stocking soles, getting the nod for the following day made me feel 10ft tall.
For me, that was masterstroke No 1 from the boss. His second came when we went back to the hotel.
He summoned a few of the senior players together and it was decided to let us ‘out on the town’ that evening, with the senior players entrusted to ensure nobody stepped out of line.
The town in question was Kirkcaldy and a small fleet of cars headed along the coast.
I can say in all honesty that no-one stepped out of line and we enjoyed a few beers and a bit of banter.
So much so that the dressing-room was buzzing prior to the Alloa game and we ended up winning 3-1 — and it should have been a lot more.
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