Quiz Ball was the original BBC sports show that was to prove a happy hunting ground for Scottish football sides.
Celtic won the programme twice with Dunfermline the last winners in 1971.
David Vine was the original host of the BBC 1 show.
The rules were pretty simple.
Each team was made up of the club manager, two players and a celebrity guest.
Teams chose whether to take four easy questions, three medium questions, two hard questions or one tough question to score a goal.
The opposition could opt to buzz in and answer a “tackle” question in order to block the run, but a wrong answer would result in an own goal.
The team with the most goals at the end of the show was the winner and would go through to the next round.
Flying the flag
The first series started in December 1966 and featured 16 teams from England and Scotland including Dundee United, Dunfermline, Motherwell and St Mirren.
United’s team of manager Jerry Kerr, Doug Smith, Jimmy Briggs and celebrity guest Joe Brady from Z Cars were defeated 2-1 by Leicester City in the first round.
Motherwell and St Mirren suffered a similar fate.
That left Dunfermline to fly the flag for Scottish football in the first series.
“The club held a quiz in the lounge at East End Park to pick the players for the team,” recalled former Dunfermline winger Jim Fleming.
“It was myself and Jim Fraser who came out on top and took part with the manager, Willie Cunningham.
“Gordon Jackson was the celebrity supporter for most of the programmes.
“He couldn’t make it one week and was replaced by Ellen McIntosh, an actress from Dr Finlay’s Casebook.
“I remember us flying down to play Tottenham and then having to come straight back to play in a real game of football.”
Jackson was best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and as George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals.
Having seen off Sheffield Wednesday, Tottenham and Southampton, Dunfermline met Arsenal in the first Quiz Ball final on March 23 1967.
Arsenal won 7-3 after being represented by Ian Ure, Terry Neill and Bertie Mee, with BBC radio DJ Jimmy Young as their celebrity supporter.
This was Arsenal’s only trophy success between 1953 and 1970!
Famous names
Aberdeen, Celtic, Cowdenbeath, Dundee, Falkirk, Hearts, Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle also took part in Quiz Ball during its 1966-1971 domestic run.
A number of other famous names turned up during the series.
Mastermind host Magnus Magnusson appeared twice as a guest supporter for Kilmarnock and Alex Ferguson took part in 1970 while he was playing for Falkirk.
Magnusson was once asked what his Killie connection was.
He replied: “None. I did it because I was asked to.”
Stranger still was Andy Stewart the Buddie!
The entertainment legend who called Arbroath home and set the tone for Hogmanay TV was a guest supporter of St Mirren in 1967!
Dunfermline returned for series six in 1971 and were represented by Alex Wright, John Cushley and Jim Fraser, with entertainer Jimmy Logan as the guest supporter.
Only eight teams now took part and Wright’s charges defeated Birmingham and Chelsea to win a place in the final against Leicester City on October 26 1971.
Nicholas Parsons was Leicester’s guest fan.
But then things took a strange twist.
Doctor Who actor Jon Pertwee was called off the bench to appear as a last-minute substitute for Jimmy Logan in the Dunfermline ranks.
The Third Doctor came away with a winner’s medal as the Pars won 3-1 in the final, Cushley scoring a hat-trick and Parsons replying for the Foxes.
The Quiz Ball trophy was a bright spot during the 1971-72 season for Dunfermline.
Wright’s side was relegated from the top flight.
Pertwee, meanwhile, returned to the Tardis to tackle adversaries including the Autons, the Master, Omega, the Sontarans, the Silurians and the Sea Devils.
The 1971 final won by Dunfermline was the last edition of the show’s run to include club sides with the final two seasons featuring international sides.
Brain-box defender Cushley would triumph again in 1972 as part of the Scotland side that defeated Northern Ireland 6-2 in the final.
Cushley, of course, was far from your average footballer.
A modern languages graduate of Glasgow University, he famously acted as interpreter in 1964 when he and Jimmy McGrory travelled to Spain to try to persuade Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano to sign for Celtic during his time at Parkhead.
He would go on to forge a new career in education when he finally retired in 1976.
Third Doctor
But was Pertwee really a Par?
He proved the perfect substitute whatever his credentials!
One sub who stayed on the bench was just starting his Dunfermline journey.
Signed in 1968, Jim Leishman was a player substitute on the 1971 show and although he didn’t play, he would go on to write his name in the club’s folklore.
He played for Dunfermline until 1977 before returning as manager in 1982, which began an unforgettable surge up the leagues including promotion to the Premier League.
Leishman’s side also took the scalps of Rangers in the Scottish Cup in 1988 where he became famous for reciting poems about football before games.
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