Hamish French

Name: Hamish Mackie French

DOB: 07/02/64

POB: Aberdeen

Position: Forward, attacking midfielder, central midfielder

Clubs: Formartine United, Keith, Dundee United, Dunfermline, Alloa, Cowdenbeath

You have to love a “Silver Fox” on the football pitch
because unlike the animal from which this forced moniker derives, grey haired
footballers are actually quite rare. The relative youthful age in which a
football career occurs is the obvious reason, while the increased fame and
image awareness of the athletes plays its part, but the sport does have a
tendency to put a stigma on age and a new manager might just look at grey
haired, obviously older looking, player and let the premature ageing indication
subconsciously impact his judgement of how much the athlete has left.

Whatever the reason, the good silver foxes are celebrated in
a cult hero status by their fans, particularly in an age when the image of a
professional football is a slick haired, Louis Vutton wearing bawbag. Hamish
French was certainly not that, but neither was he just a cult hero, he was a
legend in the eyes of Dunfermline Athletic fans for many years.

French’s arrival in professional football was another
curiosity that is becoming commonly rare, in that he didn’t begin until he was
23. With the advancement in youth scouting and networks it is unimaginable that
the bigger clubs would let a skilled player fly under the radar for so long,
but this was a different era. French began his career in the early eighties,
where there wasn’t a chasm between the money earned between the everyday
working stiff and the revered sports star. So French, despite knowing he was
pursued by Jim McLean’s Dundee United, put off the switch from his semi-pro career
at Highland
club Keith until he had completed his engineering apprenticeship.

His time at Tannadice was plagued by bad luck that began two
days after his United debut when he broke his leg during a training session.
The injury problems never let him become established in the starting eleven,
although he did start and play the whole 120 minutes in the club’s 1991
Scottish Cup Final defeat to Motherwell. It was to be one the last games French
would play for the club and a move to Dunfermline
materialised two months into the following campaign.

It wasn’t the ideal time, football wise, in which to make
the switch to Fife. The team were clearly out
their depth at the top level, feeling the ignominy of relegation well before
the season concluded. French would remain as a key component of the rebuilding
job required under Jocky Scott, who’d taken over from the struggling Iain Munro
the previous season but couldn’t help Dunfermline
avoid the drop.

In French, the management team had a player adored by both
the coaching staff and the fans. An incredibly fit human, he was able to run
all day and possessed immense strength for someone standing under 6ft tall with
a deceptively slight frame; he would constantly vex opposing defenders; not a
prolific or intimidating opponent but an absolute nightmare to mark. That’s not
to say he didn’t get his fair share of goals, bagging over 60 strikes in his
nine years with the club. A modest but respectable figure when you consider
that he moved back into midfield in his advancing years.

In 1996 the club had their return to the Premier Division
under the guidance of Bert Paton, who’d assembled an impressive second tier
side after succeeding the floundering Scott in 1993. The club would stay in the
league for three seasons before dropping back down at the completion of the
1998/99 season, with Paton losing his position.

Again it was time to rebuild, Jimmy Calderwood was the
incoming manager and his first decision was what to do with the moribund
playing careers of popular players French and goalkeeper Ian Westwater.
Calderwood made an early first impression with the supporters and gave himself
an insight into the club’s recent past by offering both members coaching roles
at the club.

French wasn’t quite ready to hang up his boots just yet;
he’d started football late and wanted to soak up what he could from the game
while he still had the chance. Alloa and Cowdenbeath may have represented a
lofty drop down the divisions but it allowed French to play regularly for the
next three seasons before he eventually retired, aged 39, in 2003.

In 2010 the player was inducted in the club’s hall of fame.
Dunfermline Athletic may be a relatively small club, even in the confines of
Scottish football, but they enjoyed a period of great success during the
1960’s, winning two Scottish Cups and regularly representing Scotland on the
European scene. To be included in the same class as those types of players
illustrates the high regard with which he is remembered. Sadly, he couldn’t
make the big night itself after a death in the family, but then that excused
the usually laconic French from having to make a long speech and instead
allowed the loquacious Jim Leishman, Paton and Westwater to wax lyrical about
the man’s talents. A symbol for the professional manner in which he carried
himself throughout his career, working himself into the ground but leaving
whatever plaudits he may be due solely in the hands of others.

Where is he now? French eventually took up the coaching role
at Dunfermline and eventually worked his way
up to head of youth development. Since leaving the club he now is a taxi driver
in the town. Enjoying the predilections of the local support wanting to be
taken home by one of their former heroes: “Who needs Cantona, we’ve got Hamish
French”.

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