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Fullname: Adam Scott Mathieson Duncan
aka: Scott Duncan, Adam Duncan, Adam Scott Duncan
Born: 2 November 1888
Died: 3 October 1976
Birthplace: Dumbarton
Signed: January 1919 (Loan)
Debut: Third Lanark 2-3 Celtic, League, 4 Jan 1919
Position: Outside-Right
Internationals: N/A
International Caps: N/A
Biog
Ex-Newcastle United and Rangers player Adam Duncan – known as Scott – played two games for the Bhoys as a loan ‘guest‘ in January 1919, apparently at the invitation of the great Jimmy McMenemy, which turned out to be a fine decision for Celtic.
He was on Rangers’ books and had been a regular player over the earlier war years, but he had found it hard to play for Rangers, due to their then strength in depth, and in a curious way that ‘problem‘ went on to help Celtic win the title as he turned out for the Celts. He hadn’t played for Rangers’ first team since March 1917, so had missed out on being part of Rangers league title winning side of 1917/18.
Scott Duncan first played for the injury hit Bhoys in a 3-2 league win over Third Lanark on 4th January 1919, and then played v Clydebank, notching up two victories. He had used the wartime rule, still in operation in 1919, that ‘a soldier player’ could play two games for another team without requiring permission from the original club which held his signature.
His assistance helped Celtic keep on track for a 20 game undefeated stretch which began in mid-Dec 1918 to the end of the season. The original Celtic blogger ‘Man in the Know‘ gloated at Celtic’s coup of getting Scott Duncan stating cheekily that it was Scott’s wish ‘to gratify a wish to be inside a green and white jersey once or twice in a lifetime‘ (Glasgow Observer 1919).
Curiously, he won a place back in Rangers’ first team, and played a single league game on his return to Rangers in a 3-0 victory over Clydebank on 22 Feb 1919. So he managed to play for both Rangers’ & Celtic’s first teams (briefly) in the same season in what was a very tight league title race.
Celtic went on to regain the league title that season (1918/19) from Rangers by just one point, and so Scott Duncan had helped Celtic to win a league title, something he didn’t do at Rangers.
He moved on to Partick Thistle for another loan spell before signing a permanent deal with Dumbarton in the summer. He later moved to Cowdenbeath but returned to Dumbarton and wrapped up his career with them, having actually also begun his senior career with them.
Scott Duncan went on to manage Manchester United and Ipswich, achieving success winning the Second Division title in 1935–36 with Manchester United, and the Division Three South title in 1953–54 with Ipswich. England’s future World Cup winning manager Alf Ramsey took over from Scott Duncan at Ipswich.
At Manchester United, it was no easy task, and he holds the ignominy of holding the record for managing Manchester United to their lowest ever league position (season 1933/34). However he did help turn things around to help them to get promoted back to the top tier but then unfortunately they got relegated back down again.
Scott Duncan passed away on 3 October 1976.
*Photo is of Scott Duncan at Newcastle Utd in 1908
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1919 | 2 | 0 | N/A | N/A | 2 |
| Goals: | 0 | 0 | – | – | 0 |
Honours with Celtic
Scottish League
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Articles
Rangers Star Played For Celtic Then Managed Manchester United And Ipswich Town
Great Scott was highest paid figure in British football and honoured for distinguished services to the game – yet is virtually unknown in his homeland
Manchester United manager Scott Duncan
“SOME fans are on the pitch, they think it’s all over. It is now.”
Kenneth Wolstenholme’s commentary sent millions of England fans leaping from their chairs to celebrate.
In Scotland, we slumped in ours, head in hands. It was unthinkable. The Auld Enemy had won the World Cup and we’d never hear the end of it for the next 100 years. At least.
But there was one Scot who must have smiled as the cameras focused on manager Alf Ramsey savouring the 1966 triumph with his players.
He’d taken the England boss under his wing at Ipswich Town for three years to teach him the managerial ropes. By any measure, he’d succeeded. Even if Scotland fans wished he hadn’t.
However, there would be no boasting about his achievement. That wasn’t his style. He could have been at Wembley as Ramsey’s guest to congratulate his protege in person. Instead, a whisky with wife Mary in their Helensburgh home and a feeling of satisfaction at a job well done would suffice.
After a lifetime in football as a player and manager at the highest level, he was virtually unknown in his homeland. More than four decades after his death, he still is.
Yet this unsung hero’s career is astonishing. He played for Rangers and Celtic, won the Championship and FA Cup with Newcastle, then went into management with, among others, Manchester United for five years and Ipswich Town for 18 years.
When he retired, the FA gave him a medal to honour his ‘long, distinguished service’ to the game.
His name is Scott Duncan and his story is little known in Scotland. He was born in Dumbarton in 1888, one of seven siblings, who lived above his father’s butcher shop. The Son of the Rock played for his school team Dumbarton Academy then worked as a law clerk in the town’s sheriff office.
His promising legal career was short-lived as Dumbarton, then a top flight team, offered him professional terms when he turned 18. The tricky right-winger shone and two years later English champions Newcastle United paid £150 for his services.
He scored 12 times in 81 league games for the Magpies and won the First Division title in 1909 and the Charity Shield with the Geordie giants. Next season an FA Cup win earned him another medal.
In 1913, he moved to Rangers for a fee of £500. He stayed at Ibrox during World War I, in which he also served as a signalling instructor in the Royal Field Artillery. He played 101 games, winning two titles in 1913 and 1918 and bagged 26 goals.
During the war there was a rule that allowed soldier players to turn out with another side for two league games only. In January, 1919, the Gers star did just that – crossing the great divide to Old Firm rivals Celtic.
In both matches the pacy winger played well and the Hoops won – against Third Lanark and Clydebank. After each game the Parkhead fans applauded him off the pitch.
This prompted a Celtic pundit to cheekily gloat in the Glasgow Observer: “It was Scott’s wish to be inside a green and white jersey at least once or twice in a lifetime.” Celtic went on to win the title by just a point – from Rangers.
Duncan moved to Partick Thistle for another loan spell before signing a permanent deal with Dumbarton in the summer.
In the 1920 close season he joined Cowdenbeath and in 1922 he returned to Dumbarton for a third time before hanging up his boots the following year at 35 to become manager of Hamilton.
He left the Accies after two seasons to boss Cowdenbeath and had seven excellent years at the club, performing near miracles to keep them in the Scottish top flight throughout. He also presided over the club’s record win which stands to this day – a 12–0 demolition of St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup in 1928.
His success attracted the big guns of the game from over the border and in 1932 Manchester United took this shrewd, intelligent man to Old Trafford.
Despite spending a lot of money on players, the Red Devils were almost relegated to the third tier in 1934. But Duncan turned things around and United won the Second Division championship in 1936.
To strengthen his side, he tried to buy a gifted young Scot from rivals Manchester City – but his offer of £250 for the services of Matt Busby was turned down. Busby, of course, went on to achieve legendary status in the same managerial chair as the man who tried to buy him.
In November, 1937, he resigned after Ipswich Town offered him a massive salary to take over at Portman Road. The clever Scot by now had a reputation as a wily operator and he was also a fine administrator and motivator.
Wealthy Town supremo Ivan Cobbold was ambitious for the non-league club and the aristocrat made his new manager the highest paid figure in British football.
Crucially, Duncan had many contacts throughout the game. This was important because the club wanted entry to the professional ranks and needed him to command the votes when it came to the final decision about whether they should replace Gillingham in the Football League.
A case of the finest port was sent to his house to lure him from Old Trafford. He was offered a massive salary of £2000 per annum, with a bonus of £1000 if the club’s bid was successful – and promises of further similar sums if he could take Ipswich to the top. To put his income in context, in those days his wage was ten times more than star players got.
His guile and political skills succeeded in getting the team into the league in 1938. The defeat of Gillingham caused a sensation as, just a few weeks before, the Southern clubs had recommended Gillingham for re-election and Town had come a poor third behind Walsall in the vote.
Under Duncan’s leadership, Ipswich campaigned hard, spending big on lobbying officials and producing an expensive glossy brochure about the club and town. He’d more than earned his bonus and he kept the team there for 18 seasons before handing over the reins in 1955 to Ramsey.
The club asked him to remain as secretary for another three years to ensure everything ran smoothly off the park and to mentor the promising new manager.
Duncan, now 70, was honoured with a testimonial match at the end of the 1958 season against Norwich City which Ipswich won 3 – 1.
He is fondly remembered as one of the most important figures in the club’s history. And he was given a medal by the FA in honour of his ‘long, distinguished services’ to the beautiful game.
Always immaculately dressed, Duncan wasn’t a track-suit manager but in those days that wasn’t unusual. The England footballing genius Stanley Matthews said of him: “He almost always wore a smart suit and a homburg hat. He could easily have been a bank manager.”
He was superstitious and an extremely rare seven-leaf clover was mounted on the wall of his office at Portman Road. It was given to him by an American serviceman.
Interestingly, as a reciprocal gesture, his wife Mary gave American golfer Sam Snead a four-leaf clover just before the Open at St Andrews in 1946 – which he went on to win.
The Ipswich boss also had a reputation for being canny with money and was reluctant to involve the club in the growing fashion for spending big in the transfer market.
He said: “In these days of fantastic transfer fees, fancy figures are not necessarily the hallmark of a good player.”
The sums he was talking about seem quite low in these days of multi-million-pound players but he was wise in pointing out the rapid rise in the level of transfer fees at that time. He would study every claim for expenses in depth and treated Town money as though it were his own.
There is another story that shows how frugal he was. The Ipswich party was having breakfast at the Great Eastern Hotel at Liverpool Street Station and he dropped some loose change under the table. He was seen on his hands and knees anxious to account for every penny.
Despite his conservative appearance and manner, it seems that Duncan was quite a character. Town director John Cobbold caught him watering down whisky in the referee’s room. Match officials weren’t paid at that time, they just received expenses and a few drinks.
When Cobbold protested at the sacrilegious act being committed, Duncan said: “Don’t worry about it. It’s only for the bloody ref.”
After retiring, he returned to live in Scotland with Mary at Loch Drive, Helensburgh, in a comfortable detached house looking on to the Firth of Clyde until his death at the age of 87.
He was a member of the local Rotary Club but generally kept himself to himself and not many people in the seaside town would have known the star they had in their midst.
He stayed away from football in his retirement years. With his vast experience, he could have sat on the board of any Scottish club or the SFA and offered much as an adviser.
But there is no record of his having any involvement in the game during these years, even as a spectator. Perhaps, after a lifetime in professional football, he’d had enough.
Dumbarton barber John McCann cut Duncan’s hair in the Vale of Leven Hospital, Alexandria. Sadly, he was gravely ill and passed away a few months later. But, even in the poorest of health, he made an impression.
John said: “There was an Old Firm game looming. As he shuffled over for his haircut he was old and clearly not well. I asked him about the match. He said: ‘I have no time for the bitterness around this fixture now. It’s not the way football should be. Not at all.’
“He was very much an old school gentleman, well spoken, and I assumed he wasn’t interested in the game. When I later found out he’d played for Celtic and Rangers, I couldn’t believe it.
“He must have been a formidable figure as a manager. There was an air of authority about him even though he was extremely ill. He was also polite and friendly. A lovely man.”
His funeral service at Cardross Crematorium on October 5, 1976, with love of his life Mary being his only family survivor, was a modest affair as few people knew about Adam Scott Mathieson Duncan’s incredible career. His ashes were later scattered in the Garden of Remembrance.
The passing of this unassuming man who had spent more than 50 years in the sport at such a high level merited only two short sentences in Glasgow’s Evening Times.
Scottish football had lost one of its great figures. It just didn’t know it.