McMillan, Don

Personal

Fullname: Donald A MacMillan
Aka: Don or Donnie :
Born: 14 September 1936 :
Date of Death : 29 June 2016 (79 years of age) :
Place of Death : Invergordon, Scotland :
Birthplace: Aberdeen :
Signed: Aberdeen Woodside – 27/10/1956 :
Position : Midfield :
Internationals : None :

Biog

Don MacMillan was at Celtic from 27 October 1956 until 22 June 1962. During his 6 years at the Club, Celtic Reserves won the League title 3 times in a row for the first time. When Don was eventually given a free transfer by Celtic in the summer of 1962, having never played in a Celtic first team competitive game, Don signed for his home town club Aberdeen FC on 23 June 1962. However, once again Don never played in the Aberdeen first team during his one season at Pittodrie and was given a free transfer by Aberdeen on 30 April 1963. Following his one season at Aberdeen, Don then continued his career in the Scottish Highland Football League by signing in the summer of 1963 for Elgin City FC. This was a surprise within the Scottish Football fraternity, as with Don’s experience, and having been part of the Celtic first team squad for many years and still relatively young, it was expected that Don may have gone to another Scottish League club, or south into the lower Divisions of the English Football League. However, he left Elgin City suddenly after only circa 4 months in October of the 1963/64 season under a ‘cloud’, with four other Elgin players. The national press at that time reported that all five players had been ‘sacked’ by Elgin who were the ‘leading lights’ in the Highland League at that time. During the evening prior to a Saturday match at Brora Rangers in the far north of Scotland, all five players had allegedly been out ‘drinking’ into the early hours of the Saturday morning of the match. On the day of the match (Saturday afternoon), Brora, who were in their first season in the Highland Football League, beat Elgin 1-0 ! Don subsequently signed for Ross County FC and spent ten successful seasons as a player at Ross County before finally finishing his professional career at Brora Rangers FC in the far north of Scotland at the end of the 1974/75 season, having spent two seasons at Brora. When Don transferred to Ross County from Elgin City, he was given a job in a Whisky Distillery in the Alness/Invergordon area of Ross Shire, which was owned at that time by the Ross County Chairman, and where Don lived until sadly passing away on Wednesday 29 June 2016 at 79 years of age.