IT IS tempting to call Dave Mackay and Danny Blanchflower, in their epic Tottenham Hotspur days of the early 1960s, as the equivalent of the hard and soft detectives. Blanchflower, the Northern Irish international and captain of that Spurs team, all grace and guile, prevailing by sheer skill and invention. Mackay at left-half the hard, uncompromising man, severe in the tackle, brave to a fault, but in no way devoid of skill himself. And somewhat unexpectedly, almost ironically, it was the supposedly rough-hewn Mackay, rather than the sophisticated Blanchflower, who would become a highly successful manager.
Of him, I once wrote, “Blanchflower and Mackay were to form a magnificent partnership. By utter contrast with Blanchflower, Mackay was all muscle and flamboyance, capable of what might loosely be termed ‘tackles’, [he was to sober down in time] which made one’s hair stand on end. He clapped his hands, he stuck out his barrel chest, he took, ad infinitum, what Peter Cook, that superb comedian, once called his ‘long, boring throw-ins’, he flung himself among flailing boots. He was essentially a hectic player, certainly not without skills, but with none of Blanchflower’s cool, rational artistry. They complemented one another splendidly, though if I were asked which had the greater importance to the team, I should reply, unhesitatingly, Blanchflower.”
There is a famous picture of Mackay seizing his combative fellow Scot little Billy Bremner by the shirt after he had been fouled by the Leeds captain. A photograph Mackay always resented since it seemed, he thought, to depict him as a bully, which, he emphasised, he never was. But he was reacting to a dangerous challenge by Bremner that he felt had threatened the leg he had broken twice. Each time, with typical courage and resolution, coming back to play as determinedly as ever. Significantly, despite his reputation as a hard man, he was never sent off throughout his playing career.
Born in Edinburgh on November 14, 1934, he was the second of four brothers. Hearts signed him and he gave them stalwart service, from 1953 until he joined Spurs in 1959 for the then substantial fee of £32,000. With Hearts, he had captained the team that won the Scottish Cup in 1956, the Scottish League Cup in 1954 and 1959 and the league title in 1957-8.
In 1957 he gained the first of his 22 caps for Scotland, which would surely have been many more but for his injuries, against Spain in Madrid. The following year in Sweden he had one game in the World Cup, a narrow 2-1 defeat against France. The last of his caps came in 1965.
Advertisement
When Spurs won the first League and Cup double of the century in 1961, he and Blanchflower dominated the FA Cup final against Leicester City, Tottenham winning 2-0. A year later Spurs, with those two wing-halves prominent again, beat Burnley 3-1. And after Blanchflower’s departure in 1964, Mackay captained the side three years later to another victory at Wembley, a 2-1 win over Chelsea.
Derby County were a struggling impoverished Second Division club and Mackay well into his 30s when the formidable managerial duo of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor came after him at Tottenham. Initially Mackay ridiculed the idea. “Look, I’ve had it,” he told Taylor, “I’m a stone over weight, I’m nearly 34, older than the manager here and I can’t run any more.” To which Taylor replied that for many games he wouldn’t have to run. . . We’ve got youngsters to run for you. . . Our lads will respond to you.
And so dramatically they did. Up went Derby into the first division and jointly with Tony Book of Manchester City Mackay was voted Footballer of the Year. Once when a referee wanted to send him off for a bad foul he retorted, “Don’t you know who I am? I’m Dave Mackay, captain of Derby County, and I won’t allow you to send me off but you may take my name if you like.” Which the referee did.
In 1971 he embarked on a managerial career. A player-manager spell at Swindon was short and unproductive, he was briefly at Nottingham Forest, but succeeding Brian Clough at Derby he took them to the first division title in 1975. There were later spells at Walsall, Doncaster, Birmingham City and in the Middle East.
“The hardest man I’ve ever played against and certainly the bravest,” said George Best. David Craig Mackay, died March 3, 2015. He had two sons and one daughter.