Alf Boyd, footballer, born: October 22, 1920, died: July 3, 1998
Footballing legend Alf Boyd, who led Dundee Football Club to glory in its golden years after the second world war, has died at his home in South Africa. Boyd, captain of the back-to-back 1950s league cup-winning Dens Park side, had suffered illness for some months before his death at the age of 77.
His greatest achievement was scoring the winning goal against Rangers in the 1951 Scottish Cup. As the seconds ticked away, and just before the final whistle, he clinched the decider.
Born in Dundee, Boyd first played football for Clepington Primary School.
His talent was noticed at Stobswell Secondary School and he was chosen to play for the Dundee Schoolboys.
Leaving school at 14, he played for the Maryfield Rovers and the North End Juniors,
playing in just three or four games for the latter side before signing with St Johnstone
shortly before the Second World War, during which he served with the Royal Air Force in South Africa.
Returning home to be demobbed after the war, he remained signed to St Johnstone but turned up still in his RAF uniform to play centre-half for Dundee in a friendly game. Soon after he transferred to the club to lead it during halcyon days at Dens Park. He was part of the team that won promotion to the first division during his first season in 1947, and the talented left-half went on to captain the side in its glory years.
Dundee finished runners-up in the league in 1948-49, losing by one point when they were beaten by Rangers in the last game of the season.
They went on to beat Rangers 3-2 in October 1951 to lift the League Cup, thanks to Boyd's glorious last-minute goal.
He headed a cross from the renowned international inside-forward Billy Steel into the net two minutes before time to secure his place in Dundee's footballing history.
The side suffered a heavy defeat to Motherwell in the Scottish Cup final in April 1952, going down 4-0, but retained the League Cup in October of that year, beating Kilmarnock 2-0.
Boyd, who was part of a famous half-back line alongside Tommy Gallacher and Doug Cowie, remained with Dundee until 1953.
He toured with the team in Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Turkey, and finally Rhodesia and South Africa, and stayed behind to settle there when his team-mates flew out of Cape Town.
Having stopped playing football professionally, he moved into management and became the gaffer at Durban City, later settling in the major industrial city of Johannesburg.
Boyd took up work as an agent for a company which sold and supplied diesel engines and later went freelance, selling spare parts to businesses across Africa and building up a particularly valuable working relationship with the country's gold-mining industry.
His first wife in South Africa was Doris, with whom he had two children, Heather and Graeme. Left a widower, in 1984 he married Trevalyn Ronald, whom he met during a business trip.
He is survived by his second wife and his children.
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