IT WOULD be hard to find anyone who did not like Brian Whittaker, who died in a car crash on Sunday. As a player with Partick Thistle, Celtic, Hearts, and Falkirk, Brian made a host of friends but also had the greater gift of keeping them.
If any word fits snugly around Whittaker, gregarious would have to be it. Brian loved the company of people, footballers in particular but not exclusively.
He played his first senior game for Partick Thistle as a 19-year-old against Clyde in 1975 and went on to become the epitome of Firhill footballers, talented, zany and immensely likeable.
His move to Celtic in 1983 probably came too late to hoist him into the higher echelons where his natural talent ought to have blossomed.
Had it come four years or so earlier there is every chance he would have gone a great deal further than he did. As it was, after a year he moved to Hearts and was still their player-cum-commercial manager when he joined Falkirk.
A left back of style and class, Brian perhaps was a little before his time as a player at the top professional level, in that he was a wing back before the term had been invented. So left-footed was he that it is difficult to recall him making any serious contribution with his right foot but he had enough delicacy in his good boot that it never proved a problem.
After he ended his playing days he became a successful agent with a growing number of clients and was still very much welcome at Tynecastle where he spent most of his later playing days.
Friendly, with a great sense of fun which stretched readily to self mockery, Brian Whittaker leaves those of us who knew him feeling the better for it.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article