Ian Stirling

Ian was signed from Arbroath Lads Club in July 1960, the 17-year-old going on to make his debut for the club the following month, featuring in our opening Second Division game against Montrose before playing in two League Cup games the following week. He then dropped out of the team until December, when he came back into the side at centre half, having previously featured as a right half and inside forward and he impressed in his new position, keeping his place and playing every game up until the end of the 1960-61 campaign. He started the following season he started the campaign at centre half but with Jim Fraser coming back into the team, Ian was moved into a more advanced role and made most of his appearances at inside right, resulted in an excellent return of 21 goals in 31 games.

He again featured mainly at inside right during the 1962-63 season, before starting the following campaign as our first choice where he played in every single game that year. Prior to the start of the 1964-65 season he was named club captain, a role he continued in for the rest of the 1960s. He retired from playing in the summer of 1970 to focus on business and family commitments, however he returned to action during the 1970-71 season, making a further 9 appearances between December and February before once again retiring from playing, this time for good. He would go on to join the committee, and he served as club chairman from 1979 to 1987.