The former Scotland centre-half is 63 on 26 June. The real ‘Big Yin’ [6 feet, 3 inches before natural shrinkage kicks in] won the first of his 30 caps in June 1974 in a world cup warm-up match in Brugge, Belgium. McQueen – then of Leeds United- travelled to West Germany as part of the World Cup squad but unfortunately didn’t see any match action.
Gordon was also in the 1978 World Cup Finals squad but did not play due to injury- indeed during the course of his career he would suffer his fair share of injuries. That said he did his bit for Scotland in some important matches such as the world cup qualifiers against Wales and Czechoslovakia.
His final Scotland game was a Home International match against the Welsh at Swansea in 1981 – the same game in which Ray Stewart and Paul Sturrock made their debuts.[ I wonder if ex-footballers discuss these odd quirks of fate when they run into one another – original copyright Miller and Hansen].
Big Gordon netted five times for Scotland the most memorable of which was probably at Wembley in 1977 when he outjumped Emlyn Hughes, Ray Kennedy and Brian Greenhoff to head Scotland into the lead two minutes before half-time. Dalglish then made it 2-0 after 61 minutes before the ‘fifth Wurzel’ made the scoreline respectable for the auld enemy from the penalty spot…..and the rest is history and horticulture.
Happy Birthday BGM.
Robert Marshall
First posted on Facebook June 25th, 2015
The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine 
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