Published: Thursday, 19th June, 2008 08:55
Pars need new heroes, says legendary skipper
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LATER this month the members of Dunfermline’s 1968 Scottish Cup-winning side will be honoured with a dinner at East End Park to mark the 40th anniversary since that famous 3-1 win over Hearts. Sports editor Simon Harris spoke to the captain who lifted the trophy on that April afternoon at Hampden, Roy Barry, to ask was it really 40 years ago?
HE was the last Dunfermline player to lift a major trophy but for proud Par Roy Barry, it’s a piece of black and white history he’d prefer to see rewritten.
The barrel-chested colossus led his men up the Hampden steps on 27th April 1968 to collect the Scottish Cup after a 3-1 win over Hearts.
For Barry, his team mates and the joyful fans who thronged Dunfermline’s streets later that night to welcome home the cup winners, it was part and parcel of being a Par.
That Hampden win was the third time in seven years Athletic had graced the national stadium in the cup final, with heroic victory and valiant defeat against Celtic in 1961 and ’65.
The open-topped bus parade to welcome the cup heroes was a familiar pageant; thrilling and glorious European nights at East End Park a breathless backdrop.
It was 1961 all over again as Barry and his pals were given the familiar rapturous reception outside the City Chambers. None of the 15,000 who bellowed the Eurovision hit of the time, ‘Congratulations’, by way of a welcome, had any reason to think those days would end.
But they did. They didn’t know it then but they’d have been better off singing Mary Hopkins’ ‘Those were the days’.
“We need new heroes,” Barry sighed when Press Sport caught up with him earlier this month.
Now 65, he’s just moved back to Dunfermline and works part-time at Edinburgh Airport. Living a goalkick from East End Park, he’s come ‘home’ and his only resentment at being asked yet again what it felt like to lift the cup for the Pars, is that it’s not Scott Thomson or Greg Shields having to field the question.
“I’ve hoped on so many occasions that new guys would get to a cup final and change things, give us new people to remember. We seem to be going on too long,” he said, referring to the boys of ’68.
“Forty years is a long time but I still get asked about it. When I’m attending various dinners guys will come up and mention the cup final, they’ll talk about standing with their dad. They were kids then and in their fifties now but it’s special to so many people, they never forget.
“I remember standing on that balcony (at the City Chambers) after we won the cup. It was a great time. I just moved back to Dunfermline in November last year and I was walking back down the High Street for the first time.
“I looked up and thought, ‘That’s my balcony up there’. The last time I was there I was hanging off that balcony with the Callaghan brothers and the Provost in front of 15,000 people.
“It was a great day in as much as we won the cup but we were not able to do a lap of honour because there’d been trouble the previous year.
“That was a wee bit disappointing so the main thing was to get back to the town.
“Being captain was a particular plus for me. I had been captain of the Hearts and I had won the League Cup with them in 1962-63 but I can never remember such jubilation as there was with Dunfermline. It was just incredible. Awesome.
“We were just a bunch of ordinary lads who were lucky that Dunfermline were a great side then, playing good football and being quite successful.
“I think the penny dropped when we got on the bus and we saw the crowds.
“It was like, ‘Bloody hell, what’s going on here?’ The penny didn’t drop till we saw those crowds that we had really achieved something.
“When I played in a cup final for Hearts I can remember being there but it did not have such an impact on me.
“Winning the cup for Dunfermline was probably the highlight of my career. It was maybe the equivalent of getting your first cap.”
Barry and his team mates have been honoured with a dinner to be held at East End Park on 28th June to mark the 40th anniversary and it’s an occasion the former skipper will savour.
“I was at dinners last season at which some of the boys from the ’61 and ’65 sides turned up.
“They are still remembered with great fondness and I am really looking forward to this one,” he admitted. “I am going to be seeing boys I’ve not set eyes on since 1969 like Hugh Robertson and John McGarty, who partnered me at the heart of defence in the final.
“I was at a dinner last season and Bent Martin came across. I had not seen Bent since the sixties when he was a tall, handsome Dane with a shock of blonde hair and his hair had all gone. I’ve not got a lot of hair left myself but I had more than Bent!
“We just sat down and started talking like we’d met each other only last week. It will be a great day, it will be fabulous to see all the old faces again.”
Barry’s been to Athletic’s recent cup finals “praying” that the modern-day Pars could surpass his achievements and the never-say-die attitude that was his hallmark as a player remains now as a supporter. “I love it,” he admitted. “I have gone full circle having gone down to Coventry and transferred to various other clubs and now coming back here, I’m just a supporter. I have some wonderful friends here and I just love the club.
“My biggest thrill came three years ago at Dundee United when we needed to win to stay up.
“I was more emotional that day coming back in the car than I was as a player. Seeing all the cars with the scarves out and the buses with the flags. That’s real supporters’ stuff.
“I was at a birthday party at East End the other weekend and I was stood talking in one of the boxes looking out onto the pitch.
“I got that itchy feeling again, I just can’t wait for the season to start. I still get the excitement and the pre-match nerves just as much. Once the game starts I’m quite calm but I’m glad I’ve still got that joy.”
l Held at East End Park in the Kingdom Suite the tribute evening will begin at 7pm on 28th June, with a two-course meal.
After the meal, Pars director of football Jim Leishman will host a short session of after-dinner entertainment, before presentations are made to the members of the legendary ’68 team.
As well as Barry, other players who have confirmed they will be attending include brothers Willie and Tom Callaghan, Alex Edwards, John McGarty, Bert Martin, Ian Lister and Hugh Robertson.
After the presentations guests will be able to dance the evening away with a live band.
Tickets cost £40 per person (inc vat) and the dress code for the evening will be smart dress only (lounge suits and cocktail dresses). Call the club’s sales team on 745901/906 or email sales@dafc.co.uk.
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