Killie Histories

Billy Stark’s pre-Kilmarnock career saw him win multiple major trophies in Scotland before he joined Celtic - testament to the quality of the game in general and of the midfielder specifically. So when, in 1990, Billy agreed to be part of the Jim Fleeting revolution at the club with big plans for the future, much was expected. Yet it did not work out as planned. A serious of injuries restricted hi...

A huge fans’ favourite of the mid-1970s, local boy Iain McCulloch did the hard graft to make it in the game. From an early narrow escape, signing a contract with a club he couldn’t travel to play for, through years working as a heating engineer, the midfielder’s father played a crucial role in guiding him. For Iain, being the best he could be was the focus. His pride at signing for Kilmarnock is c...

Synonymous with the club across several decades in numerous roles, Jimmy Clark is perhaps best known as the trusted first-team coach when Kilmarnock lifted the Scottish Cup in 1997. A tactician with a focus on the defensive side of the game, it was his set piece plotting which set the platform for Paul Wright’s winner on that sunny day in May. Jimmy's story is much, much more than those five years...

Kevin McGowne chose just the right time to join his local team. When St Johnstone made the central defender available for transfer in 1996, Alex Totten swooped. A lot was packed into his six years: two cup finals, a 1997 winner’s medal, and numerous European campaigns. Good in the air and on the deck, his sterling performances alongside Ray Montgomerie made all the difference in the late 1990s as...

Kenny Shiels will forever be associated with one of the most special of moments in Kilmarnock Football Club’s history: in 2012, he led the club to its fifth and still most recent trophy. The League Cup success should not have come as a surprise considering the manager’s track record of surprising the favourites on several occasions in his career in Northern Ireland. It was an inauspicious start to...

Dundee United’s loss was certainly Killie’s gain. After an incredibly difficult year with ‘The Tangerines’, both parties decided to cut their losses and part ways. Promotion-seeking Kilmarnock - at that stage a part-time club - moved fast to secure the tall striker with an impressive one-in-two league strike rate. John Bourke quickly became a fans’ favourite: ‘The King of Rugby Park’, no less. His...

After an underwhelming loan spell in 2015, few Kilmarnock fans would have anticipated the next chapter in Stuart Findlay’s story. Two years later, his “stubborn” nature led the defender to give Ayrshire a second shot. And it proved a wise decision. In the following four seasons, Stuart was at the heart of some of the most memorable moments in the club’s modern history. And his relationship with th...

From early career doubts, and disenchantment as a struggling left back, Mark ‘Mavis’ Reilly reflects on the journey to midfield linchpin of a Kilmarnock team who enjoyed a decade of 1990s success. As was the case for many of his teammates, the inspirational words of Tommy Burns set him on the right path. On the 25th anniversary of Kilmarnock FC's third Scottish Cup triumph, the players' player giv...

Lifting a trophy for the club you support is surely the ultimate ambition of every player. For Garry Hay, that long-held dream became a reality for Kilmarnock in 2012, starring in the club’s - as yet - only Scottish League Cup success. Patience and pragmatism were as much part of the left back’s emergence as his wicked deliveries from out wide. Watching fellow youth team players Alex Burke and Dav...

Stuart Layburn played just seven times for Kilmarnock yet his story spans some of the club’s greatest moments. From a family of Killie supporters, he followed the team home and away from a young age before becoming a reserve team player in the early 1960s. To be a part-time player in that era was both a blessing and a curse. Stuart was part of a squad which made a serious challenge for honours in...

A caper in the 1969/70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup presented Scotland’s oldest professional club with some of their most resilient European adversaries.   Windswept, militaria-laden passport officers flanked by lines of fighter jets, a henchman goalkeeper specialising in lethal pull-and-punch handshakes, and a referee who “didn’t see nothing” led our adventurers to a chilly denouement: a game of footba...

As both player and manager, Bobby Williamson played a key role in vital periods of Kilmarnock’s modern history. Signed to bring the tenacity, guile and, crucially, goals to the side chasing promotion back to the top flight, 1990 marked the start of a 12-year association with the club. Bobby’s on-field successes with the club include a famous winner at Ibrox Park and involvement in both the promoti...

As an epilogue to a playing career that included fans’ favourite status at Clyde, Chelsea, Everton and Tranmere, what was it about 28-times-capped Pat Nevin’s brief spell at Kilmarnock that left such an impression on him, to the extent that he describes it as the most enjoyable in his distinguished career?   www.killiehistories.com/patnevin

A modest marksman with an eye for the big moments, Tom Brown’s rapid albeit belated rise from junior football in the summer of 1993 marked a new beginning. Following several ultimately unsuccessful attempts to realise his dream of professional status, it was another ‘TB’, the iconic Tommy Burns, who took a low stakes gamble (£160 per week low) by inviting Tom to train with the club for an extended...

Bobby Williamson had an eye for a Bosman free transfer signing. During the pre-season training camp of 1999, he invited Freddie Dindeleux on trial with the carrot of a new-TV-deal-funded contract for the French defender, recently released by his boyhood team, Lille. Lacking pace and physicality, with not a word of English, his eventual induction to the Kilmarnock Football Club Hall of Fame would h...

Season 2021/22 sees the return of the Ayrshire Derby as a league fixture for the first time in almost three decades. Killie Histories heard from Hall of Fame member Garry Hay, reflecting on an epic, two-tie Scottish Cup battle in 2009. Monsoon conditions; penalty miss; last minute equaliser; topless celebration with referee; handball goal; and a red card…what a 180 minutes!   www.killiehistories.c...

In May 2010, Kilmarnock’s last day, nerve-shredding scoreless draw with Falkirk kept the Ayrshire club in the Premier League - just. But, with Killie, the unexpected is always just around the corner. And the philosophy of the club was about to change significantly. New manager Mixu Paatelainen brought with him an approach to football that placed an emphasis on technicality, style, tactical awarene...

There is so much more to Paul Wright than scoring the winning goal in the 1997 Scottish Cup final. But that is no bad place to start. His poacher’s strike against Falkirk is the most important of his 72 in Ayrshire. Killie were fortunate to acquire Paul Wright. In peak form at St Johnstone, the striker suffered a serious injury which ruled him out for over a year. Alex Totten, keen to work once mo...

Every team in the 1970s needed their hard men. Or so the truism goes. But was that all there was to the imposing six feet three inches of Derrick McDicken; being ‘tough’? In short: no. But, as Paul Clarke, central defensive partner of over 300 games, attests, there is no doubt that ‘Big D’ was a hard player on the park! In a twelve year first team career at Kilmarnock Football Club, Derrick McDick...

The 1990s: a decade of success-on-success for Kilmarnock Football Club. Mark Reilly played over 300 games in teams which brought Killie back to the top table in Scottish football. Here, the defensive midfielder, so popular with his teammates, chooses his strongest team from the wonderful ‘AT Mays years’. AT Mays, you ask? Check out the splendid retro kits! www.killiehistories.com/atmays

Craig Brown's Kilmarnock Carol: A Christmas special, featuring the legendary Dundee league-winner and Scotland manager and his reminiscences of Kilmarnock greats of years gone by. Stave 1: Ghosting Steve Clarke Stave 2: Mr Waddell and the year nineteen hundred and fifty seven Stave 3: Young Brown and of legendary moments Stave 4: Merriment with that good fellow Mr Burns Stave 5: The ending of Mr M...

A tenacious, ubiquitous presence in the Kilmarnock midfield - and defence - in a career of three decades, 13 years and close to 400 games. George Maxwell made no opponent's life easy! George reflects on the 2-0 victory against Celtic in 1979, Kilmarnock making it a full year unbeaten at home. And, of course, he talks about having the hardest shot in Scottish football - and the trophy to prove it!...

Following in the footsteps of a famous relative is always difficult. Following the most successful player in a club's history - his grandfather Mattha Smith - is nearly impossible.  Creative midfielder Gordon Smith more than lived up to the expectation. A talented and dynamic central midfielder converted to a left winger, he was a driving force behind some of Killie's best moments in the 1970s. He...

Ross Mathie - a popular Kilmarnock number 9 and one of Scottish football's great enthusiasts. A steep learning curve in his early days at Cambuslang paved the way to a blistering start in the Scottish professional ranks...and a coaching career of some distinction. 59 goals in 110 games. Then he was gone. But his three years at Rugby Park were the start of a relationship with the club which has las...

Jim Stewart is the local lad who lived the dream. A Kilmarnock fan as a boy, he emulated hero Bobby Ferguson by becoming the club's first choice goalkeeper. In this episode of the Killie Histories 'Big Match' series, we hear about Jim's pride at his call up to the World Cup Squad of 1974, his 1977 debut, as well as some memorable moments at club level, including promotion success and some iconic v...