Gordon McQueen: How blond colossus stole hearts of a nation - 'I used to call him Go-Go'

As Scotland prepare to face Norway and their feared target man Erling Haaland, it's safe to say significantly less anxiety would abound if manager Steve Clarke was able to match him up against an equally tall, blond colossus at centre half. One with a handy penchant for scoring goals.

Gordon McQueen powers home a header to set Scotland up for a famous 2-1 victory over England at Wembley in 1977. Pic: Denis Straughan.

Gordon McQueen, who has died at the age of 70, had the physicality as well as the ball skills. He was often regarded as unbeatable in the air, either when defending his own goal or attacking the opposition’s. Into the latter category very definitely falls his opening goal in Scotland’s famous 2-1 win over England in 1977, when an estimated 70,000 visiting supporters descended on Wembley and liked it so much, they took parts of the stadium home with them.

The noise was ferocious as McQueen planted a pulverising header past Ray Clemence just before half time. The defender later quipped that he was offended by the goalkeeper having even attempted to dive to save the ball. “It was coming back out of the goal before he even moved!” McQueen told Aidan Smith in an interview for this newspaper in 2015, with reference to the fact the force of the header saw the ball hit the back of the net and come back out again.

Although celebrated then, now and for years to come, this goal and McQueen’s ability and willingness to head the ball with such power likely stored up problems for him and ultimately took its toll. He was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2021. His youngest daughter Hayley is a well-regarded Sky Sports presenter, with Scottish football one of her beats. She has maintained the McQueen name's high profile after her father stepped away from his own broadcasting career. She contends the condition was brought on by heading balls throughout his playing career.

McQueen suffered worsening health after a doctor heard his croaky voice on Sky Sports and contacted the station to advise him to go for a check up. Cancer was discovered in McQueen's larynx (he admitted he smoked throughout his playing days) and he endured an intensive course of radiotherapy. He later suffered a stroke. Dementia was a cruel further blow.

His legacy is nevertheless secure. Not many can say they have excelled in two spheres. McQueen was a beloved footballer and then pundit, becoming a regular in the Sky Sports Soccer Saturday team led by Jeff Stelling. In the midweek version of the programme he brought the news of James McFadden’s winning goal for Scotland against France in 2007 in his inimitable style.

“GOOOAAALLL!” McQueen screamed. “I don’t believe it. I, Jesus, what a goal here fae Scotland!! (Presenter: Who scored, Gordon?) James McFadden! What a goal. Absolutely, so much under the cosh. He's picked up a ball – I don't know, 30 yards from goal? By the time I've finished this report, it will be 40 yards!"

In a way, McQueen was a forerunner for Doddie Weir. His galloping runs forward – with the ball at his feet rather than in his hands – stole the hearts of a nation. Despite playing almost his entire career in England following his 1972 transfer from St Mirren to Leeds United, he was a patriot. He was also not someone to cross.

McQueen was a vital part of the Leeds United team in the 1970s.

Famously, he punched his own goalkeeper and fellow Scotland international teammate David Harvey during an FA Cup clash against Manchester City in 1978. Harvey had shoved McQueen after an exchange of views following a corner and was met by a haymaker in response from the big defender, with Leeds going onto lose a match also disrupted by crowd trouble 2-1. The pair had already come to grief in a car accident three years earlier when the vehicle McQueen was driving was written off shortly before Leeds United played in the European Cup final against Bayern Munich.

McQueen left Leeds just days after the punch incident with Harvey. The destination was a kick in the guts of the Leeds United supporters. Manchester United had been courting both McQueen and Joe Jordan for some time, and McQueen followed his great friend to Old Trafford. But it meant the pair burning every bridge en route across the Pennines.

"That's football. That's the nature of the game,” Eddie Gray, his Leeds United teammate and fellow Scot, told The Scotsman on Thursday. “He thought at that particular time it would benefit his career. There were no hard feelings with his teammates." McQueen didn’t attempt to sugar coat things. “Ninety nine per cent of footballers want to play for Man U,” he remarked at the time. “The rest are liars.”

He could be relied upon to come out with such lines. "He was one of the funniest footballers I ever met. Just his nature. He didn't take anything too seriously," added Gray. "He was a top player. He took over from a great centre half in Jack Charlton. He was not fazed by anything! He had a lot of confidence, rightly so. You don't play for Leeds United, Manchester United and Scotland if you are not a top player, especially at that time playing for our club (Leeds).”

McQueen won the FA Cup final with Man Utd in 1983 after they overcame Brighton in a replay.

McQueen added 1983's FA Cup at Man United to the First Division title he won at Leeds. He was picked 30 times for Scotland, with injury ruling him out of the 1978 World Cup. He scoring five goals in total for Scotland, including that famous Wembley header.

“I used to call him Go-Go,” Scotland teammate Don Masson said on Thursday. “I've such happy memories playing with him for Scotland and he was awesome for Leeds and Manchester United. I used to say to him: 'I’ll put it in the air big man, you go and knock them in the net'.” Although Masson was playing, it was Asa Harford who provided the cross for McQueen to set Scotland on their way in 1977 at Wembley. He once said it's the moment he is still most often asked about.

There is a picture of the goal on his study wall where he appears to be hovering three feet above the nearest Englishman, Ray Kennedy. “And that was actually me on the way down!” he told The Scotsman eight years ago.