Jackie Coburn

Forfar Athletic supporters of a certain vintage will be saddened with the news of the passing on Saturday past in the Cornhill MacMillan Centre in Perth of Jackie Coburn who was revered by the Station Park faithful for his goal scoring exploits in the early sixties.

Jackie arrived at Station Park at the start of the 1960/1 season from Crieff Earngrove Juniors  joining up with two other promising Perthshire youngsters of the time Donald MacKay and Eric Brodie and quite literally exploded on to the Second Division scene.  

Jackie delighted the home fans by netting four goals on his debut in a 5-2 win over Brechin City.

He followed that up just a couple of weeks later by netting a hat-trick against Stranraer.

In fact over the course of that season when the ‘Loons’ eventually finished second bottom of the nineteen club lower league, Jackie scored 34 of the Station Park side’s 65 league goals, a feat only bettered three times in the club’s history.

Davie Kilgour, local man Willie Black and Ian Rodger were the players who netted more in a season, but in the sixty years since no Forfar player has come close to netting a similar number.

The following season Jackie netted a further twenty goals as Forfar moved three places up the league table.

He then moved to East Stirling who at the time under the stewardship of the Steedman brothers were making a push for Scotland’s top flight.

In later life Jackie became a local councillor representing the Perth City Ward on Perth and Kinross Council for twelve years.

He returned to Station Park for the first time in many years in 2016 along with his two sons to enjoy the delights of the match day hospitality package as part of the group organised on an annual basis by our record appearance holder and former Manager Ian McPhee.

Jackie loved being back in familiar surroundings and along with Ian helped launch our Wall of Fame fund raiser on that initial visit, purchasing the first brick himself.

Forfar Athletic’s long serving Director David McGregor paid the following tribute to Jackie.

Jackie Coburn was a boyhood hero of mine back in the early sixties as he was for many youngsters in the town at the time.   His goal scoring exploits were the stuff of legends.

It was therefore a great pleasure to meet him in person in December of 2016 on his return to Station Park and on his subsequent visits pre-pandemic.

He was a total gentleman and thrilled with the welcome and reception he received some fifty plus years after he had last trod the Station Park ‘boards.’

It was so obvious that he still had a real affection for the club and he enjoyed meeting up with the current Club Directors and others involved in the day to day running of the club.

He is obviously a very well respected ex Councillor in the Perth area who did a great deal of good work for the community he served and will be sorely missed without doubt in and around the ‘Fair City.’

At this time all at Forfar Athletic would like to extend their sympathy to Jackie’s wife Penny, his sons Alan and Graeme and his daughter Karen.