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James Scotland Symon was the last of the waistcoat managers. He signed the players and picked the team but the tactics were left to the man on the field.
Scot Symon was born in 1909 in Errol near Perth. He began his career in junior football before embarking on a journey to Dundee, Portsmouth and finally Rangers. He retired in 1947 before beginning an outstanding career in management.
His first job was at East Fife where he gained promotion in his first season and in 1949 won the League Cup, defeating Dunfermline 3-0. He then graduated to Preston North End in March 1953 where he reached the final of the FA Cup unluckily losing 3-2 to West Bromwich Albion. In June 1954 he returned to Ibrox to replace Bill Struth in the manager's office.
During his 13 years as manager he won many honours but perhaps his greatest success was in the quality of teams he created. Many consider the treble winning team of 1963-64 to be among the greatest of Rangers teams. The full line up would be Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow, Grieg, McKinnon, Baxter, Henderson, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.
Symon was the first manager to take Rangers into Europe, playing their first match in the 1956 European Cup against Nice where they lost 3-1 in a playoff. He would learn from that match and take them to two European Cup Winners' Cup Finals, losing to Fiorentina in 1961 and then losing controversially to Bayern Munich in 1967.
Symon left the club in acrimonious circumstances. He had been offered the job of general manager by a business associate of the then chairmen John Lawrence. It was felt they needed a younger man who could become a tracksuit manager and work more closely with the players. Symon was outraged and quit leaving the team on 1 Nov 1967, when they were top of the league after 8 games played.
He became a director of Dumbarton before returning to management at Partick Thistle. He died on 30 April 1985 at the age of 76. He would be replaced at the club by his assistant Davie White.
