Brian Whittaker (23 September 1956 – 7 September 1997) was a Scottish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played for

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. The club have been mem ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

, Heart of Midlothian and

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

Career

Left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Whittaker came to prominence whilst playing over 350 games for Partick Thistle in all competitions between 1974 and 1983, eventually becoming one of manager

David Hay David Hay (born 29 January 1948) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He broke into the Celtic team in the late 1960s, as one of a generation of players who continued a highly successful era for the club. A contract dispute betwee ...

's first signings for Celtic in August 1983 for a fee of £50,000. In May 1984 he was sold to Hearts for £25,000 and spent six years as a player at

Tynecastle Park Tynecastle Park is a football stadium in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh, which is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League club Heart of Midlothian (Hearts). It has also hosted Scotland international matches, and been used as a ...

. Whittaker was an integral part of the Hearts team which was pipped to the league title by Celtic in the last minutes of the

1985–86 Scottish Premier Division Celtic won the 1985–86 Scottish Premier Division and became champions in one of the closest finishes in League history. On the final day of the season Hearts were leading Celtic by two points - a draw against Dundee would have been sufficient to ...

season, and also played on the losing side in the losing 1986 Scottish Cup Final. Whittaker spent some time at Falkirk before returning to Hearts as a coach, then moving on to working as an agent. He was killed in a car crash on Sunday 7 September 1997.Brian Whitaker Obituary
The Glasgow Herald

Honours

Heart of Midlothian *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

References

External links

* * http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/article550065.ece * http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/players/whittakerbrian.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Whittaker, Brian 1956 births 1997 deaths Footballers from Glasgow Association football fullbacks Scottish footballers Partick Thistle F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players Scottish Football League players Road incident deaths in Scotland Scottish Football League representative players Association football coaches Heart of Midlothian F.C. non-playing staff