Footballer, coach and manager; Born June 16, 1929; Died June 7, 2008. Jimmy Bonthrone, who has died aged 79, was a footballer who played during East Fife's golden era of the late 1940s and early 1950s before going on to coaching and management, most notably at Aberdeen.
Born in Kinglassie, he joined East Fife from Kinglassie Colliery FC at a time when, under the managership of future Rangers boss Scot Symon, they were a power in the land. Bonthrone joined a talented squad of players, including George Aitken, Henry Morris, Allan Brown, David Duncan, Charlie "Legs" Fleming and Ian Gardiner, who had already or would go on to win Scottish international honours.
Bonthrone, an industrious inside forward who weighed in with his fair share of goals - 111 in 282 appearances in black and gold stripes - came close to joining these illustrious ranks. His best playing year was perhaps 1953, when he helped East Fife win the League Cup, was chosen for the Scotland XI which faced the Army at Hampden Park and won a B cap in a 2-2 Easter Road draw with England. Of that B team, only Bonthrone and outside-left Allan Morrison of Preston North End were not eventually capped.
When he was chosen to play for the Scottish League against the League of Ireland that year, Bonthrone split up Hibs' "Famous Five" forward line. At that time, there was much debate about the benefits of teaming the best Scottish defence of the era, Rangers' "Iron Curtain" back six, with the outstanding Hibs attack. Of course, the various selection committees of the day never bought that one; however, when the Scottish League side for that League of Ireland game was named, four of the Famous Five were included, with Bonthrone preferred to Eddie Turnbull at inside left. This was the closest the Five ever came to playing together in a representative game.
East Fife could not hold on to their big names, who in turn were spirited away to bigger clubs. Bonthrone crossed the Tay to play in a very good Dundee side before continuing his career with Partick Thistle, Stirling Albion and Queen of the South.
As his playing career wound down he was one of the first footballers to obtain the new-fangled coaching diploma. He returned to Bayview as manager between 1963 and 1969 and his growing reputation saw him brought into the international set-up by Bobby Brown, with special responsibilities for the under-23 team.
Turnbull had obviously forgiven Bonthrone for his innocent part in that 1953 snub when he invited him to become his No 2 at Aberdeen, a club that had rejected the teenage Bonthrone after a trial in 1946. At Pittodrie, the Turnbull/Bonthrone partnership lifted the Dons out of the slump they had endured since the championship-winning days of the mid-1950s.
In 1971, however, Turnbull returned to his first love, Hibernian, and Bonthrone was invited to step up as manager.
Victory in the inaugural Dryburgh Cup in 1971 boded well for his term of office, but the realities of football finance were to undermine his efforts to bring success to the club.
Manchester United stepped in to buy club captain and linchpin Martin Buchan. Outstanding goalscorer Joe Harper also left, and while Bonthrone did give Willie Miller his first-team debut and brought Zoltan Varga and Drew Jarvie to the club, Aberdeen failed to challenge for the big prizes.
In what was to become a familiar Aberdeen scenario in the late 1980s and 1990s, the fans grew restless and Bonthrone departed in 1975, to be replaced by Ally MacLeod. During his spell as Aberdeen manager, and helped no doubt by his work with Bobby Brown, Bonthrone was shortlisted to replace Tommy Docherty as Scotland team manager. He lost out to Willie Ormond, who did make use of Bonthrone's talents in the national set-up.
From Aberdeen he returned "home" to Bayview, where he was a popular commercial/general manager of his first love until he retired, whereupon the club honoured him by naming the sponsors' lounge after him. In 1995, Sir Alex Ferguson brought Manchester United north as opposition for his testimonial, a mark of the respect in which he was held in football.
Bonthrone retired to Kirkcaldy and continued to support the Fifers until he contracted Alzheimer's and was cared for in a nursing home, where he died on Saturday evening.
Jimmy Bonthrone is survived by his wife, Vina, two sons and one grandson.
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