David White
Manager Profile

Biography

Davie White became Dundee manager on January 1st 1972, taking over from John Prentice and as a new breed of tracksuit manager, he brought the League Cup to Dens Park in 1973 – the last major honour to be won by the club.

For a spell the Dark Blues were one of the best footballing sides in Scotland and White led Dundee to a fifth place on three occasions - the club’s highest finish since winning the League title in 1962 - and took Dundee to four Scottish Cup semi-finals and two European campaigns in his five and a half years in charge.

The undoubted highlight of White’s time in charge was the League Cup winning campaign of 1973-74 when The Dee defeated Celtic in the Final. Having topped a section which included St Johnstone, Hearts and Partick with ten points from six games, Dundee defeated Clyde over two legs in the quarter-final before beating Kilmarnock 1-0 in the semi at Hampden.

On December 15th 1973, in the midst of a national energy crisis, Dundee met Celtic at the National Stadium and a Gordon Wallace strike with fourteen minutes remaining was enough to bring the League Cup back to Dens for the third time.

White spent his entire playing career with Clyde and became manager of the Bully Wee in 1966. Just twelve months later he left to join Rangers as assistant manager to Scot Symon but when Symon resigned five weeks later, White became just the fourth manager in Rangers ninety-five year history.

White spent two years in charge at Ibrox and left in 1969 without a trophy so that League Cup win with Dundee was the first major honour of his career.

His managerial record with The Dee was played 259, won 122, drawn 61 and lost 76 but his most important statistic is that he is one of only four managers who have brought a major trophy to Dundee and to date is the last one to do so. For that he should always be remembered at Dens.