Ross Jack Player Profile

Biography

Ross Jack is a Highlander born and bred, having been born in Avoch on March 21st 1959, a small harbour village on the south-east coast of the Black Isle on the Moray Firth. Jack started his footballing career at the age of 14 with his local Highland League side Ross County, with whom he made a handful of appearances in season 1974/75, before joining Everton, initially as an apprentice.

After graduating to the professional ranks he made only a solitary, goalscoring appearance, for Everton against Middlesbrough and, after a fruitless loan spell at Cardiff City, he joined Norwich City for £20,000 in December 1979.

At Carrow Road, Jack was converted into an attacking midfielder and he made his Canaries’ debut against local rival Ipswich Town in the League Cup in September 1980. The 1981/82 season was the highlight of his career in England when he scored in six successive games and finished the season as top scorer but a goal drought the following season led to a £15,000 transfer to Lincoln City.

Jack remained a Sincil Bank for the next two seasons and his last game for Lincoln was in May 1985, against Bradford City, in a game overshadowed by the Bradford City stadium fire, which killed 56 spectators.

In July 1985, Jack returned to Scotland when he was signed by Dundee manager Archie Knox and he immediately went on pre-season tour with the Dark Blues to West Germany. In the second match against Pfozheim, Jack opened his account for The Dee when he scored a double in a 4-1 win and he would make his competitive debut in the first game of the season at home to St Mirren.

Jack made just eight appearances in his debut season as he struggled to oust Ray Stephen and Graham Harvey from the striking berths and his only two goals that campaign came in the Forfarshire Cup. He scored a penalty in the 4-0 semi-final win over Brechin City at Glebe Park and then the opener in a 2-0 win over Dundee United in the final at Dens; the first time The Dee had won the trophy since 1970/71.

Jack’s second season saw Jocky Scott step up from assistant to manager and he brought Jack off the bench in the opening game of the season at Celtic Park. Jack would make 36 appearances under Jocky, ten of which were from the bench and he would score seven times. His first competitive goal for Dundee came in a 4-0 League Cup win over Montrose at Dens and his first league goal was the opener in a 3-0 win over Hibs at Easter Road.

Jack memorably scored in a 4-1 win over Celtic at Dens in February 1987 but by then his first team chances were becoming limited after the signings of Tommy Coyne and Keith Wright. All three started the Scottish Cup semi-final with Dundee United at Tynecastle and when Keith Wright had put Dundee 2-1 ahead just before half time, he did so via the back of Ross Jack, off which the ball rebounded into the net.

With first team chances looking slim ahead of Coyne, Wright and top goalscorer Graham Harvey, Jack joined the newly promoted Dunfermline in the summer for a fee of £15,000.

Jack made an instant impression for Jim Leishman’s men, scoring on his debut in a 3–2 away defeat to Motherwell and in each of his three seasons at the East End Park, he would finish as Dunfermline's leading scorer. His most successful season was the 1989/90 campaign when he was the second highest goalscorer in the Premier Division with his 16 league goals, placing him just one goal behind John Robertson of Hearts.

In July 1991 a fee of £45,000 was sufficient to see Jack move to Kilmarnock where he scored 13 times in 55 appearances for the Rugby Park side. Following a brief loan sojourn to Sligo Rovers (January – March 1993), Jack was appointed player-manager of Montrose in March 1993. His spell there would last only six months and in October 1993 he moved on to Ayr United before retiring from the professional game at the end of the 1993/94 season.

Post retirement, Jack moved into coaching, primarily focusing with work with the Scottish Football Association, first as the SFA's Highlands and Islands area community development officer and then as the SFA's North of Scotland Football Development Officer before leaving in 2001 to take up the position of High Performance Football Coach at the Scottish Institute of Sport.

Jack returned to Ross County in July 2008 when he was appointed as assistant manager to Derek Adams but was released after just five months, with the club issuing a statement that the managerial team wanted to take on “a new direction.”

In January 2009 Jack was appointed as manager of Elgin City and remained at Borough Briggs for exactly five years but returned to his Highland League roots in 2014 when he took over at Turriff United and then Rothes in 2019.