Eddie Turnbull

Who was Eddie Turnbull?

Edward Hunter Turnbull was a Scottish professional football player and manager.

During the late 1940s and 1950s he was one of the Famous Five, the noted Hibernian forward line, along with Gordon Smith, Bobby Johnstone, Lawrie Reilly, and Willie Ormond. During his time with Hibernian they won three Scottish Football League titles, and in 1955 he was the first British player to score in a European club competition.

Although Turnbull was selected nine times to play for Scotland and played in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, he did not physically receive an international cap at the time. This was because he did not play in any Home International matches, and caps were only awarded for playing in those matches until the mid-1970s. This situation was rectified in 2006 as a result of Gary Imlach's successful campaign for his father Stewart Imlach and other players affected by this rule to receive recognition.

He was manager of Aberdeen between 1965 and 1971, during which time he had some success, winning the 1970 Scottish Cup and finishing second in the league in 1971. After that he returned to Edinburgh to become manager of Hibernian, where he won the 1972 Scottish League Cup Final, against Celtic. He also masterminded their most famous victory, a 7–0 win over their Edinburgh derby rivals Heart of Midlothian on 1 January 1973.