There are many reasons for his family to take great pride in what 77-year-old George McKenzie achieved both as a player and coach.

Most are contained within three bulging scrapbook volumes painstakingly put together down the years which feature Cambuslang Rangers prominently.

George's playing talents first came to the fore while playing with Secondary Juvenile outfit Victoria Thistle from the Maryhill area and resulted in the teenage wing-half and team-mate Jimmy McColl signing as amateurs for a Rutherglen Glencairn side that included star striker Jim Sharkey, who played for Celtic.

He was with the Glens a season before being invited to sign for Queen's Park by the legendary Willie Gibson whom he fondly recalls conducting Hampden Park training sessions wearing a brown double-breasted suit and soft hat.

Around this time George had designs on being a pharmacist and he was to twin studies with doing National Service at the Royal Army Service Corps in Aldershot where his best buddy was none other than Alan Gilzean, of Dundee, Spurs and Scotland fame, who was one of the Battalion Team's star turns along with John Fraser, of Hibs.

His own prowess was emerging to the extent that landing a prestigious posting to Hong Kong culminated in him playing for and eventually skippering the British Army Team that competed in the Hong Kong First Division.

However, his budding twin careers suffered a downturn when he suffered ulcerative colitis - the same illness as current Scotland and Manchester United star Darren Fletcher - and was shipped back to Cowglen Military Hospital where he was to spend almost a year recuperating.

By now 23 years of age, he tentatively took his first steps back into football around 1960 with a Rob Roy team that was to come up against the club where he was to eventually make his name - Cambuslang Rangers - in a particularly memorable West of Scotland Cup Final at the end of the 1960/61 season.

George said: "Cambuslang's outstanding team made it to the final of five different cup competitions that season, including the Scottish Junior Cup and lost the lot.

"However, the circumstances surrounding their West defeat by my Rob Roy team were unique.

"The final was played in front of a near-6000 crowd at Shawfield on June 30, which also happened to be the very last day of the Junior season.

"A hard-fought game finished 0-0 in the days before penalty shoot-outs, but the curtain coming down on the season had officials in a right state of flux so they unbelievably decided to play the replay that same night.

"I think an even bigger crowd was in attendance for the nightime game, which the Rabs won 5-4 with Bobby Gilmour's scoring four times and Tommy Dawkins doing likewise for Cambuslang only to end up on the losing side.

"We had played five games in six days, which is why I always have a little smile to myself whenever I read of modern day players feeling a bit jaded from playing two games in the same week."

Renowned Wee Gers boss Davie McLagan pounced to snap up George following that final for a reputed record fee of the time and he formed a defensive partnership alongside John Dastey (recently deceased) that helped the Wee Gers reach the 1964 Junior Cup Final only to lose 3-0 in a replay to Johnstone Burgh.

Not long after that defeat, George was in demand again, this time by South African outfit Bloemfontein City for whom he signed professional forms in Glasgow's Central Hotel prior to moving for the next three years where he came under the coaching of ex-Ipswich goalkeeper Roy Baillie who had played under Sir Alf Ramsey.

Those methods were to have a profound and formative effect on George and he was only too willing to accept a player/coach role back at Cambuslang Rangers when he returned home in 1967.

The combination of McLaggan's eye for a player and George's coaching nous wbrought about the most successful period in the club's history, starting in 1969 when he played in the team built around 72-goal striker Ross Mathie (later to join Kilmarnock) that won the Scottish Junior Cup, ironically with a 1-0 victory over his former club Rob Roy.

The outstanding Somervell Park outfit went on to contest four consecutive Junior Cup Finals from 1971-74, winning the trophy three times and losing just one of the 38 cup ties played in that astonishing run when Irvine Meadow triumphed 1-0 in a second replay of the 1973 final.

Six of that losing side returned to Hampden the next season when Cambuslang ran out 3-1 winners against Linlithgow Rose but George was not trackside having been enticed away during the season to work under former Celtic ace Eric Smith, back then managing Hamilton.

But word of his coaching prowess and ability to shape teams had reached higher circles and George was to receive the ultimate acclaim in 1977 when Rangers boss Willie Waddell offered him the post of assistant head coach under Jock Wallace, with whom he had taken his coaching badges alongside at Largs.

George said: "The opportunity to be involved with Rangers was a dream come true, but the job offer was not the most rewarding in financial terms and I was not willing to accept a drop in wages with a wife and two children to support.

"The following season I turned them down again when asked to carry out scouting but that was more to do with my belief that working with good players and making them excellent ones was my forte rather than spotting talent in the first place."