Dunfermline Athletic

Fraser to enter Hall of Fame

Thursday, 16th Sep 2010

"Getting this honour is a real bonus for me because I have enjoyed Dunfermline all of my life. They gave me the opportunity, I took it ....

hall of fame 2010 banner

Cammy Fraser will join the Dunfermline Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday 9th October at a celebration dinner and dance at Forrester Park Resort. He will be accompanied by his wife Moya but their two sons will miss the event since they now live in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. The youngest Dunfermline player in the 1961 Scottish Cup winning side reminisced about his days at East End Park.

"Being given this honour is very very nice because I have always had a great affinity with the Club. When I was down at Aston Villa or out in Singapore , Dunfermline 's was always the first result you looked for.  It is nice having the former players association;you get to meet more regularly and for me personally that is great."

When Jock Stein became Dunfermline's Manager a big impact was to be made on Cammy

"I was very fortunate that Jock Stein was my manager.  In that context he actually, without realising it, made you mature in some way not just as a footballer but as a person because of the things he did for you.  If you were astute enough to realise that then it helped your future.

"I don't think there was any one thing.It was the attitude throughout, from day one, he made every player say 'you are as good as the team you are going to play against. You are going to play Celtic, Rangers - when you are a provincial club going to play these clubs you can be in awe but he changed the ethos of Dunfermline ."

"When we were going to Aberdeen , it was the first time that we went up the night before and stayed overnight.  If you had to go by train (e.g. to Aberdeen for a midweek game) we travelled first class.."

Things were much more professional under Stein and it was the minutiae that probably made a much bigger difference that anyone might think.

"When we were went away for games in Europe - Jock Stein took our own chef and our own food. We went to Skopje to play Vardar and Budapest to play Ujpest Dosza."

It was Andy Dickson who signed Cammy Fraser from Steelend Juniors but his 39 months at Dunfermline Athletic were halcyon days:-

"Getting this honour is a real bonus for me because I have enjoyed Dunfermline all of my life. They gave me the opportunity, I took it and was fortunate then that the management made me realise that I could be as good as these other players.

"I look back on winning the Cup fondly but when you are young you think that it is going to happen to you again. I was just 19 and you thought, I've done it, I'll do it again. It was just like going out and playing a game because you felt this was how it was going to be year after year.

"I have lots of memories but I think my best game, or certainly as it was reported on the radio, was for Aston Vila against Sunderland in the Semi Final of the League Cup. Normally I can never think of any game being better than any other, I just enjoyed myself. It was enjoyable because of the senior players that Dunfermline had; maybe it comes down to Jock Stein being able to mould young players like George Miller, Alex Smith, Cammy Fraser alongside Willie Cunningham and Tommy McDonald. They then helped the more senior players - Harry Melrose and George Peebles - and they then realised that 'we are good'."

Cammy joined Dunfermline in the summer of 1959 only weeks after they had retained their place in the First Division with an astonishing 10-1 win over Partick Thistle in the final match. Jock Stein replaced Andy Dickson as Manager in March 1960 and after signing only Cunningham and McDonald the club won the Scottish Cup just a year later.

"It was a life experience for me and hopefully I took on board Stein's attitude - 'you are as good as anybody' and that helps a lot. You could be the best footballer but if you don't have the attitude to be the best footballer then you won't be the best footballer.

When Cammy left Dunfermline for Aston Villa in October 1962 he viewed it as a natural career progression:-

"From the attitude that had been instilled in me I was asking myself 'how far can I go?' There was no pressure on me to stay or to go, it was your decision."

It was been said that Cammy Fraser's transfer fee, £23500 financed the construction of the main stand at East End Park but his colleague sees it differently:-

"Willie Callaghan says to me 'you are not the player who built this stand, I am because Jock Stein knew I was here!'"

Cammy and Moya stay in Edinburgh and the former Par worked in the computer division of the Bank of Scotland when he left football. After ten years he then went on holiday to Singapore and found a job out east in the computer division this time of an oil company. Returning to Scotland Cammy had short contract work until he retired. Now at the age of 69 he and Moya have plenty time to travel to the Southern Hemisphere to see their grandchildren.

Hall of Fame Event: Saturday 9th October 2010

Cammy Fraser and his wife with Scottish Cup winners medal
Moya (with the Scottish Cup Winners medal) and Cammy Fraser



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