Jim Forrest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Scottish footballer. For the Australian lawyer, businessman and philanthropist, see James Alexander Forrest.

James Forrest (born Glasgow, September 22, 1944) is a retired Scottish professional football striker who played for Rangers, Preston, Aberdeen and Hong Kong Rangers.

Forrest came to Rangers as a schoolboy, and was sent for a short period to Drumchapel Amateurs for development. In coming in to the first-team, he displaced Jimmy Millar as the successful early 1960s Rangers side was breaking up. He was known as a prolific goalscorer - in total scoring 145 goals in his 163 games for Rangers, his 50th goal for the club coming in his 45th appearance. He set a record of 57 goals scored in the 1964-65 season, still unmatched to this day. He also holds the record for number of goals scored for Rangers in a League Cup match, scoring 5 in a 7-1 victory over Hamilton Accies on October 30, 1965.

His Rangers career came to an end shortly after the infamous Scottish Cup defeat to Berwick Rangers in January 1967. He and George McLean were deemed entirely to blame, and both were dropped and transferred within weeks. After spending a year at Preston, he had a 5 year stint at Aberdeen, where he received a 1970 Scottish Cup winner's medal, before transferring to Hong Kong Rangers in 1973.

Forrest's cousin, Alex Willoughby, was also a professional footballer. Amazingly, the two were team-mates at Drumchapel, Rangers, Aberdeen and Hong Kong Rangers.^[1]