Rangers and Scottish football mourn Jim Forrest’s death at the age of 79. The Ibrox club revealed the sad news of the former frontman’s death.
Rangers great Jim Forrest has died at the age of 79, according to the Ibrox club.
The former striker joined his boyhood idols as a schoolboy in 1961 and played five years in the main squad, where he became a prolific scorer, scored 145 goals in 163 games and earning one league title and two League Cups.
Forrest’s best season for the club came in 1964/65 when he scored a staggering 57 goals in all competitions and that is just two short of Celtic great Jimmy McGrory’s record for the most goals scored in a season in British football. Forrest – capped five times by Scotland – also held the record for the most goals scored by a Rangers player in the League Cup after bagging five against Stirling Albion in an 8-0 rout of the Binos in 1966.
But for all of his success at Rangers, his time at Ibrox ended on a sour note when, along with George McLean, he was made a scapegoat for the humiliating Scottish Cup loss to Berwick Rangers. He was transferred by then boss Scot Symon within weeks of that defeat that sent shockwaves throughout British football.
Forrest, the cousin of ex-Rangers great Alex Willoughby, travelled south to Preston North End before returning to Scotland with Aberdeen, where he played five years and won the Scottish Cup in 1970. After that, he played for Cape Town City, Hong Kong Rangers, and San Antonio Thunder.
“The Rangers family is today saddened by the loss of former striker, Jim Forrest, at the age of 79,” the Ibrox club said in a statement. Mr Forrest will be remembered as the club’s most prolific attacker in postwar history, scoring 145 goals in 163 games.
