Alex Fraser
Personal information
Full name Alexander Currie Fraser[1]
Date of birth 14 June 1882
Place of birth Dumbarton, Scotland[2]
Date of death 25 January 1950(1950-01-25) (aged 67)
Place of death Roodepoort, South Africa
Position(s) Defender
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Clydebank Juniors
1902–1906 Rangers 43 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Alexander Currie Fraser (14 June 1882 – 25 January 1950) was a Scottish footballer who played mainly as an defender and featured for Rangers between 1902 and 1906.[3][4]

Career

A short time after joining Rangers from Clydebank Juniors,[5] Fraser scored on his Scottish Football League debut against Morton in September 1902 as a makeshift right half[6] (his only goal in the major competitions). At the end of that season the club won the Scottish Cup in 1903, in which Heart of Midlothian were defeated after two replays.[7]

A frequent but not constant starter (he was involved in two-thirds of the league fixtures in the three campaigns he featured regularly),[4] Fraser missed out on a place in the 1904 Scottish Cup Final, a defeat to Celtic,[8] but did take part in a win over the same opponents in the final of the Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup a month later,[9][10] only to finish on the losing side in an Old Firm final again five months after that, this time in the Glasgow Cup[11] in the period when the competitive rivalry between the two clubs was intensifying.

More disappointment was to follow for Rangers at the end of that season as they lost the 1905 Scottish Cup Final to Third Lanark after a replay,[12] then suffered another defeat to Celtic in a play-off for the 1904–05 Scottish Division One title, both having finished level on points.[13]

At the start of the next season Fraser was injured against Kilmarnock[14] and did not feature again until January 1906 in a defeat to St Mirren – this appears to have been an unsuccessful comeback attempt as it was reported that he "got injured somehow, and had to retire".[15] That proved to be his final appearance for Rangers;[4] in June 1906, it was stated that he had "almost completely recovered from the rather severe knee injury which troubled him so much last season"[16] but a few days earlier it had been confirmed that his contract was not being renewed,[17] and as with teammate Alec Mackie, it appears that he did not play for any senior club after that fairly prominent spell at Ibrox. He later emigrated to South Africa.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Statutory registers - Births - Search results, ScotlandsPeople
  2. ↑ Alex Fraser, Play Up Liverpool
  3. ↑ John Litster (October 2012). "A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players". Scottish Football Historian magazine.
  4. 1 2 3 (Rangers player) Fraser, Alex, FitbaStats
  5. ↑ Where Gallagher Was Found, Scottish Junior Histories (page 21), Evening Times, 1933, via Scottish Football Historical Archive
  6. ↑ League Gossip. | Successful Experiments. The Scottish Referee, 22 September 1902. Scan via London Hearts Supporters Club
  7. ↑ Football. | Scottish Cup Final., The Scotsman, 27 April 1903, via London Hearts Supporters Club
  8. ↑ Scottish Cup Final Tie. | Celtic v. Rangers., The Glasgow Herald, 18 April 1904
  9. ↑ Glasgow Rangers v Celtic 5-2 (Glasgow Charity Cup Final: May 14, 1904), via Play Up Liverpool
  10. ↑ Football. Glasgow Charity Cup–Final Tie, The Glasgow Herald, 16 May 1904
  11. ↑ Glasgow Cup–Final Tie. | Celtic V. Rangers., The Glasgow Herald, 10 October 1904
  12. ↑ Football. | Scottish Cup–Final Tie., The Glasgow Herald, 17 April 1905
  13. ↑ Hannan, Martin (27 November 2010). "1905: The last time Scotland drafted in a foreign referee". The Scotsman. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  14. ↑ Close Contest at Ibrox. The Scottish Referee, 21 August 1905. Scan via London Hearts Supporters Club
  15. ↑ "Dark Blue". The Scottish Referee, 15 January 1906. Scan via London Hearts Supporters Club
  16. ↑ A Popular Light Blue. The Scottish Referee, 25 June 1906. Scan via London Hearts Supporters Club
  17. ↑ Rangers F.C. Annual Meeting. The Scottish Referee, 22 June 1906. Scan via London Hearts Supporters Club
  18. ↑ [Transvaal Province, South Africa, Estates Death Notice Index, 1855-1976], via Ancestry
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