Hugh Keevins talks all things Clydebank

The word has been running through Scottish football recently faster than Lyndon Dykes bearing down on a Norwegian goalmouth.

Fans – particularly those in green and white - have been left once again questioning if there is any left in football; an understandable coping strategy in dealing with the loss of one much-loved manager - who stands accused of kissing the badge before high-tailing it down south – and replacing him with another, who previously had kissed the badge and then hopped across Hadrian’s Wall.

But one figure, whose commitment and loyalty to the brand that is football in the West of Scotland cannot be questioned, a man who can never be accused of being lured away by the big bucks of London, is a certain Mr Hugh Keevins.

Hugh has been working at Radio Clyde, based in Clydebank, for nearly 40 years (Image: Tom Grant)

Hugh’s unmistakeable, instantly recognisable, dulcet tones have been part of the fabric of Scottish football for the best part of four decades, writing countless newspaper columns, interviewing the game’s heroes (and villains), and becoming a regular voice on Clydebank-based Radio Clyde’s Superscoreboard phone-in show, his home for the last 38 years.

Yes, for nearly four decades, old Shug has achieved the unachievable and united football fans across the West, brought together by their belief that Hugh does not in fact ‘know what he is talking about'.

That’ll be somewhat due to what seems like his favourite pastime, verbally sparring with fans of the game a regular feature on the show, with many emotionally triggered just by the sound of him opening his mouth through their radio.

“I took my wife one time to a Clydebank match,” explains Hugh as we chat one dull Monday morning inside the South Avenue radio hub.

“We played Celtic at Celtic Park, a Scottish Cup tie, and I’m talking about Kenny Dalgleish, Danny McGrain, and Clydebank score first.

“My wife didn’t understand, and she jumped up. We were in the main stand at Celtic Park!

“A voice from the back said: ‘Hey hen, bleeping sit doon.’

“She said: ‘Did you hear that?’ and I said: ‘uh huh’; ‘What are you going to do?’ I said: ‘Bleeping sit doon.’”

Despite years of accusations - from both sides of the Glasgow footballing divide - that he was a fanatical of ‘the other mob’, Hugh dispelled all the myth, legend and rumour on November 27, 2021, when he appeared for the Saturday radio show dressed head to toe in Bankies attire, showing his support for the Holm Park side who were facing off against league side Clyde in the Scottish Cup.

“The reason I found the Clydebank/Clyde game to be quite emotional was, I came in here (Radio Clyde) and we were laughing because I had my Clydebank scarf and all the rest of it,” Hugh goes on.

“And I walked along to Holm Park and I thought to myself, there is a new Clydebank rising out of the ground.

“I have a vivid recollection of coming here, starting to work here, first job out of school was in Clydebank.

“And I remember the whole of Kilbowie Road was tenements, it bears no resemblance to the way it looks now.”

Although Partick-born and spending his formative school years in Drumchapel, for Hugh, all roads lead back to Clydebank, the place somehow becoming the setting for the major moments of his life.

He continued: “It’s a very, very special place to me.

“Because I met my wife here, by accident.

“We moved here in 1971 to Dalmuir, then we lived in Faifley, then we lived in Duntcoher, then we went to Parkhall and we lived in the same house in Parkhall for 31 years.

“So, from 1971 to 2014 we were in Clydebank.

“My kids all went to school in Clydebank and the place was just very, very special.”

The love affair with the town and its football team began in the 1960s when the pundit watched Clydebank take on Sunderland in a friendly, oddly played in Drumchapel.

Then school pal Dougie Hay was signed by the Bankies, another excuse to get down and support the team for Hugh.

But the moment that changed everything came whilst working in a job exchange centre in Clydebank.

Hugh said: “One morning a girl came in looking for work and I referred her to an agency for office work.

“Then I got a phone call from my aunt to say she was starting the girl in the medical practice that she worked in.

“I went and checked in on her, and it was the woman who has been my wife for the last 52 years.

“So, I met my wife in the Labour Exchange in Clydebank.”

As well as taking his new fiancée to a Bankies versus Dumbarton New Year fixture the day after the big proposal and buying his son his first pint on the way back from a match at Kilbowie, Hugh also recalls celebrating a Clydebank promotion with a well-known Partick pal who enjoyed a joke or two.

Hugh laughs: “I remember Clydebank won promotion and I am sitting beside Billy Connolly.

“And it just so happened, that on the final whistle – the ground is on the flight path to Glasgow Airport – the plane goes overhead, and Billy turns to me and goes: ‘It’s a bit much, organising a flypast just for Clydebank'.”

A man who has been around Scottish football for most of his life, he admits it would be ‘incredible’ if Clydebank were to one day make it to the SPFL and insists the club has been kind to him and his family over the years.

He finished: “One of my grandkids is severely autistic, Michael.

“Now Michael didn’t have anything in his life that was his.

“One day, the kids were up from Brighton, and they were all at a loose end and I said: ‘Why don’t you go see the Bankies play?’

“So they went to Holm Park, and all the young team with the drums and all the rest of it, Michael was absolutely captivated.

“So much so, that he’s a season ticket holder now, my daughter is a season ticket holder and her husband is a season ticket holder.

“And Michael has his Clydebank top and Clydebank wet jacket and he must go to every home game because football gave him something that was his.

“And Grace McGibbon has been fantastic, she always looks out for him, and he gets the occasional message over the tannoy.”

So, next time you listen to Hugh on your car radio, and you are certain he is showing signs of bias towards whatever team isn't yours, remember, for Hugh, it is all about the Bankies.