Jim Forrest, a Rangers great, passed away at the age of 79, according to the Ibrox club.
The former striker joined the squad of his childhood idols in 1961 as a schoolboy. He played with the Light Blues for five years, scoring 145 goals in 163 games while also winning two League Cups and one league championship.
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, a former star player for the Rangers, is the cousin of Alex Willoughby. After moving south of the line, Forrest joined Preston North End and later returned to Scotland to play for Aberdeen for five years, winning a Scottish Cup medal in 1970. After that, he played for Hong Kong Rangers, San Antonio Thunder, and Cape Town City while abroad.
“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. With 145 goals in 163 games for the team, Mr. Forrest will go down as the most productive forward in the post-war history of the team.