John McCormack (footballer, born 1955)
John Duffy McCormack (born 25 April 1955 in Glasgow) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a defender and later became a coach and manager at several Scottish clubs.
McCormack began his playing career with Clydebank in 1976, making 114 league appearances and scoring 24 goals over four seasons. He moved to St Mirren in 1980, where he played 109 league games and scored 6 goals, earning the nickname "Cowboy" after sharing a name with a boxer of the same nickname. He then spent two seasons with Dundee (1984-1986), adding 61 appearances and 9 goals, followed by single seasons with Airdrieonians (44 games, 0 goals) and Partick Thistle (19 games, 0 goals). In total, McCormack made 347 league appearances and scored 39 goals before retiring in 1988.
After retiring, he worked for Glasgow City Council in sports centres before returning to football as a youth coach at Dundee, eventually rising to assistant manager and then manager in 1997. He was dismissed a few months later, despite Dundee leading the Scottish Football League First Division.
McCormack went on to manage Queen’s Park (1999-2002) and Greenock Morton (2002-2004). He led Morton to the Scottish Third Division title in his first season but was sacked in September 2004 after a poor run late in the 2003-04 season. He had a brief spell as an assistant manager at Stenhousemuir and later managed Bellshill Athletic (2007-2008) in Scottish junior football.
In May 2007 he became manager of Albion Rovers, guiding them to seventh place in his first season. He left in June 2008 to take an assistant role at Hamilton Academical, but departed after two months and later won a claim for wrongful dismissal. McCormack returned to football in September 2009 as first team coach at Clyde and was promoted to manager on 30 November 2009. He was given a contract to the end of the 2009-10 season but was sacked on 5 April 2010 as Clyde faced relegation.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 10:51 (CET).