This great wee story about the legendary TB comes from former Kilmarnock player Alan Kerr in response to a post from Tommy’s daughter, Jenna. It features Colin ‘Melly’ Meldrum – now a goalkeeping coach at Celtic Park!
The story was posted on the Celtic Collectibles Facebook page :
“Myself, David Bagan Mark Roberts, Colin Meldrum and a few others were Y.T.S. at Kilmarnock and we could tell you a few stories about your dad as we were on the receiving end of a few rollickings growing up.
None more so than when we were called in to his office after hearing of us being on a night out in Kilmarnock which wasn’t the smartest move we ever made and we made a few mistakes then.
This time your dad called us all in, asked if we were all out to which 7 or so replys were “yes”.
We were then asked if we had been drinking, which once again we said we had been, no point trying to outfox the legend because he would of went to the ends of the earth to prove it!
With our legs trembling in his wee offfice, he didnt seem that bothered that we had owned up about the drinking.
The third and final question was with that angry expression where the vein in his neck stuck out “who aw got a burd?”
Nobody answered . . .
I’ll ask again “who all got a burd and I want an answer?”
Six of us replied “Melly gaffer”, to which Tommy turned to Melly who was white as a sheet and said “did you walk her home?”
“Yes gaffer” was Mellys reply.
“Did ye get her number Melly?”
“Yes gaffer”
“Did ye winch her?”
“No gaffer”
“Mellly did ye winch her?”
“No honest gaffer I didn’t !!”
“Well you are fined, I canny believe you got her number, walked her home and didn’t winch her!”
Then this big smile came across his face which to our relief, we burst out laughing!
Melly couldn’t believe he was getting fined for no winching the girl and we got off for being out drinking!
Then, with his laugh, Tommy told us to get out and let this be a lesson to us that he had eyes everywhere.
The man new everything about every player at his club, made you feel part of the club, often sent us for cakes after training which he shared with us after taking the best ones obviously!
Just a true gentleman, left a mark on our young careers Jenna because he was the ultimate professional, so much so that after all those years myself, David and Mark went to his funeral just because we felt we couldn’t miss it .
I’m still good friends with David and Mark and also Andy Millen where we often talk about stories and our time at kilmarnock.
It was an absolute honour to have had Tommy as a manager as I was just starting out, but I’ve taking some of his values and ways of working along the way.
God Bless You Tommy. Forever in our hearts.”
Tommy’s family set up a skin cancer charity in his memory following his death. Details about the charity and how to make donations can be found here:
the shamrock 
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