If there was one thing Frank McDougall did not lack it was confidence.
His contribution to the Aberdeen cause was fleeting but it was certainly memorable.
A remarkable 44 goals in 69 appearances for the Dons was all it took for the man known as Super Frank to etch his name in the history of the club.
In little more than two years of football for the Dons he packed in enough memories to last a lifetime.
A hat-trick against Rangers, another against Hearts at Tynecastle to clinch the Premier Division title in 1985, ending his debut season for the Dons as the leading goalscorer in Scotland, four goals in one game against Celtic at Pittodrie, a cup double in his second season.
The man was simply sensational.
‘I would have smashed Joe’s record’
A back injury forced the goal machine to hang up his boots way too soon at the age of 29 but he retired with no regrets.
He did make one claim repeatedly though. Had injury not curtailed his career he is convinced he would have eclipsed the King of the Beach End Joe Harper’s record of 205 goals for the club.
McDougall pointed at the calibre of team-mates he had at Pittodrie during his time with the Dons as the evidence he would have caught the Evening Express columnist.
Speaking when the Dons announced him as one of the 2022 inductees into their Hall of Fame in September last year he said: “I am not one for looking back on my career too often and I’ve no regrets at how things turned out.
“But I would have smashed Joe’s record.
“Had I stayed fit, with the quality of players we had and the chances we created I would have bettered it, I’m sure of it, but that’s life.”
It is one of those great ‘what if’ moments but boy it would have been fun to see Frank try.
McDougall overcame adversity to forge a career in football
It is a measure of the impact he made in such a brief period that he was inducted into Aberdeen’s Hall of Fame last year.
Those who saw him play will tell you he was up there with the very best Aberdeen have had to offer in its 120-year history.
Frank, a man not afraid to come away with a quip or two, would heartily agree.
The belief in himself was evident as a teenager right up to his death on Sunday.
At the age of 14, having signed as a schoolboy for Hearts, his career was threatened by a brick being thrown through a bus window as he was making his way back from visiting his grandmother in hospital.
The brick struck him in the face, leaving the young striker blinded in hospital for months as surgeons did their best to pick out the glass shards embedded in his face.
It’s testament to his desire that he not only played again but at the highest level, but his professional career was dogged by a back injury which was eventually diagnosed as traumatic spondylitis.
Frank did not mourn the end of his career. Rather, he revelled in what he did accomplish. A glass half full approach if you will.
McDougall’s Hall of Fame induction delayed
But even his Hall of Fame induction was impacted for health reasons.
A lung cancer diagnosis meant he was unable to join Duncan Shearer, Russell Anderson, Dougie Bell and the late Davie Robb in being inducted at the Chester Hotel in November last year.
Three words summed up his attitude to it all: “I’m a fighter.”
True to his word Frank was well enough in February to travel to Pittodrie to receive his award and took his bow one last time in front of the Red Army.
But heart complications ultimately proved one last battle too many as Frank passed away on Sunday.
This Northern Light did not shine at Pittodrie for long but he certainly shone bright and the glare was impossible to ignore.
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