Peter Cormack

He was the first ground staff boy at Tynecastle Park since Hearts all-time great Tommy Walker in the 1930s.

However Cormack left following an incident in which a grass cutting machine damaged a perimeter wall.

Peter Barr Cormack (born 17 July 1946) is a Scottish former international football player and manager.

Cormack was quickly signed by cross city rivals Hibernian who he joined in 1962.

After impressing in the reserves he scored on his first team debut in November 1962 against Airdrieonians.

His best season at Hibs was 1964-65 during the 12 months they were managed by Jock Stein (Stein had a 62% win rate at Hibs).

Cormack scored twice when Hibs won 4–2 against Rangers at Ibrox Park on 10 October 1964 in one of three victories against Rangers.

The 4–2 win at Ibrox was three days after Cormack and Hibs had beaten Real Madrid 2–0 in a challenge match at Easter Road.

Cormack scored the opener against Real volleying home a cross by Neil Martin.

Stein was replaced by Bob Shankly with whom Hibs finished fourth in the league and lost in the Scottish Cup semi final to Dunfermline Athletic.

Cormack played regularly with Hibs in Europe but was unable to progress past the quarter final stage.

Hibs challenged for league and cup until Stein left before the end of the season to manage Celtic in March 1965.

The most significant of Cormack's wins in Europe with Hibs was the November 1967 6-4 aggregate success against S.S.C. Napoli featuring Dino Zoff.

Napoli won the first leg 4–1 in Italy.

Cormack scored the third as Hibs won the second leg 5–0.

Napoli were league leaders in Serie A at the time.

Hibs had knocked out F.C. Porto in the previous round when Cormack scored a double in the 3–0 home leg win.

They were eliminated 2–1 on aggregate in the quarter final by Don Revie's Leeds United.

Cormack scored 75 goals in 182 league games for Hibs in this spell.

During the summer of 1967, the Hibs team played in the United Soccer Association, a North American competition, as "Toronto City".

His greatest success was with Liverpool in the early 1970s, for whom he played 178 times, winning two league championships, one FA Cup and two UEFA Cup medals.

Cormack also played for Hibernian, Toronto City, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City and Partick Thistle.

He was sold in 1970 when after a second sending off in a short period of time he was given a three-month suspension by the authorities in Scotland.

Aged 23, in March 1970 Cormack was signed by Matt Gillies at Nottingham Forest.

Forest started the season well with Cormack being unbeaten and fourth in the league after six games.

Ex Hibs teammate Neil Martin joined in 1971.

However Forest were relegated from the top flight in 1972 from finishing second from bottom of the league.

He collected nine full caps for the Scotland national football team, and was a member of the Scotland squad at the 1974 FIFA World Cup that went undefeated but did not advance out of the group stage of the tournament.

Cormack managed Partick Thistle, Anorthosis FC, Botswana, Cowdenbeath and Greenock Morton.

He held roles of assistant manager and interim manager at St Mirren and was assistant manager at Hibernian.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Cormack is described on his profile on the Liverpool F.C. website as "a skilful, player with an eye for goal" and "a classy player who loved to entertain".

The article as a Hibernian Hall of Fame inductee says of him:

"Once described as a skinny kid built like a greyhound, he was as hard as nails, his fiery fiercely competitive nature earning him several altercations with officialdom. According to a popular Hibs player of the time, Peter could do everything, pass, beat a man, tackle and head the ball. The versatile Cormack could also play anywhere, out wide, midfield, up front and even in goal as he once demonstrated when keeping a clean sheet for most of the match against St Mirren after goalkeeper Willie Wilson had gone off injured."

He offered a serious attacking threat from headers with an apparent natural ability to hang in the air.

He had a prance like style of running by running on the balls of his feet.

Cormack worked hard to improve as a footballer and did extra training sessions three times a week with Peter Marinello and John Murphy at Hibs.

With a background in cross country running, he was very fit using his stamina to tire out opponents to allow space for himself.

A product of Tynecastle Boys Club the young Peter Cormack was signed by Heart of Midlothian directly from school.

They were unable to retain this and slid down the table to finish in 16th.

In his two seasons at the City Ground, he scored 15 times in 74 league games and 20 in 86 over all competitions.