While unraveling the original Seattle Sounders DNA, it’s plain to see that Scots had an outsized effect on the club through its first several seasons. Three Dark Blues of Dundee, in particular, played a lead role. From the beginning there was the grit and spirit of Jimmy Gabriel at the club’s core. In Gabriel’s first season as coach came the Black Pirate, Jocky Scott, whose goal sent Seattle to its first final.
The third Dundonian, Gordon Wallace, arrived in between Gabriel and Scott. With a slighter (5-foot-9, 155 lbs.) physical frame, his game was more technical and Wallace tended to leave most of his marks on the scoreboard.
Earlier this month, on March 13, Wallace left this earth from his native Scotland. He was 82.
“He was a good guy, a good player and highly regarded,” remembered his fellow Scot and Sounders teammate David Gillett. “He had a good sense of humor, and he was calm and collected in front of the goal.”
A Quick Fit
Wallace came to Seattle in 1976, and amongst the attacking crew was less known to fans than returnee David Butler or marquee signing Geoff Hurst. Yet it was Wallace who broke the club scoring record with 12 goals in only 21 appearances that season. He finished with four multi-goal games in two seasons, the last coming in a 3-2 overtime win over Portland.
Wallace seamlessly fit into the team, playing off the target man, Hurst, and wingers Harry Redknapp and Jimmy Robertson, another Scot. In his debut, after only two training sessions since arriving from Dundee, a jet lagged Wallace factored in the winning goal versus Vancouver. He brought down Hurst’s long ball in the box, faked the shot and then chipped to the unmarked Butler for the score.
“Everybody’s been so nice to me since I arrived, and that’s not just for the paper,” Wallace told the Seattle P-I afterward. He was surprised by both the standard and style of play. “You just hear at home that soccer’s only getting started over here, so I really didn’t know what to expect. But this is pretty good.”
Gabriel, noting how Wallace instantly meshed with Hurst and Tommy Jenkins, said, “You saw it today, didn’t you? Gordon Wallace has the pedigree, doesn’t he?”
A Dundee Legend
More than just a scorer, Wallace was a leader. He had been Dundee captain and serenaded by chants of ‘Gor-don, Gor-don!’ during their last successful major trophy run, for the 1973 Scottish Cup. Known fondly as Stubby back then, he was equally revered for his earnest, hardworking play in getting his teams into a scoring position.
“Gordon was quite famous in Scotland,” said Gillett. In fact, Wallace was the first player not from Celtic or Rangers to be judged by media as Scottish player of the year, in 1968, when he scored 30 goals for unfashionable Raith Rovers.
“He and Jocky had been quite force for Dundee, and they remained close to one another,” added Gillett. They are both enshrined in the Dundee Legends hall of fame. After missing the Sounders’ first Soccer Bowl run, Wallace returned to Seattle in 1978 to reform his midfield partnership with Scott one final time.
Both men remained in the game as managers (each taking the Dundee helm during the Eighties), assistant coaches and youth directors. Prior to the pandemic Wallace was invited to Vancouver Island for some summer camps and clinics. While on that excursion he found time to slip down to Seattle and join Gillett at a home match.
Some 40 years after his departure, this formidable Scot remained a Sounder.