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Peter Barr Cormack (17 July 1946 – 10 October 2024) was a Scottish professional football player and manager. 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 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.
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). Hibs challenged for league and cup until Stein left before the end of the season to manage Celtic in March 1965. 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. 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. 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.
During the summer of 1967, the Hibs team played in the United Soccer Association, a North American competition, as "Toronto City".
Cormack made his Reds debut on 2 September 1972 in a league fixture at the Baseball Ground in a 2–1 defeat to Derby County. His first goal came the following week at Anfield in a 4–2 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers. In October he headed the only goal of the game with 13 minutes to go for a home win in the Merseyside derby against Everton. Two minutes into the second half of Liverpool's penultimate League match against Leeds United in April 1973, Cormack fired Liverpool's opener in a 2–0 win, a result that helped Liverpool to finish ahead of Leeds and Arsenal and win the title for the first time since 1966. "Peter CORMACK - Liverpool FC - Biography & League appearances." Sporting Heroes"
In the UEFA Cup, Cormack scored in the second round win against AEK Athens. Liverpool defeated four German teams en route to the trophy and beat Tottenham Hotspur in the semi-final. Cormack played both legs of the 3–2 aggregate win against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the final . His throw-in fed Chris Lawler to provide the high cross for the first goal. In total, Cormack played 52 games and scored 10 goals in his first season at Anfield.
Cormack won silverware in his second season, when Liverpool emphatically beat Newcastle United 3–0 at Wembley in the 1974 FA Cup Final. Cormack played in the final in central midfield with another Scottish-born player, Brian Hall. He played in all eight games in that FA Cup run and in all 42 league matches that season, two of those as a substitute, as Liverpool finished second to Leeds United in the league. Overall he played 57 games that season, scoring 11 times.
Cormack started his third season with the club by scoring a penalty in the penalty shoot-out win against Leeds in the 1974 FA Charity Shield. His next goal was in the 11–0 thumping of Norwegian minnows Strømsgodset in the European Cup Winners' Cup at Anfield, still a club record win. Liverpool again finished second in the league that season, this time to Dave Mackay's Derby County Cormack played 36 league games, scoring three goals.
In 1975–76, Cormack's fourth season at Anfield, Liverpool completed another League and the UEFA Cup double. Cormack played in both legs in the UEFA Cup first round 3–2 aggregate win against his former club, Hibernian. Cormack was a regular league starter until the end of October. In the next six leagues games he made the team sheet only once, as a substitute against Coventry City. He was then named as substitute against Burnley before a run of four games in the starting line-up, including a crucial 2–0 home win against Queens Park Rangers that put Liverpool in top spot ahead of the London club. The last of those four games was the 1–0 home league win against Manchester City on 27 December 1975. Cormack scored the only goal in what was to be a landmark game for him. A long-standing underlying problem with knee cartilage materialised into an injury after the game, when the cartilage cracked. He lost his place in the team and missed the rest of the season, which included the 4–3 aggregate win against Bruges in the UEFA Cup Final, and never played again in the Liverpool first team. He was an unused substitute in the 1976 FA Charity Shield win against Southampton at the start of the following season.
In his 125 Liverpool league games Cormack scored 21 times. He played 178 first team games in total, scoring 26 goals.
Although not challenging for major honours, Cormack enjoyed yet another cup win this time in the Anglo-Scottish Cup in 1978. City played Alex Ferguson managed St Mirren in the two-legged final. The first leg was in Paisley with City beating their hosts 2–1 and Cormack scoring the winner. The 1–1 return leg draw gave City a 3–2 aggregate win.
He scored 15 goals in 67 league games in Bristol.
From 1984-86 he managed Anorthosis Famagusta in Cyprus. In 1986 he managed the Botswana national football team before he returned to Scotland as assistant manager to Alex Miller at St Mirren. However, on 15 November 1986 Miller was appointed manager of Hibs after which Cormack had two games in charge of Saints as interim manager. Cormack then followed Miller to Hibs as his assistant manager once again. The St Mirren team they left behind won that season's Scottish Cup.
In December 2000 he was appointed manager of Cowdenbeath in the Scottish fourth tier. Cowdenbeath were promoted at the end of the season. However Cormack was sacked after 10 days during which time his side never played a game.
In July 2001 he took over at Greenock Morton in Scotland's third tier. However he left the following March in a season in which the club were relegated when they finished bottom of the division.
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.
His son, also named Peter, played football in Scotland for various clubs.
Cormack died from complications of dementia on 10 October 2024, at the age of 78.
Bristol City
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