In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Hearts didn't exactly have a team to shout about. Jim Cruickshank, Alan Anderson, Eddie Thomson and Donald Ford were, perhaps, the only players of real quality at Tynecastle during this period as Hearts slumped from being one of the country's leading clubs to Premier Division also-rans and, eventually, relegation. One of those Hearts players, however, had the undoubted quality to be a part of the Scotland squad that went to the World Cup finals in West Germany in 1974.

Brought up in Linlithgow, Donald Ford played in the same schools team as another player who would go on to have Hearts connections - Bobby Moncur. In 1964, legendary Hearts manager Tommy Walker, looking to return the club to its glory days of the 1950s, clearly saw the West Lothian youngster as someone who could help that process and Ford signed for Hearts, albeit as an amateur initially as he was undertaking studies to be a qualified accountant. But it wasn't long before Ford made his competitive debut - against Celtic at Tynecastle in September 1964. It was a memorable game as Hearts won 4-2 - but the following week was even more memorable for the centre forward as he scored in a 3-1 win over Partick Thistle at Firhill.

Ford, however, was spared the heartache of appearing in the infamous final league game of the 1964/65 season when Hearts lost 2-0 to Kilmarnock at Tynecastle - thereby handing the league title to the Ayrshire men on goal average. One wonders if it may have been a different outcome if Ford have been given a place in the team. As if to emphasise this point, he scored five goals in a trial game against Kilmarnock soon afterwards - the trial was that the game was played with no offside.

Ford was to spend more than a decade at Tynecastle but this period coincided with Hearts sliding into mediocrity. There was a Scottish Cup Final appearance in 1968, which, inevitably, ended in disappointment. Ford had written his name into Tynecastle folklore when he scored the winner against Rangers in a Tynecastle quarter-final replay - a game that attracted a huge crowd of over 44,000 on a Wednesday night. Hearts were favourites to lift their first Scottish Cup in twelve years but lost to Dunfermline Athletic 3-1 at Hampden in an afternoon of crushing disappointment.

Ford's goals over those years helped ease the pain of some of Hearts performances. In particular, his four goals against Airdrieonians in a Texaco Cup tie in 1970; his hat-trick at Pittodrie in November 1971 as Hearts came back from 2-1 down to win 3-2 and his hat-trick of penalties against Morton in 1973. Fordie was always a goal threat and his three international caps for Scotland in 1974 was something of a consolation given that the Hearts teams that he was part of for twelve years never won silverware. Indeed, Ford was part of the Scotland World Cup squad that went to the finals in West Germany in 1974 and it must have been a source of frustration that he didn't get a game, as Willie Ormond preferred the ageing Denis Law up front. There is no doubt in this writer's mind that had Ford played against Zaire in the opening game, the Scots would have won by considerably more than 2-0 - a result which ultimately cost us the chance to progress at Brazil's expense.

Ford's last season at Tynecastle was 1975-76 and it was a season where persistent knee problems would restrict his appearances in maroon. He left Gorgie in May 1976, moving for a brief spell to Falkirk but his knee injury was so severe he was forced to retire from the game.

However, Ford's influence on Hearts didn't disappear forever. In 1981 with Hearts in a perilous financial situation, Ford, with his financial connections, persuaded Wallace Mercer to part with £350,000 to save a football institution from closure. Mercer saved the club, disaster was averted and Hearts moved on.

I felt privileged to watch a player of Donald Ford's class in a Hearts shirt. If he had played in a good Hearts team rather than one which toiled almost every season he was at Tynecastle, there's no doubt Hearts would have won major honours - and Ford would have been an established internationalist. 188 goals in 435 games is a highly impressive statistic.

Donald Ford - a gentleman and a Hearts legend!