IAN DUTHIE, who has died aged 80, was a professional footballer with Town and Bradford City who later transferred to teaching with equal aplomb.

A Scotsman who settled happily in Huddersfield and married Molly, the daughter of former Town star and England captain Roy Goodall, he caught the eye of a string of leading English clubs playing for hometown non-league side Forfar Celtic while serving an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator.

By the end of the 1948-49 season he had firm offers from Town, Manchester City and Leicester, and mindful of the fact that footballers earned only slightly more than the average working man, the 19-year-old right winger chose Huddersfield because of the reputation of its technical college, where he continued his decorating training.

Despite having Northern Ireland international Johnny McKenna as a rival for the right wing berth, he made his mark with a string of impressive displays for the reserves and was handed a first-team debut in the 1-0 top-flight win over Aston Villa at Leeds Road in October 1949, when the home side also included the likes of Eddie Boot, Jimmy Glazzard, Vic Metcalfe and Albert Nightingale.

The most successful of his five seasons with Town, a spell interrupted by National Service with the RAF, was 1952-53, when the club made an immediate return to Division I after relegation the previous campaign, and gave a Blackpool side including Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen a tough fight before going down 1-0 in an FA Cup fourth-round tie at Bloomfield Road.

Having married in 1953 (Roy Goodall was by then back at Town as trainer) he was transferred to Bradford City in June 1954, and spent two seasons at Valley Parade before leaving the full-time game and returning to painting and decorating.

Keen to advance his second career, he undertook teacher training, landing a job as a lecturer in interior decorating at Northwich School of Art, during which time he played for both the Cheshire town’s non-league football clubs, Witton Albion and Northwich Victoria.

He moved on to Manchester College of Art, then Holly Bank College, which was part of Huddersfield Polytechnic, becoming a senior lecturer.

Having gained a City and Guilds full certificate then a national diploma in design, he was awarded a degree in education at Leeds University then a Masters degree at Sheffield University.

Mr Duthie, who lived in Salendine Nook then Honley, helped set City and Guilds exam papers, while his job twice took him to Ghana with the British Council.

Away from work, he was a former secretary of the Huddersfield St Andrews Society, for exiled Scots, and played golf at Bradley Hall, then Meltham.

As well as wife Molly, he leaves a son Neil and daughter Fiona and grandchildren Grace and Ellie.