Born in Glasgow and brought up in the Gorbals, McLintock started his career in the Scottish Juniors with Shawfield, before moving to Leicester City in 1957 as a wing half, making his debut for them in 1959. Frank had the rare combination of toughness and elegance adding a variety and vision to his play and became a key part of City’s then revolutionary midfield strategies of the early 60s. Switching right half and inside right with Graham Cross and creating crossfield magic with Davie Gibson, he oozed footballing class. He spent seven years at Filbert Street, laterly forging a celebrated half-back partnership with Colin Appleton and Ian King and was part of the revered 'Ice Kings' team which chased the double in 1962-63. With Leicester he reached, but lost, two FA Cup finals (1961 and 1963) and a winning League Cup final (1964).
During this time he also made his debut for Scotland, against Norway on 4 June 1963, and in his third appearance for Scotland, against Spain on 13 June 1963, scored one of the goals in a 6–2 win. He was capped on nine occasions for Scotland. He made a total of 168 Football League appearances for Leicester.
In October 1964, despite protestations from the fans he was signed by Arsenal for a then club record £80,000 and went straight into the first team. McLintock spent the next nine seasons with the Gunners, moving from midfield to centre half. He was a first-choice player throughout, and became the club's captain in 1967.
In the summer of 1973 he moved onto Queens Park Rangers, where he spent four seasons with the Hoops and was part of the side that qualified for the UEFA Cup after finishing a close second to Liverpool 1975/6. McLintock made a total of 127 League appearances for QPR.
Hero to Villain
After retiring from playing, he joined his old club Leicester City as manager in 1977. However, he endured a difficult time in charge as City went through a spell where they had one win in 26 matches and spent most of the season in the bottom 2 places leading to inevitable relegation.
He was later manager of Brentford between 1984 and 1987, and then a coach at Millwall, helping the club gain promotion to the old Division One. Mclintock and Docherty were sacked in February 1990. Mclintock was more successful as an after dinner speaker, and as a pundit for first BBC Radio, and more recently Sky Sports. In 2009, McLintock was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame.
