McQuarrie was born in
Glasgow. He played football for
Shettleston Juniors He moved into senior football with
Albion Rovers ahead of the
1961–62 Scottish Division Two season, and finished as their top scorer with 21 goals in all competitions. during which the cash-strapped club's supporters raised some part of the £3,000 fee, McQuarrie signed for
Chesterfield of the English
Fourth Division in November 1962. He admitted years later that the thigh injury he suffered on his last outing for Albion Rovers was such that he should have pulled out of the move, and he regretted having arrived "unable to show [those supporters] what [he] was capable of." He finished the season with 7 goals from 21 league appearances, and in 1963–34, despite playing more for the reserves in the
Central League than for the first team, he took his Football League totals to 12 goals from 38 matches. McQuarrie moved on to another Fourth Division club,
Brighton & Hove Albion, in July 1964. He rarely played, unable to dislodge the likes of former England international
Bobby Smith and team captain
Jimmy Collins from the forward line as the team gained promotion to the
Third Division. He was released at the end of the season, He was a member of the team that lost to
Durban City in the final of the 1965 UTC Bowl, and remained a regular in the side, either at
wing half or in the forward line, for the next two seasons. After returning home, McQuarrie continued his football career in the English
Southern League with two spells at
Gloucester City either side of two seasons with
Worcester City. In
his first season, Gloucester were promoted to the Premier Division, and over his two-year stint McQuarrie made 91 appearances in all competitions and scored 10 goals, of which 7 were in league matches. After two seasons with Worcester City, also a Premier Division team, McQuarrie spent the 1972–73 campaign as club captain of Gloucester City. While in Scotland, he had played part-time while working in chemistry; his football career tailed off in the lower levels of
non-league football in
Gloucestershire, where he worked at the
Coal Research Establishment at
Stoke Orchard. ==References==