Know Your History – Today is a very special day for Celtic

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The Celtic Star

·11 October 2024

Know Your History – Today is a very special day for Celtic

Know Your History – A very special day for Celtic…

Celtic 1930/31. Back; Willie Cook, Peter Kavanagh, Hugh Smith & Peter Wilson.Middle; Peter McGonagle, Chic Geatons, Denis O’Hare, John Thomson, Bobby Whitelaw, Willie Hughes & Will Quinn (Trainer).Front; Bertie Thomson, Alec Thomson, Jimmy McGrory, Jimmy McStay, Peter Scarff & Charlie Napier.

Saturday, 11 October 1930 was a pretty special day for a number of Celtic stars, although that wasn’t at all obvious at the time.

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Over 70,000 spectators made their way to Hampden to watch the Hoops take on Rangers in the Glasgow Cup final. The Celts lined up as follows;

John Thomson; Willie Cook & Peter McGonagle; Chic Geatons, Jimmy McStay & Bobby Whitelaw; Bertie Thomson, Alec Thomson, Jimmy McGrory, Peter Scarff & Charlie Napier.

Ten of that side would lift the Scottish Cup at Hampden the following April, the exception being left-half Bobby Whitelaw who replaced the injured Peter Wilson. But that would be a story for another day.

Back in October 1930

Back in October 1930, goals from Charlie Napier and Jimmy McGrory saw Celts beat Rangers 2-1 to win a first trophy in two long years, despite a disallowed Peter Scarff goal and the dismissal of close-season signing Bertie Thomson for retaliation. Former Glasgow Perthshire winger Thomson had been the victim of some callous challenges by the infamous full-back Jock Buchanan which went unpunished, and Celtic subsequently complained to the SFA about what they perceived as a ‘travesty of justice.’

Charlie Napier had opened the scoring early on but twice had to be helped from the field in the first half following robust treatment.

Peter Scarff. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Linwood Bhoy Peter Scarff

Like Thomson and Napier, this would be a first winners’ medal for Linwood Bhoy Peter Scarff, but tragically he would only have that and the Scottish Cup medal from April 1931 to treasure before a serious illness changed the course of his life.

Jimmy McGrory’s direct opponent that day was Rangers captain Davie Meiklejohn, but there is an interesting side story there also. Jimmy Simpson had played in that centre-half role in the Ibrox club’s two earlier matches in the competition, narrow home wins over Third Lanark and Queen’s Park, but he had other things on his mind as his side faced Celtic at Hampden.

Johnny Crum in action against Rangers at Ibrox. He scored the winner as Celts won there on 21 September 1935 for the first time in almost 15 years. The Rangers defender is Jimmy Simpson, Ronnie’s father.

Ronald Campbell

Just a stone’s throw from Hampden in Cathcart that same day, Simpson’s wife Mabel would present him with their first son, to be named Ronald Campbell, mum’s maiden surname being acknowledged. The young couple had been married in Dundee the previous year.

He was bought by Celtic

Ronnie would grow up to become a top-class goalkeeper, actually featuring for all three of Rangers’ opponents in that Glasgow Cup run – Third Lanark, Queen’s Park and Celtic, as well as winning two FA Cup medals in the 1950s with Newcastle United. He would then end up at Hibernian, and in September 1964 he was bought by Celtic by that same Jimmy McGrory, the selling manager being a certain Jock Stein.