Celtic in the Thirties: Unpublished works of David Potter – Jimmy McGrory

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·10 de noviembre de 2024

Celtic in the Thirties: Unpublished works of David Potter – Jimmy McGrory

Celtic in the Thirties: Unpublished works of David Potter today features the legendary Jimmy McGrory who is our cover star on Volume Two of Matt Corr’s new books Celtic in the Thirties…

The late David Potter

Name: JIMMY McGRORY Born: April 26 1904 Died: October 20 1982 Appearances: 445 Goals: 472 Scottish League medals: 1925/26; 1935/36 Scottish Cup medals: 1924/25; 1930/31; 1932/1933; 1936/37 Glasgow Cup medals: 1926/27; 1927/28; 1928/29; 1930/31 Glasgow Charity Cup medals: 1923/24; 1925/26; 1935/36; 1936/37 Scotland Caps: 7

4 January 1928: The Great Jimmy McGrory scores eight goals against Dunfermline to create a record which stands to this day

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Taking about Celtic in the 1930s (and the 1920s too for that matter) is indeed like talking about Hamlet without mentioning the Prince. For all these years, he was the man that everyone thought about when Celtic were mentioned, mainly because he was the man who scored the goals, he was the man who lit up the lives of so many, and he was the man who allowed so many people in those grim years of the 1930s to believe that life could be worth living.

And yet, he was such a quiet, unassuming modest man. Even years later when he “wrote” his book “A Lifetime in Paradise”, his ghost writer Gerry McNee kept telling everyone how difficult it was to get Jimmy to talk about himself, for he kept saying that others deserved as much credit as he did!

550 goals in total, 410 of them in the Scottish League seems to say it all however. And he was a one club man – he was farmed out to Clydebank for a spell in 1923 (where he came under the benign influence of James Hay of Young, Loney and Hay fame) but from the day that he returned in 1924 until he left to become Manager of Kilmarnock in 1937, he was nothing other than Jimmy McGrory of Celtic. As he said himself, Jimmy McGrory of Arsenal would not have sounded anything like as good!

Jimmy McGrory, image Celtic Curio

He is referring to the time when the despicable Willie Maley tried to sell him (and probably John Thomson as well) to Arsenal in order to pay for the new stand in 1929. Herbert Chapman of Arsenal more or less offered Maley a blank cheque, and Maley would have accepted it, but Jimmy refused to go! Charlie Nicholas and Kieran Tierney take note, and hang your heads in shame!

He was not a particularly tall man, but he was sturdy, and he had strong shoulders which reminded Maley and so many of the supporters of Jimmy Quinn, and he did have a great ability to jump high and to time his jump. Indeed it was his heading power that distinguished him from so many others. He had all the other attributes of Jimmy Quinn, but possibly had the edge over the Croy man in his ability to score with his head.

It is important to realise however that there was no real rivalry between Quinn and McGrory. When McGrory came to Celtic, Quinn had been retired for several years but, being beloved of Maley, Quinn was allowed and encouraged to hang around and give advice. Both men were shy and modest and McGrory was flattered when Quinn sought him out to talk to him.

Jimmy McGrory, Celtic FC. Photo The Celtic Wiki

McGrory was born in the Garngad a matter of days after Quinn’s famous hat-trick in the 1904 Scottish Cup final, and he grew up in honest poverty in difficult times, and first came to people’s attention when he won the Scottish Junior Cup with St Roch’s in 1922. Celtic did seem to be the obvious next step, but Maley hesitated for a while – Celtic did after all have Joe Cassidy at this point, and for his part the young McGrory was reluctant to commit himself to the awesome and mighty Celtic. And yet when the call did come, McGrory was delighted to tell The Weekly News “I grabbed my cap and ran all the way”.

Wisely, the young McGrory was farmed out to Clydebank for season 1923/24 – an awful season for Celtic – and on March 4 1924, he scored his first goal at Parkhead, but it was for Clydebank! The crowd was miniscule – it was a Wednesday afternoon – and Clydebank won 2-1, but as McGrory himself put it “it reminded Celtic that I existed”.

He was recalled at the end of the season, having been taken on tour of England at Easter, and in his second game for the club, he won a medal. This was the Glasgow Charity Cup. This tournament, played at the end of the season in May had often been used in the past to give promising youngsters and fringe players a chance – in 1903 and 1913, for example, an awful season had been redeemed by the Charity Cup, and this was what happened here. McGrory scored in the semi-final against Queen’s Park and then in the final, the forward line of Connolly, Gallacher, Cassidy, Thomson and McGrory was good enough to beat Rangers 2-1.

IMAGO / ColorsportFootball – 1928 / 1929 season – English Football League XI 2 Scottish Football League XI 1 Jimmy McGrory pictured for the SFL team before the game at Villa Park 07/11/1928.

The departure of Joe Cassidy to Bolton Wanderers on the eve of the new season in August 1924 gave McGrory his opportunity in the centre. He was not an instant success, it has to be said, but Maley was wise enough to give him time. He suffered family bereavement and injury during the course of the season, but by the spring of 1925, it was beginning to be obvious that there was something special here, especially between two such brilliant inside forwards as Patsy Gallacher, the experienced maestro, and the shy young tyro from Fife, the slightly built, soft spoken and self-effacing Alec Thomson, who in time would become “McGrory’s fetch and carry man” McGrory scored twice in the 5-0 demolition of Rangers – as comprehensive as it was unexpected – in the semi-final, and then he carved his name in Celtic folklore for ever with his winning goal in the final against Dundee. “Jean” MacFarlane took a free kick, famously pulling up his stockings before he did so (possibly a signal to McGrory to expect a ball that would drop behind the Dundee defensive line) and as the ball did exactly that ,“a green and white catapulted forth” to score with a bullet header. McGrory fell so hard that he stunned himself slightly, but he recovered and Celtic had won their 11th Scottish Cup.

Celtic in the Thirties, Volumes One & Two by Matt Corr – out now on Celtic Star Books.

Author Matt Corr gets to see copies of Celtic in the Thirties, Volumes One & Two – out now on Celtic Star Books.

That night, as the charabanc was ploughing its way through the crowded streets showing the trophy to the delighted urchins of the East End, Maley intervened and said “Give young McGrory the Cup!” and thus the young McGrory held the Scottish Cup with its green and white ribbons to the ecstasy of the supporters. Maley was aware that McGrory’s father had recently died (in a freak accident) but that the rest of his family would be watching. Maley now took the young man under his wing and became almost a second father to his protégé.

The following year 1925/26 was one of Celtic’s best. Gallacher had now gone, but Tommy McInally was back. Tommy McInally, behaving himself, was potentially even better than Gallacher, and this season saw Celtic virtually unbeatable as they romped to the League title with a forward line of Connolly, Thomson, McGrory, McInally and McLean which swept every opposition aside and McGrory scored 49 goals. It was a shame that they let themselves down in the Scottish Cup final against St Mirren, otherwise they would have emulated the great sides of 1907, 1908 and 1914.

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.

The goal scoring continued like a machine, and he had the ability to score every kind of goal. The headers were the most spectacular, but he could score from a distance, from outside the box and even with his back to the goal when he could swivel and shoot. But, as he himself cheerfully admitted, most were “tap ins” simply because he knew how to be in the right place at the right time. He could read a game, he could tell what sort of ball to expect, he could spot who was having a good game and who has having a bad game, both in his own team and in the opposition.

He was also courageous. He was prepared to risk being injured with diving headers through a forest of legs and going up for a high ball knowing that an elbow in the stomach from a brutal centre half was always a possibility. He reckoned that this was simply part of the game – and he had the wit and the common sense to know not to retaliate.

On January 14 1928, he scored 8 goals in a game. This was against the hapless Dunfermline Athletic (not in all truth the strongest of opposition) in a 9-0 demolition of the poor Fifers. Alec Thomson scored the other goal, and Jimmy had another couple chalked off for off side by a referee not so much in the pay of the freemasons this time as simply, one feels, being kind and compassionate to the Fifers. McGrory himself also missed a couple of sitters, it was said!

Jimmy McGrory, Celtic FC. Photo The Celtic Wiki

And yet even for all McGrory’s goals, the team was struggling against a good, if methodical and flairless Rangers side. There were other problems as well in the shape of McInally, that stormy petrel, playing up, and Maley becoming obsessed with the new Stand and how it was to be paid for, as the cold winds of the world wide depression began to bite, resulting in falling attendances.

McGrory’s relationship with Scotland was difficult to work out, and the historian is frankly at a loss to explain why it was that McGrory (who won only seven caps in all) never played for Scotland in England! He might reasonably have expected to be chosen in 1926 at Old Trafford, and at Wembley in 1928, 1930, 1932, 1934 and 1936, but he never played at the greatest stadium in the world with its Twin Towers and 100,000 capacity. 1928 was the year of the Wembley Wizards, and 1936 was an honourable draw, but 1930, 1932 and 1934 could certainly have done with Jimmy McGrory!

Celtic in the Thirties – Volume One

Celtic in the Thirties – Volume Two

And yet he played twice at Hampden against England in winning causes, scoring a good goal in 1931, and an even better one in 1933 (leading to the birth of the Hampden Roar which was apparently heard in the north of the city in Maryhill and possibly even Garngad itself) but he never played at Wembley! Little wonder that Celtic supporters felt bitter about the SFA and their crazy selectors! Little wonder that news of a Scotland reverse was often greeted with a cheer at Celtic Park!

Yet the machine-like goal scoring continued. He scored in the epic Cup Final of 1931 against Motherwell. Much has been written about the equalising goal but possibly not enough about the first goal which actually brought Celtic back into the game when all was apparently lost. He lunged forward to score from a Charlie Napier feed, and then ran all the way back pointing at the clock at Hampden which indicated that there was very little time left. He then scored two in the replay.

Photograph taken in Detroit while on their visit to play Michigan all Stars who they beat 5-0 at the University of Detroit Stadium. While in the city they were given a tour of the famous Ford Motor Works.L – R: Willie Cook, Bobby Whitelaw, Hugh Smith, Joe McGhee, Willie Maley, Bertie Thomson, Johnny Thomson, Jimmy McGrory (with cup) Peter Scarff, Charlie Napier, Peter Wilson, Tom Maley, Denis Currie, Willie McGonagle. Photo The Celtic Wiki

The team then went to the USA on tour, Jimmy came home to get married, and then occurred the event for which 1931 is tragically most remembered, the death of John Thomson. It was not easy to get over that, particularly when it was compounded by the death through tuberculosis of another hero of that year, Peter Scarff, but by the time that Peter passed away, the team had won the Scottish Cup once again.

It was also against Motherwell, in 1933, and this time it was a poorer game, the only goal being scored in the Mount Florida end by Jimmy McGrory. It was the simplest of tap-ins, and generally referred to as “the saftest o the familie” after the Harry Lauder song that was current in 1933. It was as well that Celtic won the Scottish Cup that year, because the next two seasons were poor, and Rangers more or less allowed to win what they wanted, and serious questions being asked about whether the poor team with the massive support were ever going to come back again. But things improved.

The depression began to ease over both the world’s economy and the Celtic community. A youngster called Jimmy Delaney appeared, and a new trainer was appointed in Jimmy “Napoleon” McMenemy, one of the greats of a generation ago, and a man who knew his football. He was also a modest man but a man of great tact who has able to run the team while not seeming to do so! McGrory recognised this, the team rallied and season 1935/36 became one of the most famous of them all!

Peter Scarff and Jimmy McGrory. Photo The Celtic Wiki

As in season 1925/26 ten years ago, Celtic won the League quite comfortably, although they were prone to the occasional lapse, not least a curious defeat to an incredulous St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup, but McGrory scored 50 League goals that season. A superb team with players like Jimmy Delaney, Frank Murphy, George Paterson simply deposited the ball at the feet or on the head of the prodigious McGrory and he did the rest.

There were two particularly remarkable days at Parkhead involving McGrory. One was against Aberdeen when he equalled and then overtook the record goals scored by Steve Bloomer. This was on midwinter’s day December 21…

“A cold winter’s day at Celtic Park, As December mist hung hoary. But we don’t need your Santa Claus, We’ve got James McGrory!”

And then there was March 14 against Motherwell when Jimmy scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win. What made this hat-trick so remarkable was that it was achieved in three minutes! Hence “goal-a-minute James McGrory”…

“But wait a bit, don’t go so fast! We’ve left the star turn to the last. There in the midst o’ a’ his glory Goal a minute James McGrory”

1936 was good, and it stayed good in 1937 when the 15th Scottish Cup was won in a final against Aberdeen in front of a record crowd at Hampden. McGrory was now 33 and this was probably to be his last Scottish Cup final. It would have been nice if he could have scored, but it was Willie Buchan and Johnny Crum who did the needful in that epic 2-1 win.

It was indeed his last Cup final, for injuries and old age were beginning to catch up with him. He played his last game against Queen’s Park on October 16 1937, and then left to become manager of Kilmarnock. Fittingly, he scored in his final game at Celtic Park.

Celtic in the Thirties – Volume One

Celtic in the Thirties – Volume Two

He had twice to visit Celtic Park that season as manager of the Ayrshire men. Both games were significant. The first one on Christmas Day was an 8-0 victory for Celtic which must have left Jimmy wondering if he had made the right decision. The other was totally different, for on the first Saturday in March, Kilmarnock beat Celtic 2-1 in the Scottish Cup quarter final. It was a shock (not unlike the St Johnstone one of two years earlier) but McGrory was rightly perturbed by the attitude of Willie Maley towards him.

Maley, in spite of all his rhetorical cant about “it is our proud boast that we can accept the bitterness of defeat in the same spirits as the fruits of victory” was no great sport, and today he proved it, by shunning McGrory who still adored him, even when Jimmy went out of his way to talk politely to him.

McGrory’s Kilmarnock then went on to reach the final of the Scottish Cup that year, only to lose to second division East Fife after a replay. It is to be hoped that Jimmy got accustomed to the idea of losing Scottish Cup finals. After the war, when he became manager of Celtic, he was fated to lose four – and they were all painful!

Jimmy McGrory, Celtic manager at Villa Park, 1946. Photo Imago (The Celtic Star)

Jimmy came back as manager of Celtic, a job he held for 20 years between 1945 and 1965. No one could say that he was a success. He did have his odd moments of glory – the Coronation Cup, the 7-1 over Rangers and League and Cup double in 1954 all spring to mind, but in general terms they were a “ventennio nero” (a black 20 years) of dismal under-achievement in which Rangers were allowed to rule the roost.

Jimmy McGrory and John Cushley. Photo The Celtic Wiki

True, it was not all McGrory’s fault. He had a megalomaniac Chairman whom someone had convinced that he knew a lot about football, and whose crusades about flying the Irish flag, good behaviour and dress codes were not always in the real interests of the club. Sometimes, also, his players let him down as well, particularly on big occasions like Cup finals, but one has to conclude that Jimmy was simply too nice a man to be a manager of Celtic. Far better when he became Public Relations Officer in 1965. Now there was a job that the amiable, gentlemanly Jimmy McGrory was far more suited to!

Celtic manager Jock Stein and his predecessor Jimmy McGrory carry the Scottish Cup into the midst of Celtic’s victory celebrations in a suite at the Royal Stuart Hotel. Photo The Celtic Wiki

He enjoyed the good times of the 1960s and 1970s – in fact he deserves a great deal of credit for them, and he was always much respected and loved by all at Celtic Park, and even at other clubs, with very few people ever having a bad word to say about him. He died in 1982 and is buried in Dalbeth.

David Potter

Matt Corr’s wonderful new books, Celtic in the Thirties, Volumes One & Two are both out now on Celtic Star Books and you can order a signed copies by clicking on the links below…