And they gave us James McGrory and the O’Donnell brothers

And they gave us James McGrory…and the O’Donnell brothers

In the first part of this article, I mentioned how the publication of my Copenhagen Diary on the Celtic Star recently had prompted an old pal to get in touch. He wanted to show me a couple of photographs, containing Celtic autographs of the past, which had been in his possession for years. He was looking for some information, background or context for these items.

Part one of this story covered the autographed sheet from 1937/38, with the only question remaining as to how it had come about that the Celtic team, or representatives of the club, were in Kingussie, in the Scottish Highlands, at that time. I’ll return to that point in later parts of this story.

The second photograph was of an undated sheet containing the signatures of twenty men, some very famous and others unknown to me, however, all clearly associated with Celtic. In the 1930’s perhaps.

Some names jumped out immediately.

There were a number from that wonderful Empire Exhibition Cup-winning side of 1938, as covered in the previous article. Nine of them in total.

The defensive triumvirate of Kennaway, Hogg and Morrison. Wing-halves Geatons and Paterson. And forwards Delaney, MacDonald, Divers and Murphy. Lyon and Crum are missing from that great team.

Cup-winning goalscorer, Johnny Crum had made his Celtic debut in October 1932, and remained there for a decade, so that didn’t really help much, in terms of narrowing the date range, however, the wonderfully-named Celtic captain, William King Lyon from Birkenhead had only joined the club from Queen’s Park in April 1935, making his first start in the Hoops four months later. So, on the basis that Willie might not have signed up at that point, that might push us towards the first half of the thirties.

Then there are two legends who would go on to manage the club after Willie Maley. As the song goes, James McGrory and James McStay. The original song, as it was when I first heard Jackie Stewart singing it in the Celtic supporters’ club in Springburn, back in the late seventies. Pre-Paul, his great-nephew.

Jimmy McStay is listed as captain, so that might help. He left the club at the end of the 1933/34 season to join Hamilton Academical, skippering his new side to the Scottish Cup Final the following April. The metaphorical armband at Parkhead would be worn by Bobby Hogg for that season then passed to new Bhoy Willie Lyon on his arrival in 1935. So logically, the autograph sheet predates the summer of 1934.

Eleven of the twenty names covered, and the date narrowed down. Ruth Rendell CSC in full flow now.

The O’Donnell brothers are on there, Frank and Hugh. Frank was the elder, born in August 1911 and making his debut for Celtic in January 1932 against that same Hamilton Academical. Predominantly an inside-forward, who partnered McGrory, Frank would score 59 goals in just 86 games before joining Preston North End in May 1935. He would later join Lancashire rivals, Blackpool, in November 1937, the same month the Tangerines signed Willie Buchan from Celtic, the two Hoops stars re-united again.

They would later be joined at Bloomfield Road by Frank’s younger brother, Hugh O’Donnell. He was born in February 1913, making his debut on the left-wing at Shawfield on Tuesday, 6 September 1932, in a 1-1 draw with Clyde in the Glasgow Cup. One year and one day earlier, the Celtic family had been stunned by the tragic death of John Thomson. Like the Prince of Goalkeepers, the O’Donnell brothers had joined Celtic from Fife junior outfit, Wellesley. Hugh would win a Scottish Cup-winner’s medal in his first season at the club, Jimmy McGrory’s goal beating Motherwell, in a repeat of the 1931 final.

The Fir Park side would feature prominently in the O’Donnell brothers’ story, sixty years before their namesake, Phil, would leave his mark on both clubs. Frank would not play in that final of April 1933. His last appearance prior to the showpiece was at the Lanarkshire ground the previous month, his goal and a second from McGrory not enough to stop Celts sliding to a 4-2 defeat from the champions, as Well centre-forward Willie MacFadyen scored all four for the hosts.

The previous season, MacFadyen had netted an incredible 52 League goals, as the Steelmen stormed to the title. McGrory had scored 47 and 48 in successive seasons and would later notch 50 to hold Celtic’s club record, however, Willie MacFadyen remains the only player to surpass that total to this day. The O’Donnells would eventually have their day and, at the same time, take a degree of revenge on MacFadyen. More on that shortly.

The brothers would leave Celtic to sign for Preston North End on the same day, Sunday, 19 May 1935, in perhaps the only transfer of its kind. On Saturday, 1 May 1937, they would line up together for Preston at Wembley in the final of the FA Cup, to face English champions, Sunderland in front of 93,000 spectators.

In the crowd, was the Celtic first-team, the trip to Wembley a reward for winning the 1937 Scottish Cup the previous Saturday, when a European club record crowd of over 147,000 had watched them beat Aberdeen 2-1 to win the trophy for the first time since the victory over Motherwell, four years earlier.

Six days later, Friday, 30 April 1937, the day before Wembley, the roller-coaster that is supporting Celtic was highlighted once again, as the new Scottish Cup-winners found themselves on the receiving end of an 8-0 defeat at Fir Park, to this day the worst in our history, despite some recent close-shaves in Barcelona and again in Paris under Brendan Rodgers.

Motherwell centre-forward, Alex Stewart, had continued where Willie MacFadyen had left off, becoming the only player ever to score six goals against Celtic in a competitive match. There were some mitigating circumstances certainly, goalkeeper Joe Kennaway injured early on and retiring at the interval, by which time we were already 4-0 down, inside-forward Willie Buchan replacing the Canadian between the sticks before defender Jock Morrison’s injury reduced Celtic to nine men, however, it was a horrific and disgraceful result.

There were seven Scots in that Preston side, including future Liverpool boss, Bill Shankly, Scotland’s first manager, Andy Beattie and inside-forward, Willie Fagan. Fagan had left Wellesley Juniors to join Celtic in 1934, just as his uncle, the legendary John ‘Jean’ McFarlane, had done fifteen years earlier, then John Thomson and the O’Donnell brothers after that. He would make five appearances in the Hoops in 1935/36, as Celtic won their first League title in a decade, notably in the final match of the season at Firhill.

The championship had been clinched the previous Saturday with a 6-0 victory over Ayr United at Celtic Park, Jimmy McGrory scoring yet another hat-trick, despite an injury, which forced him to play much of that match on the right-wing, and a missed penalty, which would have been his 51st League goal of that campaign.

The 20,000 crowd who had gathered in Maryhill the next weekend to watch him attempt to beat MacFadyen’s four-year-old record would be left disappointed, the injury sustained against Ayr forcing him to sit this one out.

Willie Fagan took his place, the teenage forward grasping the opportunity with both hands by scoring a double in a 3-1 win for the champions. He would then start the new season on fire, with six goals in six games, attracting interest from a host of clubs, Preston securing his signature on 14 October 1936.

In the Wembley final, seven months later, Frank O’Donnell would open the scoring for the Lancashire club on the stroke of half-time, however, three Sunderland goals after the interval saw the old trophy heading for Wearside. As an aside, the Black Cats’ manager that day, Johnny Cochrane, had been in charge at St Mirren when the Buddies had inflicted a shock 2-0 defeat on Celtic in the 1926 Scottish Cup Final, preventing a Double for McGrory.

Twelve months later, Preston were back at Wembley, this time Huddersfield Town the opposition in the 1937/38 FA Cup Final. For the second time in three cup finals, Hugh would be the only O’Donnell on the field, Frank having moved to Blackpool the previous November, as mentioned earlier. A penalty crashed in off the crossbar in the last minute of extra-time by inside-right George Mutch, yet another Scotsman, would secure a win in the first-ever FA Cup Final to be televised live for the Lancashire side. The defeated Huddersfield Town centre-forward at Wembley was…one Willie MacFadyen, signed in 1936 from Motherwell! ‘It’s a funny old game, Saint!’, as Jimmy Greaves, another wonderful centre-forward of the past, would have said.

Having joined that elite group of players who held FA Cup-winning medals on both side of the border, Hugh O’Donnell would then follow his older brother, Frank, to Blackpool in March 1939, continuing a sequence which had commenced back in Wellesley, Fife, over a decade earlier. Brotherly love indeed.

So, thirteen of the twenty names now discussed. Seven to go. Hang in there. In fact The Celtic Star actually published Part 3 on Wednesday morning ahead of Part 2 so while that was an Honest Mistake, it does allow you yo continue reading the story below.

And this Honest Mistake produced its own silver lining with some of the narrative from that article was taken by my colleague on The Celtic Star Niall J to make a modern day comparison relating to the referee at this weekend’s Glasgow Derby.

Thanks, as always, to the Celtic Wiki, a wonderful source of reference information.

Hail Hail!

Matt Corr

Follow Matt on Twitter @Boola_vogue

Support Celtic Youth Development

Help raise money for Celtic Youth Development by joining the £1 weekly lottery and you could win up to £25,000 – just click on any one of the photographs below to join. Lots of our readers have already done so and they’re now doing their bit to help fund Celtic Youth Development that can deliver the stars of tomorrow and beyond. And you might even win a few bob too! And a special thank you to all The Celtic Star readers who have already signed up and are now supporting youth development to give us the Celtic Stars of the future…