Part 6: And they gave us James McGrory…and Willie Dunn

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 friend, Paddy, 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. Paddy was looking for some information, background or context for these items.

Part one of this story covered the autographed sheet from 1937/38, compiled before the transfer of Willie Buchan and retiral of Jimmy McGrory pre-Christmas 1937, 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, around that time. I’ll add my own thoughts on that particular query later.

Parts 2-5 of the series has looked at the second item presented by Paddy, an undated sheet containing the signatures of twenty men, some very famous and others unknown to me, however, all clearly associated with Celtic. This photograph had also been handed to the lady whose family owned the Star Hotel in Kingussie, albeit we then established that this very special piece of Celtic memorabilia related to a team several years before the Scottish, and, dare I say it, Empire champions of 1937/38. From 1933/34, actually. The mystery deepens.

We have now reviewed the careers of eighteen of the twenty names on the second set of autographs, and in the sixth part of the series we will look at a Celt who would have one of the toughest gigs in football back in the 1930’s, deputising for the great Jimmy McGrory. His name is Willie Dunn.

Centre-forward William Dunn signed for Celtic on 6 September 1933, having been a prolific goalscorer with his local junior club, Ashfield, in the north of Glasgow, from where the Parkhead club would later pluck Lisbon Lion, Stevie Chalmers.

Willie would make his senior debut later that month, on Monday, 25 September, against Rangers at Celtic Park, in a Glasgow Cup semi-final tie, McGrory having hurt his ribs in the 1-1 draw with St Johnstone in Perth two days earlier, an injury which forced him to complete that match as a lame passenger on the right wing.

Dunn’s direct opponent for his first appearance in the Hoops would be ‘Faither’s Faither’, Jimmy Simpson, the dad of Chalmers’ Celtic colleague, Ronnie. Johnny Crum would equalise for the Bhoys early in the second half, after Jimmy Smith had ‘shoulder-charged’ Joe Kennaway into the Celtic net, complete with ball. It was a different game in those days!

Willie would retain his place up front for the weekend visit of Queen’s Park, alongside three other peripheral Celts of the time, Jock Wallace, Willie Hughes and Danny Dawson, who made his debut, as a combination of injuries and international commitments saw Parkhead resources at full stretch. The Spiders’ centre-half that day who would be looking to nullify the threat of Dunn was Willie Lyon, who would become Hoops skipper following his transfer from Hampden two years later, going on to lead Celtic’s Championship, Scottish Cup and Empire Exhibition Cup-winning sides between 1936-38. Goals from Hugh O’Donnell, captain Jimmy McStay and Alec Thomson saw Celtic defeat Queen’s Park 3-1.

There was a touch of the exotic in Glasgow’s east end four days later, Wednesday, 4 October 1933, as the touring Combinado del Pacifico squad hit town. A squad drawing its players from top Peruvian and Chilean clubs, Universatario de Deportes, Colo Colo, Allianza Lima and Atletico Chalaco, had embarked on a gruelling continental trip, which would include 39 friendly matches between September 1933 and March 1934.

The South American selection had opened the European leg of the tour in Ireland, with 1-1 draws against Bohemians in Dublin and Glentoran in Belfast, before arriving in Glasgow. Goals from the O’Donnell brothers, Frank and Hugh, gave Celtic a 2-0 interval lead before Teodoro ‘Lolo’ Fernandez pulled a goal back in the second half. Fernandez, nicknamed El Canonero, remains a legend in his native Peru, spending his entire 22-year playing career with Universatario, where he scored 156 goals to become the club’s all-time leading goalscorer.

Lolo also captained the Peruvian national side for twelve years, from 1935 until 1947, scoring 24 goals in just 32 internationals. This included the 1939 Copa America, which Peru won, as he emerged as both top scorer and player of the tournament.

Celtic would swap Paddington for Pittodrie the following weekend, sinking to twelfth position in the table after a 3-0 defeat by Aberdeen, on Saturday, 7 October 1933, a third reverse in the League even at that early stage of the season. A Hoops side still missing the injured Joe Kennaway, Charlie Napier and Jimmy McGrory were overrun in the Granite City, with deputy goalkeeper Jock Wallace blameless.

And the youthful Celts team would suffer another defeat in midweek, this time at Ibrox in the replayed Glasgow Cup-tie, young George Paterson making just his third appearance in the Hoops, at inside-forward, following two games leading the line the previous season.

Frank O’Donnell gave Celtic the lead on the half-hour, after brother Hugh had hit the woodwork, Marshall heading Rangers level within four minutes.

The hosts were dominant after the break, however, they would have to wait until five minutes from time before that Ibrox rarity, an Irish internationalist, Alex Stevenson, forced home the winner, after Wallace, the previously excellent Celtic keeper, had made a hash of a routine clearance.

Dublin-born Alex Stevenson left local outfit Dolphin FC to sign for Rangers in August 1932 and made just twelve appearances in fifteen months for the Govan club before joining Everton in January 1934. At Goodison, he would team up with former Celtic full-back Willie Cook, both men playing against the Hoops in the Empire Exhibition Cup final at Ibrox in June 1938 before winning the English League title the following season.

Stevenson played seven times for the Irish Free State between 1932 and 1948 and remained the only Rangers player to so until their liquidation in 2012. Only two other men born in the twenty-six counties would wear a first-team jersey at Ibrox before the club’s demise, and indeed that number might be one.

Left-back Alex Craig was born in Galway but was playing for junior outfit Rutherglen Glencairn when he moved to Rangers in 1904. Craig would play almost 150 games for the club in two separate spells, either side of a three-season stint with Morton, without winning any major honours. And inside-forward Jim Macauley’s family had uprooted from Portarlington to settle in Belfast when he was a child, Macauley later winning League and Cup honours with Cliftonville before moving to Glasgow in October 1910.

There is a suggestion that he turned out in one match for Rangers before moving to Huddersfield Town, three months later, a 1-1 draw with Third Lanark at Cathkin, however, Macauley does not appear in the Wikipedia list of players who appeared in season 1910/11.

Willie moved out to the right-wing for his sixth successive match in the Celtic first-team, swapping places with Johnny Crum for the game with Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday, 21 October 1933.

The Steelmen were in the midst of their golden era, Scottish champions in 1932 and beaten cup-finalists in the seasons either side of that, both times put to the sword by the great McGrory of the Celtic.

He would be missing through injury on this occasion, however, his replacement, Johnny Crum gave Celts the lead with just fifteen minutes remaining, the Hoops on course for a much-needed, morale-boosting win. With seconds to go, Motherwell’s McGrory – Willie MacFadyen – struck to rescue a point for the hosts, preserving their unbeaten record. MacFadyen had been a constant presence in a decade of high achievement for Motherwell.

In the nine seasons between Celtic’s title wins of 1926 and 1936, only the Steelmen had prevented a clean sweep of championships for Struth’s Rangers. In addition to their triumph in 1931/32, where Willie had scored 52 League goals to become the only player ever to exceed McGrory’s own record of 50, they had finished runners-up to the Govan club on four occasions and third a further three times. It would be between those two sides for the flag again this season.

Johnny Crum would retain his place at centre-forward for Celtic the following Saturday, for the visit of Hibernian, with Willie Dunn and, unusually, Jimmy McGrory, occupying the flanks. Crum would notch a double, either side of a Willie Moffat equaliser from thirty yards, to secure the points for Celtic, the winner coming just two minutes from time, following a free-kick delivery from Peter Wilson.

Willie Dunn would then have to endure a four-month spell on the sidelines before enjoying his final appearance in the Hoops that season, a home game against Aberdeen on Saturday, 24 February 1934.

Crum again opened the scoring, beating keeper Steve Smith from close-range after good work from Frank O’Donnell. In the 22nd minute of the match, Willie finally scored his first goal for Celtic, albeit from a seemingly offside position, picking up a long through ball to open his hoops account and make it 2-0. The Dons rallied, with Irish international centre-forward Paddy Moore beating Jock Wallace to reduce the deficit before the interval, and the keeper was at fault as they equalised midway through the second period, failing to clear the ball as Robertson pounced for 2-2, which is how the game ended, Celts now a massive 23 points behind Motherwell and Rangers and languishing in mid-table.

Patrick ‘Paddy’ Moore is another intriguing character from that period. Moore made his international debut for the Irish Free State in a friendly against Spain in Barcelona on 26 April 1931, whilst still a Shamrock Rovers player, marking the occasion with the Irish goal in a 1-1 draw. He then won his second cap the following May, scoring again in a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in Amsterdam. Making his Irish debut that night was Alex Stevenson, mentioned earlier in this piece, then with Dublin-based Dolphin, who Moore’s Shamrock Rovers had just defeated in the FAI Cup final weeks earlier. Small world syndrome strikes again.

Both men would move to Scotland that August, Stevenson to Rangers and Moore to Aberdeen, as did another two of his teammates, Irish captain Joe O’Reilly and Jimmy Daly. Whilst the others did not shine at Pittodrie, Moore became a star, scoring 27 goals in just 29 league games in his first season. He made his debut at Parkhead in a 3-0 opening day defeat on Saturday, 13 August 1932, then found himself on the winning side in the return at Pittodrie on Christmas Eve, thanks to a Jack Beattie goal.

The following season, he would score in both League fixtures against Celtic, grabbing the third in a 3-0 victory at Pittodrie in October 1933, when Willie Dunn was the opposing centre-forward, then the Dons’ first in the 2-2 draw at Celtic Park in February 1934, when Dunn had scored, as described above.

However, Moore’s greatest achievement would be in the green shirt of Ireland, just the day after he had played for Aberdeen at Celtic Park. In just his third international appearance, a World Cup qualifier against Belgium at Dalymount Park, Dublin, on Sunday, 25 February 1934, he scored all four goals for the hosts as they came from behind three times to earn a 4-4 draw.

In doing so, he became the first player to net a quadruple of goals in one match in the history of the World Cup. Continuing the ‘small world’ theme from earlier, in goal for the Free State that day was Jim Foley, the young Celtic reserve keeper who would be attacked by a spectator at Tynecastle then ludicrously charged with assault in the aftermath, a story covered in a previous part of this series.

Both Foley and Moore would line-up against the Dutch in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam on Sunday, 8 April 1934, for the second and final qualifier for the Irish in the three-team group. Paddy scored again, as he had in his previous visit there two years earlier. However, this time Netherlands would win 5-2, following that up in May with a 4-2 victory over Belgium in Antwerp, both neighbours qualifying for the finals in Italy that summer.

Moore’s club manager, former Celtic forward Paddy Travers, had accompanied him from Glasgow to his international date of destiny with Belgium. It would later transpire that the player was suffering from alcohol dependency, missing a game in Switzerland due to the amount of drink he had consumed beforehand. He returned to Shamrock Rovers in 1935 and would later enjoy a third spell there before the war. Unfortunately, the alcohol would take its toll, Paddy passing away in July 1951, aged just 41.

Seven months after the Parkhead clash where both Dunn and Moore had scored (I see what you did there- Ed), Willie returned to the Celtic team for the trip to Dens Park, on Monday, 1 October 1934, one of five changes following the 2-1 defeat by Albion Rovers at Cliftonhill two days earlier.

Dunn received some praise for his performance as the game ended goalless. He did enough to retain his place the following Saturday, where Queen of the South were the visitors, Jimmy Delaney’s early goal giving the Hoops a lead they would relinquish in the last quarter of the match. First, the headline-writer’s dream, Joe Tulip, tip-toed through the home defence before beating Joe Kennaway with a fierce drive, then the Dumfries side’s other winger, Willie Anderson clinched an unexpected victory with a late winner.

The Coatbridge side, where Jock Stein would later commence his senior playing career, would also feature in the last game of Willie Dunn’s spell at Parkhead. They rolled up to the east end on Saturday, 2 February 1935. As with so many of his appearances for Celtic, he would replace Jimmy McGrory, the Parkhead talisman hurt during the previous weekend’s 4-1 Scottish Cup victory over Montrose.

The Hoops would gain revenge for that September defeat by running out emphatic 5-1 winners, despite going behind. Jimmy Delaney’s double had turned that around within fifteen minutes, the Cleland man then setting up goals for Willie Dunn and Hugh O’Donnell before completing his hat-trick late on.

That would be Dunn’s second and final goal for Celtic. In June of that year, he moved to Brentford, the West London club newly-promoted to the English First Division for the first time in their history.

He would only feature twice in his first season, scoring one goal for his new club, against Birmingham City in a 2-1 defeat at St Andrews in November 1935, struggling to displace the former Hearts centre-forward, Davie McCulloch, who top-scored with 26, as the Bees finished in an impressive fifth place, above FA Cup-winners Arsenal. Willie Dunn would only feature once in the following campaign, this time with no goals forthcoming, as Brentford battled to a sixth place in the top division.

Brentford retained that top-six position in 1937/38, before replacing Arsenal in the Empire Exhibition Cup tournament, played in Glasgow at the end of that season, where they would be eliminated by Hearts at Ibrox.

There would be no return to Glasgow for Willie, however, as he had already moved to Second Division Southampton by that time, replacing Jimmy Dunne, who had been an Irish Free State colleague of Jim Foley, Paddy Moore and Alex Stevenson. Willie would score three goals in his fourteen League games at the Dell before returning to Scotland to sign for Raith Rovers, lining up against Celtic at Starks Park on Saturday, 7 January 1939.

The champions fielded a depleted side, which included Bertie Duffy, Jackie Watters and Jimmy Birrell. Nevertheless, few would have predicted a 4-0 defeat, only the brilliance of Joe Kennaway preventing even greater embarrassment for Celtic.

There would have been much singing and dancing in the streets of Raith that particular night, following Rovers’ first victory of any sort since November. They would later be relegated, having finished bottom of the table.

The outbreak of war in September 1939 would see football reduced to Regional Leagues, with guest players drifting in and out, a practice not endorsed by Celtic.

Willie Dunn would appear as a guest for Dumbarton in 1939/40, perhaps turning out against his former Parkhead colleagues in one of the two meetings that season. Sadly, the information around that period is a shade more difficult to obtain. Dunn then appeared in the same capacity for Albion Rovers in 1942, opening the door to the possibility that he played with a young Jock Stein at Cliftonhill, perhaps even in the famous 4-4 draw there with Celtic on Saturday, 14 November 1942, which marked Jock’s debut for Rovers, Stein listed as ‘Junior’.

Willie passed away in his native Glasgow on 7 September 1980, a few weeks short of his 70th birthday.

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…