Defender John Boyle’s introduction reduces the timescale yet further, as he only signed for Celtic from junior outfit, Bathgate, in February 1933. With Jimmy McStay leaving in spring of the following year, it is more than likely that the names on the list represented Celtic in season 1933/34.
As Maley’s latest attempt to provide cover for the injured Jock Morrison at left-back, John would have to wait more than three years to make his debut, a 5-0 victory over Queen of the South at Celtic Park on Saturday, 22 August 1936. The 22-year-old would impress the manager sufficiently to remain in the side for the next five matches, until Morrison’s return in mid-September. He would then shift across to right-back, to make an appearance beside Jock on Hallowe’en at Gayfield Park, Arbroath, before an injury crisis saw him play three games in the lead-up to the 1937 Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen.
Both Bobby Hogg and Morrison would be in their normal positions for that record-breaking match at Hampden, with John Boyle making one final appearance in the Hoops in a 2-1 defeat at Rugby Park on Saturday, 28 August 1937, just over a year after his debut. He was freed at the end of that season and joined Hibernian on 6 June 1938, whilst his former teammates prepared for the Empire Exhibition Cup Final.
The Celtic career of Willie Hughes throws up a few surprises, as he played for the club for nine seasons and made over a century of appearances in the Hoops, yet remains largely unknown, speaking from a personal perspective anyway.
Like his aforementioned colleague, John Boyle, Willie would sign from Bathgate, in his case in March 1929, as Maley continued his search for a worthy successor to the incredible Adam McLean, perhaps the greatest Celtic outside-left of all time. McLean had left for Sunderland the previous August, having scored 153 goals in 433 games in twelve seasons at Parkhead.
Willie would make his Hoops debut that same month, featuring on the left-wing in a 2-0 home win over Motherwell, with Paddy Connolly and Peter Scarff scoring for the Bhoys. Celtic would then play their remaining five home games that season at Shawfield, home of neighbours Clyde, after a fire on the night of Thursday, 28 March 1929 destroyed the old Pavilion on Janefield Street. With the iconic but no-longer-suitable Grant Stand demolished, and the current main stand under construction, the Hoops had little option but to decant across the river.
Hughes would retain his place for seven of the final eight games of the season, missing the Scottish Cup quarter-final defeat at Rugby Park but scoring his first goals for Celtic in the League victories over Falkirk at Shawfield, then away to Kilmarnock.
He would reappear, at left-back, in November of that year, for a 2-1 win over Cowdenbeath at Celtic Park, then left-half against St Mirren the following month and right-back at Pittodrie in January 1930. The epitome of a utility player, sometimes a blessing but often a curse, Willie would be back for a run in the team at outside-left from February, before partnering Peter McGonagle at full-back for his final appearance of that season, against Partick Thistle at Celtic Park, on Saturday, 5 April 1930.
That pattern would repeat itself over the coming campaigns, with further games at centre-forward thrown in for good measure. He would enjoy a good spell back on the left-flank in March 1931, his three goals in four games including one in the 3-0 Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Kilmarnock at Hampden, however, Charlie Napier would reclaim his spot for the two dramatic Final matches with Motherwell.
Willie would be part of Celtic’s cup-winning squad which embarked on the nine-day Atlantic crossing for the club’s poignant tour of the eastern American seaboard in May, sitting out the first five games, including the 1-0 defeat by Fall River in Mark’s Stadium, Rhode Island, on the last day of the month, where John Thomson and Joe Kennaway would face each other for the first and, sadly, only occasion. Hughes would be on the left wing for the sixth tour match, a 5-0 victory over Brooklyn Wanderers at Ebbets Field, on Sunday, 7 June 1931, apparently ‘flooring’ an opponent in a roughhouse which saw Jimmy McGrory leave the field with twenty minutes remaining, nursing a broken jaw. Only after he had scored twice, right enough, McGrory being McGrory.
Willie (missing from he picture above) retained his place for the next game, scoring in a 7-0 win over Montreal Carsteel, Peter Scarff, wearing a green dress shirt borrowed from a spectator, such was the dearth of kit available, deputising for McGrory in every way, by netting five of the goals. The following day, the same team drew 1-1 with New York Hakoah in Upper Manhattan, Charlie Napier and Scarff dismissed, as were Hungarian internationalists, Bela Guttman and Rudolph Nikolsburger, in another brawl of a game. Guttman would go on to become one of the all-time great managers, winning national titles in Hungary (with Ujpest & Honved), Portugal (Porto & Benfica) and Uruguay (Penarol).
He would also win two European Cups whilst in Lisbon, the first coach to break Real Madrid’s five-year stranglehold on the tournament, two play-off goals from Santos star, Pele, denying him the chance to add the South American version, Copa Libertadores, with Penarol in 1962.
Hughes was on the scoresheet the following week, scoring Celtic’s fourth goal in a 6-3 win against the exotically-named Chicago Bricklayers & Masons (no punchlines please!) then again four days later with the opener in a 5-0 defeat of Michigan All-Stars in Detroit, believed to be Celtic’s first floodlit match.* (*Alternative reports of the game in Detroit credit the first goal to either Joe McGhee or Peter Scarff).
Willie would sit out the 3-1 victory over Ulster United in Toronto, then return for the grudge match at Yankee Stadium, on Sunday, 28 June 1931, Celts looking for revenge following their 4-3 defeat by the Yankees at Fenway Park, Boston, four weeks earlier, their first loss of the tour. And they would get it, with a 4-1 win, thanks to a brace from Charlie Napier and one each from Bertie and Alec Thomson.
The thirteenth and final game of the club’s gruelling tour of the USA and Canada would take place in Baltimore the next day, a hastily-arranged replacement for the planned fixture in Newark, New Jersey, which the American football association had refused to sanction for some reason. Hughes would again be on target for Celtic in Maryland, in another 4-1 win, this time over the Canton Soccer Club.
Two days later, on Wednesday, 1 July 1931, the Celtic party would depart New York City to commence the long sail home. The weary group which would eventually disembark at Yorkhill Quay would be lighter by one, Jimmy McGrory dropped off in Moville, County Donegal, for the biggest match of his life, his wedding to Veronica Green. The newlywed couple would only enjoy a decade or so together, before Veronica died suddenly, during a routine medical procedure. A broken-hearted Jimmy would later remarry, in 1946, to Barbara Schoning, with whom he would later be blessed with three children.
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