I feel a slight digression coming on…
Shawfield Juniors were based at Roseberry Park in Polmadie, and were the first club of my late uncle, Willie Jack. At seventeen, he was probably too young to have featured in that 1939 side but was almost certainly involved when they won the trophy in June 1947, beating Bo’ness United 2-1 in the replay at Hampden.
Inside-forward Willie would leave Roseberry for St Mirren that same month, playing against Celtic for the first time on 22 November 1947 in a 2-1 Hoops win at Love Street. I suspect that he may have been ‘courting’ my Aunt Margaret, my mum’s older sister, by this point. My dad used to tell me about going to watch Willie play against Celtic, accompanied by my mum’s brothers, Willie and Robert McGuire, and her mum – Willie’s future mother-in-law – at a time when it was unusual for women to go to the game. They would wind my gran up by having a pop at ‘Jack’, whilst she would defend him.
He would be missing from the Saints team for the goalless draw at Parkhead in March 1948 but would have the last laugh on his tormentors, his St Mirren side finishing fifth behind Champions Hibernian, whilst Celtic had to depend on a final-game hat-trick from Jock Weir to come from behind to win 3-2 at Dens Park to stave off the threat of a first-ever relegation, with Morton, Queen of the South and the ultimately-relegated Airdrieonians, all in a position to overtake the Hoops in the event of a defeat.
Willie did not feature in either League meeting between the sides the following season, possibly due to National Service, joining struggling Albion Rovers in April 1949, where he was a teammate of a certain Jock Stein as the Coatbridge club were relegated after just a solitary season in the top division.
In December 1951, as Jock was travelling back from a stint in Wales with Llanelli to sign for Celtic for the first time, Willie left Cliftonhill for Kilmarnock, at that time managed by another Hoops legend, Malky MacDonald, currently featuring as a player in this series of articles.
Already at Rugby Park, was former Motherwell centre-forward, Davie Mathie, mentioned previously in this story and who had also been a teammate of Jock Stein’s at Llanelli. Jack and Mathie featured in the same Kilmarnock side on thirteen occasions, before Davie left for Workington Town in 1953. Tragically, he would make just two League appearances in Cumbria, passing away in Law Hospital on 3 January 1954, aged just 34.
It was whilst at Rugby Park, that Willie created one of my favourite childhood stories, celebrating the recent birth of his first son – my cousin Brian – by scoring a late winner for Second Division Kilmarnock against Rangers in the League Cup semi-final at Hampden in October 1952, with that part of his anatomy normally reserved for sitting on! That was his sixth goal of the competition. Unfortunately, later that month he would find himself on the losing side at the same venue, as holders Dundee retained the trophy with a 2-0 victory over Killie in front of 52,000.
Bobby Flavell had scored both goals in that League Cup Final, having also netted in Dundee’s 3-2 win over Rangers in the final of twelve months earlier, where his direct opponent was Willie Woodburn. Flavell had joined Dundee from Hearts, released from Tynecastle in 1951 for his involvement in the breakaway Colombian league the year before, where he had been a teammate of Alfredo Di Stefano at Millonarios. From one legend to another, he then joined up with Uncle Willie at Kilmarnock in 1954!
Willie did manage another goal against Rangers, this time in the second-round replay of the Scottish Cup on Wednesday, 17 February 1954, Kilmarnock’s solitary strike as they lost 3-1 at Rugby Park in front of over 33,000 spectators, having drawn 2-2 at Ibrox four days earlier.
That season would end very differently for the two clubs, Rangers hammered 6-0 by Aberdeen in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup before 111,000 at Hampden and finishing a distant fourth in the League, nine points behind Double-winners Celtic, whilst Willie’s 11 goals in 25 League starts were critical as Kilmarnock secured promotion from Division B, three points behind champions Motherwell. The following month, he was joined at Rugby Park by Alex Rollo, the Coronation Cup-winning full-back released by Celtic and now free to help the Ayrshire club on their return to the top division.
Rollo was at left-back as Killie visited Celtic Park on League business in early October, the newly-promoted side opening the scoring within 45 seconds before succumbing to a 6-3 defeat.
Willie Jack had not featured that afternoon, however, on Saturday, 8 January 1955, the day my brother was born, both men lined up for the return fixture against Celtic at Rugby Park, in front of 25,000 spectators. McGrory’s Bhoys, fielding Willie’s old Albion Rovers colleague, Jock Stein, and wearing their popular white ‘shamrock’ kit of the day, won 2-1 thanks to a late goal from Charles Patrick Tully.
The sides then met again at the same venue in the sixth round of the Scottish Cup the following month, Willie denied a goal by John Bonnar, as the match finished 1-1 in front of 31,000, the infamous R H Davidson of Airdrie the young referee in a match captured in some fabulous, vintage black-and-white footage. Check it out if you get a chance. Stein and Davidson would cross swords often in the decades to follow.
The tie was eventually settled four days later, over 40,000 managing to get time off work to attend Celtic Park on the afternoon of Wednesday, 23 February 1955. An early second-half strike from Rollo’s Coronation Cup-winning teammate, Jimmy Walsh, proved to be the only goal of the game, as the holders continued their march to the final.
There they would face Clyde, in the first-ever Scottish Cup Final to be televised live, the broadcast reducing the attendance to a disappointing 106,000! Walsh was again on the mark, seven minutes before the interval, Celts dominating the game and looking certain to retain ‘our cup’ until just before the end, when goalkeeper Bonnar misjudged an inswinging corner-kick from future Clyde manager, Archie Robertson, the ball ending up in the Celtic net.
In the replay, again refereed by the wonderfully-named Charlie Faultless, Celtic made several curious changes to their Saturday line-up, the omission of Bobby Collins particularly baffling, with many suspecting chairman Robert Kelly of interfering in team selection, not for the first or last time.
In any case, the changes backfired, Clyde taking the cup for the second time in their history, thanks to a 52nd-minute goal from winger Tommy Ring, the Bully Wee being managed on both occasions by Paddy Travers, who had also taken Aberdeen to their first such final in 1937, his side losing to Celtic in front of the biggest crowd ever to watch a club match in Europe.
Ring was the other Cup Final hero. It had been his last-gasp equaliser in the semi-final at Easter Road which had prevented a re-run of the previous year’s final between Celtic and Aberdeen, Robertson then scoring the only goal of the replay at the same venue.
Both Tommy Ring and Clyde’s other winger, John Divers – not to be confused with any of the Celtic stars of the same name – had grown up in Possilpark alongside my dad. John’s son, Jimmy, was then a school pal of mine in the early seventies, playing alongside me for both St Stephen’s primary school team then St Roch’s Boys Guild. He was some player, a tremendously-talented winger, obviously inheriting much of his talent from his own cup-winning father. It’s a small world sometimes.
Back at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock had ended the 1954/55 season in a respectable 10th position, Willie contributing 8 goals from his 12 games as Aberdeen won their first-ever Scottish League title. He would only feature in the opening four League Cup sectional matches the following season, before making his final move in senior football to Stenhousemuir, against whom he had enjoyed an excellent scoring record whilst playing with Kilmarnock, with 5 goals in just 6 games, in 1956.
Details of his career there are sketchy, although I have found a record of him scoring twice against Dundee United at Ochilview, on Saturday, 6 October 1956, shortly after the arrival of his second son, William junior (known to everyone in the family as Billy). I believe Willie retired from senior football at the end of that season.
Willie’s first club, Shawfield, would continue in junior football until 1960, before disbanding, as the changing face of the area robbed them of much of their core support. Their Roseberry Park home was purchased by Glasgow Corporation the following year and refurbished as a venue for Glasgow schools’ football, opened in April 1963 by Robert Kelly, in his capacity as the President of the SFA.
Five years later, I would make my first and only visit to the ground, supporting my school team, St Aloysius from Springburn, as they lost 6-0 to Garthamlock’s St Thenog. St Aloysius played in Kilmarnock’s blue-and-white stripes that day and were captained by my cousin, Billy Jack. It’s a funny old game sometimes!
Willie’s career had ended by the time I was growing up just a mile away from my cousins in Springburn. Well, his football career at any rate. At family gatherings, he would be the life and soul of the party, needing little invitation to sing and commencing the dancing with his own invitation, ‘Ladies’ choice!’ These were wonderful times. In later years, my siblings and I had cause to be grateful to Willie, as he would pop the newspapers into my dad each morning when his ill-health had restricted his mobility. It was an act typical of the man. He passed away in October 2010 in his 89th year, a life well lived.
There was a final story at his funeral, which I’m sure he would have enjoyed, as his daughter Maureen, not that interested in football perhaps, attached a card with his flowers inscribed ‘Simply the Best’. On the saddest of days for the Celtic-mad family, I have to say that brought much hilarity. Rest in peace, Willie.
Anyway, as I said, I digress. Back in September 1938, Willie’s old Kilmarnock boss, Malky MacDonald, was part of an unchanged Celtic line-up for the final League match of the month, Raith Rovers the visitors to Parkhead on Saturday 24th. There were only 8,000 spectators present to watch the game but those who didn’t make it along missed a fine performance from the Hoops, and a 6-1 victory. Goals from Murphy and Crum had finished the match as a contest by the interval, MacDonald adding a double before Whitelaw scored a consolation goal for the Fifers. Crum then took over, with two late goals for a hat-trick, as Celts stayed in touch with surprise early-pacesetters, Queen of the South.
Two nights later, the Bhoys completed their September schedule with a 2-1 victory over Queen’s Park at Celtic Park, in the semi-final of the Glasgow Cup. The struggling Spiders had provided the shock of the previous round, drawing 0-0 with holders Rangers at Hampden early in the month before winning 3-2 at Ibrox just the previous midweek. The other semi-final saw Clyde edge out Partick Thistle at Firhill, setting up a Glasgow Cup final between the two east end sides, scheduled for Friday 14 October.
Hail Hail,
Matt Corr
Follow Matt on Twitter @Boola_vogue
Thanks and credit as always to the folk behind the wonderful Celtic Wiki, an invaluable resource for Celtic historians.
