Celtic in the 1930s – And they gave us James McGrory and Jack Connor (Part 2)

With Hampden out of commission (more on why that was the case in a moment), the 1910 Scottish Cup final would be played at Ibrox, Clyde’s opponents being McAteer’s former club, Dundee. With just three minutes remaining, the red-and-white ribbons were laid out and the engraver was preparing the famous old trophy in readiness for it to be handed to the Shawfield skipper, Tom McAteer, the Bully Wee 2-0 up through Jackie Chalmers and Frank Booth and looking certain to win the cup for the first time.

Then there is a bizarre moment, an attempted clearance bounces off Dundee centre-forward, John ‘Sailor’ Hunter, before passing into the net. And in the dying seconds, Jimmy Langlands equalises, to force a replay. Neither side could produce a goal from 120 minutes of football at the same venue, seven days later, with a third game, therefore, required to decide the winner. On Wednesday, 20 April 1910, Clyde again took an early lead through Chalmers, with Jim Bellamy equalising for Dundee after fifteen minutes. The Scottish Cup would eventually be won in the 56th minute of the third game, ‘Sailor’ Hunter’s goal taking the trophy to Dens Park for what remains their only such success to this day.

John ‘Sailor’ Hunter would later become the manager of that fantastic Motherwell side of the 1930’s, which we have discussed at some length in this series, runners-up to Celtic in the Scottish Cup Finals of 1931 and 1933 and League champions in between, the only title ever won by the Fir Park club. Thus, ‘Sailor’ retains a unique place in the affections of two of Scottish football’s more historic institutions.

Now in his 35th year, Tom McAteer then left Clyde for the six-in-a-row champions, Celtic, signing three weeks later, on 10 May 1910, ostensibly as cover. He would make his Hoops debut in the opening League match of the new campaign, a home game with Airdrieonians, on Saturday, 17 August 1910, replacing ‘Sunny Jim’ Young in a defence which included most of the other legends of the day, Davie Adams, Alec McNair, Joe Dodds, Willie Loney and Jimmy Hay.

Goals from Loney and a Jimmy Quinn double would give McAteer a winning start as the quest for an unprecedented seven-in-a-row titles commenced with a comfortable 3-0 victory, however, that wonderful prospect would appear remote following three successive League defeats at the hands of Falkirk, Morton and Kilmarnock.

Tom would feature in eighteen matches in his first season at Parkhead, contributing four goals, including Celtic’s equaliser in the Ne-erday fixture at Ibrox, and the second and clinching goal in the dying seconds of the 2-0 Scottish Cup final replay win over Hamilton Academical at the same venue in April 1911 (his medal is shown below).

As mentioned earlier, Jimmy Quinn had opened the scoring in that 1911 final. By that time, he was already a Celtic legend, having signed a decade earlier from Smithstone Albion, the local rivals of Tom McAteer’s Smithstone Hibernian. Quinn would make his Celtic debut on the left-wing at Love Street, Paisley, in a League match on Saturday, 19 January 1901, scoring once in a bruising 4-3 win over St Mirren, a match where the crowd burst on to the field following an incident involving Sandy ‘The Duke’ McMahon, Parkhead president John Glass assaulted in the ensuing melee. Two goals from centre-forward Johnny Campbell and one from outside-right John Hodge had complemented Quinn’s debut goal to give the ‘Stripes’ a commanding 4-1 lead at the interval, before the Buddies fought back.

Jimmy Quinn would play just two more games that season, however they would both be significant. On Saturday, 23 March 1901, another goal from Campbell against that same St Mirren side would see Celts win a Scottish Cup semi-final at Parkhead, in the days when only the replays of last-four games were held at neutral venues. And two weeks later, he would line up for the Bhoys against Hearts in the Scottish Cup final at Ibrox.

Maley’s Celtic were chasing a third successive win in the competition, a feat achieved by both Queen’s Park – who did this twice – and Vale of Leven, in the first nine seasons of the national tournament, the Bhoys having followed up their initial success against the Hampden amateurs in 1892 by beating Rangers seven years later then the Spiders again in 1900.

Sadly, the 4-3 scoreline from the previous season would be reversed as the Edinburgh club won another seven-goal thriller, thus matching Celtic’s tally of three wins, despite second-half goals from Quinn and McMahon pulling it back to 3-3 with just ten minutes remaining. Mark Bell would win it for Hearts at the death. Strangely, despite Celtic’s fantastic record in the Scottish Cup, they would miss many opportunities to break that ‘three-in-a-row’ hoodoo over the next century and beyond. It was perhaps appropriate that when they did finally achieve this, on Lisbon Day 2019, thanks to a French Eddie double, the Gorgie club were once again providing the opposition.

Quinn and McMahon would line up again in the following season’s Scottish Cup Final, on Saturday, 26 April 1902. The visitors were Hearts’ great rivals, Hibernian, the final moved to Celtic Park due to the first Ibrox disaster earlier that month, where 25 spectators lost their lives and more than 500 were injured as the new west terracing collapsed during the Scotland v England home international. The perceived ‘home’ advantage would prove non-existent, Celts losing to a late Andrew McGeachan goal. It would be Hibernian’s last win in the competition for an incredible 114 years, until Alan Stubbs’ side beat Rangers at Hampden in May 2016, in the first-ever such cup final between two second-tier clubs.

The disaster of April 1902 would trigger the one and only playing of a British League Cup to this day. In an attempt to raise funds for the benefit of the families bereaved at Ibrox, a knock-out tournament involving the top two sides north and south of the border was organised for that close-season. Celtic, Everton, Rangers and Sunderland competed for a trophy won by the Govan club at the previous year’s Glasgow International Exhibition, where they had beaten the Bhoys 3-1 in the final at Kelvingrove.

Four days after their Scottish Cup defeat by Hibernian, Wednesday, 30 April 1902, Celtic beat the new English Champions, Sunderland, 5-1, Rangers then drawing 1-1 with Everton the following night, both games played at Ibrox, which I have to say somewhat surprised me, given the circumstances.

A replay on Saturday, 3 May 1902 at Celtic Park would see Rangers edge a five-goal thriller with the Merseyside outfit, setting up a Glasgow Derby for the British League Cup final. The match was scheduled for June, to tie in with the Coronation of the new British monarch, King Edward VII (Queen Victoria had died the previous year), however that ceremony was eventually deferred until August, due to his appendicitis.

(Editor’s Note – this Royal health issue and resulted in a famous legal case, involving a chap who had booked hotel room to watch the royal procession go past on the initial date, Alex Rae may do well to read up on this and the outcome when the hotel attempted to sue for the room cancellation. This provides case law that could be discussed much further should any football authority in the UK decide to accept Rae’s advice on the way forward for football with regard to this season).

The final between the Glasgow rivals went ahead as planned on Tuesday, 17 June 1902, at the original Cathkin Park, off Crosshill Road in Govanhill. This was the home of Third Lanark until they moved to the second Hampden the following year, which they later renamed as New Cathkin, and where they remained until their sad demise in 1967.

Jimmy Quinn scored twice to give Celtic a commanding lead, only for Robert ‘RC’ Hamilton and Finlay Speedie to equalise before the interval. With no further scoring in the second half, it was agreed to play two periods of ten minutes each as extra-time. Some journalists had already left Cathkin and would later record the match as a 2-2 draw, before Quinn added a third goal following a Celtic corner, with just thirty seconds remaining, to win the British League Cup. The beautiful trophy remains in the Parkhead boardroom to this day (see above) and is unique in the sense that it was never engraved to reflect Celtic’s success.

Jimmy Quinn, thus, became the first Celt to score a hat-trick against Rangers in a competitive game. Tom Maley had claimed three goals in Celtic’s first-ever game, fourteen years earlier, the 5-2 win on Monday, 28 May 1888, however, that match was deemed as a friendly, with the opposition listed as ‘the Rangers Swifts.’

History and Quinn would continue to walk hand in hand. Just over a year after that victory at Cathkin, Jimmy would again be on the left-wing as the first Celtic side ever to wear the now-iconic Hoops took the field, for a home League game with Third Lanark on Saturday, 29 August 1903. Prior to that, Celtic had worn a white jersey for their inaugural season, then the vertical green-and-white kit we would come to associate with Real Sociedad. That’s another story for another day. And two months later, on Saturday, 31 October 1903, he would feature in the Celtic team which opened ‘New Hampden Park’, Queens’ Park, having relocated from Second Hampden (better known nowadays as Cathkin Park, the final home of Third Lanark), celebrating the occasion by beating their neighbours 1-0 in a League game.

And although the Bhoys would finish that campaign in fourth spot, as Third Lanark secured their first and only League title, Quinn and his Parkhead teammates would end the 1903/04 season on a high. Having scored the goal which beat the champions-elect Thirds in the home Scottish Cup semi-final on Saturday, 19 March 1904, Jimmy Quinn lined up at centre-forward for the final against Rangers four weeks later.

Saturday, 16 April would be his date with destiny. The game is widely recognised as being the first where the description ‘old firm’ was used to reflect the financial benefits to be gained by both clubs from the developing rivalry, a term which would endure for over a century, before the Ibrox club entered liquidation in the summer of 2012. Missing from the Rangers ranks was the aforementioned RC Hamilton, who would score 35 goals against Celtic, more than any other player in their history.

A crowd in excess of 64,000 packed into Hampden, for the first Scottish Cup final to be held in the new Mount Florida arena, the Govan team seizing the early initiative with a Finlay Speedie double. By half-time, the Mighty Quinn had drawn Celtic level with his own brace, and he would have the final say, powering through the Ibrox defence to score the winner as the clock ticked down, his second hat-trick against Rangers. And seven days later, Jimmy would score five of Celtic’s six goals as they beat bottom-dogs Kilmarnock 6-1 at Parkhead in the final League game of the season. A new Celtic Star was born.

Quinn would then lead the line as Maley’s Bhoys dominated Scottish football over the next six seasons, completing six-in-a-row, whilst ‘making those doubles’ in 1907 and 1908, with Scottish Cup Final wins over Hearts, revenge for 1901, then St Mirren, with Jimmy on target in the 5-1 victory over the Paisley outfit in April 1908. Celtic would then face Rangers in the final twelve months later, chasing a third successive triumph. It is a contest which remains infamous to this day, known as the Riot Final.

To Be Continued…

Hail Hail

Matt Corr