Funny how things happen sometimes. Following the publication of my Copenhagen Diary on the Celtic Star last year, one of the responses I received was from an old pal who had been mentioned in the story. He wanted to show me a couple of photographs, containing Celtic autographs of the past, which had been in his possession for years.
‘I inherited these. Don’t know much about them. Any ideas?’ Cheers, Paddy. For saddos like me, this is Celtic manna from heaven.
At first glance, the one at the top looked straightforward enough. The Empire Exhibition Cup-winning team of 1938. Well, not quite. On closer inspection, the team laid out in the old ‘2-3-5’ formation was not the one which triumphed at Ibrox on Saturday, 10 June 1938 by beating Everton 1-0 at Ibrox after extra-time to lift ‘the model of the tower [which]was football’s prize,’ in front of 82,000 fans.
For one thing, Celtic skipper Willie Lyon, the man who lifted that trophy, the last major honour won by the Hoops under Willie Maley, was missing from the sheet, his centre-half slot bearing the signature of Malcolm MacDonald, who had played at inside-right that day in Govan. No John Divers there either.
At inside-right on the photograph was Willie Buchan’s autograph. The Grangemouth-born Buchan had become a firm fans’ favourite, since making his debut at the beginning of the 1933/34 season. He had been the ‘man-of-the-match’ in the 1937 Scottish Cup Final, setting up the early opener for Johnny Crum before scoring the winner with eighteen minutes remaining, taking a pass from Jimmy McGrory to beat Aberdeen keeper Johnstone at his near post. It was, therefore, a shock when he was sold to Blackpool a few months later, on Monday, 15 November 1937, in a £10,000 deal which was a record fee at that time for a transfer involving a Scottish club.
Two days earlier, Willie had scored Celtic’s goal from the penalty spot in the 1-1 draw with Third Lanark at Cathkin. There was no indication that he was soon to be sold, however, the player was summoned to Maley’s Bank Restaurant in Queen Street, in Glasgow’s city centre, on the Monday morning, where he was met by the managers of both clubs. The deal had been done. In the player’s own words, ‘The way things were put to me, it seemed I had no choice in the matter. It was a great disappointment to me, as I was enjoying playing for Celtic.’
The following Saturday, Celtic minus Buchan travelled to Somerset Park, Ayr for a league meeting with the local United. The versatile Malcolm MacDonald moved up to inside-right to fill the gap, with young Matt Lynch stepping into ‘Calum’s’ normal right-half role for his Hoops debut, just days short of his 21st birthday. Lynch’s name appears at the bottom of the autograph sheet, under the named eleven. Matt had already been at Parkhead for more than three years, signing from junior outfit, St Anthony’s, in August 1934.
He would go on to play more than 200 games for Celtic, before moving on at the end of the 1947/48 season, a campaign where the Hoops flirted dangerously with relegation for perhaps the first and only time, a perfect hat-trick from Jock Weir at Dens Park in the final game removing the possibility of that unthinkable outcome.
For much of his early Celtic career, Matt had been used as a ‘utility man’, deputising for recognised first-choice players. The Empire Exhibition Cup of 1938 would be a case in point, Lynch standing in for injured right-winger Jimmy Delaney during the victories over Sunderland and Hearts, before making way for the Cleland-born legend in the final against Everton.
I would meet him several times as a child, in his capacity as Honorary President of the Celtic Supporters Association in the early seventies. My dad, also Matt, was in the Executive Committee of the CSA, and would point him out in the old premises at Kinloch Street, or in the Kelvin Hall for the Annual Rally.
On that November day at Somerset Park, back in 1937, Matt’s Celtic debut would end in a 1-1 draw. The Hoops goal was scored by Joe Carruth, triggering another memory of my youth. I recall being taken to his ‘holy shop’, Carruth’s Grotto, on Castle St or ‘Parly Road’, near Glasgow Cathedral, often as a kid.
At centre-forward on the sheet was James McGrory. 1937/38 would prove to be his last one as a Celtic player, the great man struggling to shake off the injuries sustained over a magnificent career fighting for the cause, his beloved Hoops, hence the inclusion of Joe Carruth against Ayr United. Jimmy had appeared in nine of Celtic’s twelve League games that season before he took the field for the home game with Queen’s Park on Saturday, 16 October 1937.
Only 12,000 spectators witnessed what would turn out to be an historic day, as McGrory played and scored for Celtic for the final time, taking Willie Buchan’s pass to make it 1-1. Celts would eventually prevail by 4-3, with further goals from Malcolm MacDonald, Johnny Crum and an own goal from left-back Gordon, the unfortunate defender beating Desmond White, with the future Celtic supremo in his normal position between the amateurs’ posts. White’s father, Tom, was the Parkhead chairman at that time. Small world, football, sometimes.
Joe Carruth would replace Jimmy McGrory in the team the following week, and he would get off to a dream start, scoring a hat-trick against St Johnstone then two versus Partick Thistle a fortnight later, in successive 6-0 home wins which removed supporter concerns, at least in the interim, as to how the Celts would fare in the absence of their talismanic centre-forward.
Joe had also notched a hat-trick in his first appearance of that season, in a 4-2 victory over Hamilton Academical at Celtic Park on Saturday, 4 September 1937, before drawing a blank in the 3-1 loss at Ibrox, the following week.
Thus, in just four games he had managed eight goals, an incredible return for anyone, not least a player considered very much as a deputy. He would fail to score at Cathkin Park, in Willie Buchan’s final game in the Hoops, then notch goals in each of his next four appearances, for a tally of twelve goals in just nine games in the lead-up to Christmas.
On Monday, 20 December 1937, Celtic announced that Jimmy McGrory would be retiring with immediate effect, to take up the vacant manager’s post at Kilmarnock.
Yet again, football proved that it can be a strange but cruel bedfellow. McGrory’s first task in his new role was to bring his team to Celtic Park for a Christmas Day meeting with his old club. There was no goodwill shown to all Ayrshire men or favourite sons, as the Hoops inflicted an 8-0 defeat on their old colleague.
And it could have been worse, the Bhoys 6-0 ahead at half-time then losing Jimmy Delaney to injury after an hour, completing the match with ten men. John Divers had replaced Joe Carruth in the team for this game, just a second appearance of the season for the inside-forward, with Johnny Crum moving into the centre to accommodate him.
Divers helped himself to a double in the closing twenty minutes of the Kilmarnock game, and he would then become a fixture in the team for the remainder of that title-winning season, as the Empire Exhibition Cup-winning forward line finally took shape.
The names roll off the tongue. Delaney, MacDonald, Crum, Divers and Murphy. Carruth would make a further thirteen appearances for the Hoops in that campaign, predominantly as a replacement for the injured Delaney or MacDonald, scoring six goals. He would play in the first Empire Exhibition game, a 0-0 draw with Sunderland, on Lisbon Day 1938, before making way for Malcolm MacDonald in the replay, the following day. In those pre-substitution days, that would be it for Joe that season.
As an aside, on the same day that the Empire Exhibition Cup was won, Saturday, 10 June 1938, Joseph McBride was born in Glasgow, possibly in the Southern General hospital, a stone’s throw from Ibrox. Almost four decades later, Joe McBride would be described by Jimmy McGrory in the great man’s autobiography, ‘A Lifetime in Paradise’, as the best centre-forward he ever saw. High praise indeed.
So, with the cup-winning team of 1938 plus Willie Buchan, Jimmy McGrory and Matt Lynch all covered, that leaves just one name on the list, Jack Watters.
His was the only name I didn’t recognise. My loss, as it turned out…
A quick check on the Celtic Wiki shows that inside-forward John Watters joined Celtic on a permanent deal on 9 January 1937, the Fifer having signed provisional forms whilst a junior player at St Roch’s, back in 1935.
Jackie would make his debut in the Hoops in November of the following year, in a League match at Gayfield Park, Arbroath, as a replacement for the aforementioned Malcolm MacDonald, who had been stricken by appendicitis, the only change to the successful Empire Exhibition Cup Final team.
Second-half goals from Chic Geatons and Johnny Crum gave the defending champions a much-needed boost after a three-game spell without a win. Jackie kept his place in an unchanged Celtic side for the following weekend’s visit of Hibernian, netting a double, his first goals for the club, the Bhoys’ first and third in a thrilling 5-4 victory, secured thanks to a last-gasp winner from left-winger Frank Murphy.
Watters continued to deputise for MacDonald through a disappointing series of December results, scoring his second brace in a 2-2 draw against the previous season’s runners-up, Hearts, at Celtic Park on Hogmanay, this time the Gorgie club equalising at the death.
Two days later, on Monday, 2 January 1939, he played at Ibrox in front of 118,567, the largest-ever recorded League attendance in Britain. Celtic would lose 2-1, Joe Carruth on the scoresheet for a much-changed side, stalwarts Paterson, MacDonald, Crum and Divers all missing from the established line-up. The corresponding fixture of the previous year, on Saturday, 1 January 1938, had seen the record attendance of 92,000 set at Celtic Park, albeit some reports show that figure as ‘only’ 83,500, Celtic beating Rangers 3-0 that fine day.
The fallout from the overcrowding issues at Ibrox would lead to discussions around the requirements of making future such fixtures all-ticket affairs. However, that was the least of Celtic’s problems.
Willie Maley rang the changes for the following day’s home game with Queen’s Park, fielding no fewer than three debutants, goalkeeper John Doherty, centre-half Hugh ‘Teddy’ O’Neill and inside-right Oliver Anderson, plus right-half Bertie Duffy, for his first appearance since September 1937. It didn’t work, Celts beaten 1-0 by a side who had lost all seven of their previous matches, thus continuing the Hoops’ miserable festival period, with just one point gained from four games.
Sadly, Watters was involved in the Spiders’ winning goal, thirteen minutes from time, his clumsy challenge on Christie conceding a needless free-kick from which the same player scored. This meant that the Bhoys had dropped to third spot in the race to retain their crown, with leaders Rangers now nine points clear of Hearts at the top.
The slump continued at the weekend, with a 4-0 hammering by bottom-dogs Raith Rovers in Kirkcaldy, the Fife side winning their first game since November, despite the return of Joe Kennoway, Willie Lyon and Malcolm MacDonald to the team. Jimmy Delaney and Joe Carruth dropped out, meaning a shuffle of the forward line, with Matt Lynch and Jimmy Birrell introduced on the flanks, Jackie Watters and Frank Murphy moving inside to accommodate the latter. But for the performance of the big Canadian in Celtic’s goal, it could have been an even heavier defeat. This would turn out to be Bertie Duffy’s last appearance in the Hoops. He would join the RAF the following year, following the outbreak of war.
With the League gone, Celtic’s focus would turn to the Scottish Cup, the next fixture being an away tie against amateur side, Burntisland Shipyard, in the first round, on Saturday, 21 January 1939. Johnny Crum returned to the side and he opened the scoring, in front of 3,000 at Kirkton Park.
A see-saw first half saw the Celts lead three times, Delaney and MacDonald with the others, the locals replying twice to have the sides turning around at 3-2. They would then level again in the second period, before Celts powered away with the tie, Murphy making it 4-3 then MacDonald completing his hat-trick. Further goals in the last fifteen minutes from Watters and Crum would see the visitors finally declare at 8-3.
Unbeknown to him at that time, that strike in eastern Fife would be Jackie Watters’ last for the club. John Divers would replace him for the midweek visit of Albion Rovers, the inside-forward scoring all four Hoops goals in the process past former Motherwell goalkeeper, Allan McClory, the man who had played so well against Celtic in the Scottish Cup Finals of both 1931 and 1933, as the Empire Exhibition Cup Final forward-line celebrated getting back together again with a comfortable 4-1 win.
Divers would retain his place for the remainder of that 1938/39 season, with Watters failing to make another appearance. This would include the dramatic clashes with old foes, Hearts in the third round of the Scottish Cup. The Edinburgh side had created, surely, an unique record, by scoring fourteen goals in each of their first two ties, Penicuik Athletic (14-2) and Elgin City (14-1), the unfortunate lambs to the slaughter.
The third round would be a different matter entirely. The first match took place at Tynecastle on Saturday, 18 February 1939, in front of an incredible crowd of 50,000, the first all-ticket match at the Gorgie ground.
They saw Celts make a stunning start, with goals from Jimmy Delaney and Malcolm MacDonald in the first four minutes, before Fred Warren reduced the deficit by half-time. Then, with just seconds remaining, Archie Garrett made it 2-2, just as he had in the Parkhead League fixture at Hogmanay.
The replay four days later saw another huge attendance, this time just under 81,000 at Celtic Park, a new record for a midweek match in Britain outwith Cup Final replays, with many thousands more locked out.
Warren opened the scoring for the visitors on the half-hour before Divers emerged as the hero, equalising ten minutes later then bundling home the winner five minutes from the end of extra-time, with Hearts protesting that the ball had not crossed the line. Celtic would be knocked out in the next round at Fir Park, Motherwell, in turn, losing their third cup final of the decade at Hampden, as Clyde claimed their first success in the competition.
The Bully Wee had disposed of Rangers by 4-1 at Ibrox on the day of that Tynecastle match, centre-forward Willie Martin creating his own piece of history by scoring all four. With the competition suspended during the Second World War, Clyde would claim the record of the club retaining the famous old trophy for the longest duration, until Aberdeen’s win of April 1947.
The Shawfield side would also feature in another war-related piece of trivia at the beginning of the following season, 1939/40. The new Scottish Cup-holders travelled to play Celtic in the fifth round of League fixtures on Saturday, 2 September 1939, a John Divers goal two minutes into the second half proving to be the only score of the game.
The next day, Britain and France declared war on Germany, and the League would subsequently be suspended until August 1945, Celts having won three and lost two of their five games, both defeats by 3-1 to Aberdeen.
In its place in the interim, would be wartime Scottish Regional League matches, which were not recognised in official statistics. Although he had played in all five matches at the beginning of this season, an injury sustained in the Clyde game would rule Divers out of first-team action until December.
Thus, Jackie Watters would appear in the inaugural SRL Western Division fixture played by Celtic, a 4-3 home defeat by Hamilton Academical on Saturday, 21 October 1939.
Jackie would then slip back into first-team exile before re-appearing the following March for his final run in the side. By this time, the legendary Maley had retired as Celtic manager, voluntarily or otherwise, and former skipper Jimmy McStay was now in charge of team affairs. Watters would feature in eight of the remaining SRL games between March and May 1940, Celtic winning three and losing four, with one drawn.
Sadly, the only consistency in that run would be his failure to score in any one of these matches. Jackie’s last game for Celtic was a 2-1 defeat by St Mirren at Love Street on Saturday, 4 May 1940, by which time only full-back Bobby Hogg, the immortal half-back line of Chic Geatons, Willie Lyon and George Paterson, and inside-forwards Malcolm MacDonald and John Divers remained from the side which had lifted the Empire Exhibition trophy less than two years earlier. Matt Lynch scored the Celtic goal, as the Bhoys finished an embarrassing thirteenth in a sixteen-club League.
In the summer of 1940, as he approached his 21st birthday, Jackie joined the war effort, serving in the Royal Navy as a medic until his demob in 1947. Formally freed by Celtic in April of that year, he moved to Airdrieonians in September, his first season there ending in the disappointment of relegation, four points below his former club Celtic, saved following Jock Weir’s hat-trick at Dundee, referred to earlier.
They would be promoted back to Division A in April 1950, after two seasons in the second tier, and would remain there until the end of 1953/54, as his old club were re-emerging from their post-war wilderness to claim their first League and Scottish Cup double since the prime of Maley, forty years earlier, building on the platform of the Coronation Cup win the previous May. His contemporaries at Broomfield would include Bobby Flavell, Ian McMillan and his old Celtic teammate, Oliver Anderson.
The final part of Jackie’s career involved another club with Empire Exhibition links, Sunderland, who had faced Celtic in the first game of the 1938 competition. In 1955, as a qualified physiotherapist, he joined the Roker Park outfit, commencing a love affair that would last the best part of thirty years.
By far the highlight of that time, was Sunderland’s giant-killing act of Wembley 1973, when the Black Cats defied the might of Don Revie’s Leeds United to win the FA Cup, thanks to a goal from former Raith Rovers star and future Aberdeen manager, Ian Porterfield and a stunning save from keeper Jim Montgomery from a point-blank Peter Lorimer effort.
Manager Bob Stokoe wasn’t the only Rokerite dancing a jig of joy on the lush turf afterwards. Sunderland afficionados recall the bespectacled physio, by now in his mid-fifties, doing likewise, with his white coat over his club suit. Watters could claim a key role in that success. It was his direct intervention – turning up at the player’s house with one of his schoolteachers, following a four-week trial at Turf Moor – which convinced the 15-year-old Jim Montgomery to choose Sunderland over Burnley, at that time one of the powerhouses of English football.
Watters would work with all of the Roker Park greats over that period, Charlie Hurley – a boyhood favourite of former Celtic boss, Martin O’Neill, Billy Bingham – who managed O’Neill at the World Cup in Spain in 1982, and Brian Clough, who was of course the Derry man’s club manager at Nottingham Forest, as the East Midlands side won two European Cups at the beginning of the 80’s.
Jackie – or Johnny as he was referred to in England’s north-east – retired from his physiotherapist’s role at Sunderland a decade after that final, a much loved and respected figure in the city. He died in his sleep on 12 August 2012, just shy of his 93rd birthday. A grand old life, well lived, as they say.
So now that we know who the players are, the question remains as to what the significance is of this line-up and why did the autographs turn up in the Star Hotel in Kingussie, in the Scottish Highlands, as Paddy’s family have assured him is the case?
When? By a stunning Ruth Rendell CSC process of elimination, we can date the occasion as sometime after the beginning of the 1937/38 season, which is actually stated at the top of the page, and 15 November 1937, when Willie Buchan left for Blackpool. It is perhaps also reasonable to suggest that it happened prior to 16 October 1937, when Jimmy McGrory played his last match for Celtic, although he remained at the club until December of that year.
Why? The most obvious answer is that the club stayed over en route to or from a game in the north of Scotland. However, this line-up, as far as I can tell, never played together, unless in some unofficial friendly or charity match, which I have been unable to track down. The two most likely options for this scenario are Celtic’s visits to Aberdeen, on Saturday, 25 September 1937, and to Arbroath, two weeks later. For both of these games, the forward-line is a perfect fit, however, neither Jock Morrison nor Chic Geatons featured in the 1-1 draw at Pittodrie, whilst both Willie Lyon and Alex Millar did but do not appear on the sheet.
Likewise, for the 2-0 defeat at Gayfield, Geatons remained an absentee with Malcolm MacDonald at right-half whilst Tom Doyle deputised for Joe Kennoway between the sticks. I have another possible theory, however, I’ll leave you thinking in the interim, in the hope that someone comes up with the goods.
The second part of this article will look at the other autograph sheet shown at the start and also shared by Paddy on Twitter. Thanks, as always, to the Celtic Wiki, a wonderful source of reference information.
Hail Hail!
Matt Corr
