Football career
1926/27 – First report I found of John is him playing centre-half for Maryhill Hibernian in a 5-0 win over Twechar Rangers in the Scottish Junior League on Saturday, 30 October 1926. Future Celtic teammate Joe Riley was at inside-left that day.
John made what may have been his first appearance at Celtic Park when the Hibs lost 2-1 to Cambuslang Rangers in the semi-final of the Glasgow Junior Cup on Saturday, 23 April 1927.
“Brown, Ferguson and Ronald, as a mid-line, held their own in tackling and forcing work.”
And from the Sunday Post of 5 June 1927…
“Maryhill Hibs have succeeded in retaining the services of Millar and Ferguson for next season. A right-back and centre-half respectively, these Dalmuir lads have been two of the stalwarts in the Maryhill side, and much pleasure locally is felt at retaining them.”
1927/28 – In July 1927, John was joined at Kelvinvale Park by goalkeeper David Nicol from Maryhill Juniors and centre-forward Willie ‘Woogie’ Gray from Wyndford Star. Nicol had recently signed provisional forms for Celtic and Gray would do likewise in early August after scoring twice and impressing in the public trial match at Parkhead.
John received his first representative honour in December 1927, when he was selected for the Scottish Junior League XI to face Munster Football Association in Cork on 2 January 1928. His teammates Nicol and Gray were also chosen but according to the Falkirk Herald the match “had to be abandoned shortly after half-time owing to a heavy rainstorm, no score having been effected by either side. The Scots played delightful football, considering the state of the ground.”
John continued to impress; this from the Sunday Post of 1 April 1928.
“Frank Thompson, who has fixed up Simpson and Kelly of Bruntonians for Clyde FC, has also an interest in Ferguson, the Maryhill Hibs half-back, who has given little thought to going upwards.”
The following Saturday, 7 April 1928, Maryhill Hibs beat Saltcoats Victoria 3-2 at Firhill to qualify for the Scottish Junior Cup final, and six days later the Motherwell Times reports that John has been signed by Clyde, whilst his teammates Nicol, Burke and Gray are provisionally signed for Celtic.
John’s greatest football moment to date arrived on Saturday, 26 May 1928, when he was part of the Maryhill Hibs team which won the Scottish Junior Cup for the first and only time by beating Burnbank Athletic 6-2 in front of 8,000 at Firhill. Willie Gray scored four of the Hibs goals whilst Joe Riley added another directly from a corner kick. John’s photograph appeared in The Sunday Post the following day within the match report.
As a very occasional article writer for the Star and a Dalmuir man, this article was ( almost literally ) right up my street. Thank you
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Cheers, Eugene. Much appreciated. There is a further development on that story, just yesterday, so watch this space!
Nice read Matt, I love reading these stories on lesser known players in the hoops and the thought that my Da may have heard or read about them at the time.
Cheers, Tam. That’s very kind of you. Yes it’s important that these stories are discovered and shared. I actually found out some more detail on this story yesterday so watch this space!