Celtic manager Willie Maley, Tommy McInally and Sunderland boss John Cochrane were all at the cup final at Firhill, fan favourite McInally having left Parkhead for Roker Park in a £3,000 deal the previous day. Maley must have liked what he saw. Four days later, the Dundee Evening Telegraph reported that John had joined Celtic.
“Celtic have signed on Ferguson, the centre half-back of Maryhill Hibs, and an effort was made to fix Brown, the right half-back of the same club, but without success. Celtic have now booked four of the Maryhill Hibs for next season, the others being Nicol (goal), Gray (centre-forward), and Riley (inside-left). Burke, the inside-right, was also provisionally fixed but he has now been released.”
And the same day’s Edinburgh Evening News backed the story up.
“Celtic last night added another promising junior to their list of signed players in the person of J. Ferguson, the Maryhill Hibernian centre half-back.”
This would prove to be the most successful season in the history of the club. In addition to the Scottish Junior Cup, Maryhill Hibs also won the Scottish Junior League and Glasgow North-Eastern Cup.
1928/29 – On 14 July 1928, John signed Provisional forms for Celtic for season 1928/29. At that time, he lived at 10 (or 18) Greer Quadrant, Clydebank.
Whilst Willie Gray and Joe Riley went straight into the Celtic first team, John continued to play for Maryhill Hibs whilst awaiting his call-up. The following month, he lined up for a Glasgow Junior FA Select AGAINST Celtic at Celtic Park! This was a match played on Tuesday, 28 August 1928 to raise funds for Langbank Children’s Home. He would be joined at Kelvinvale Park that season by two youngsters farmed out by Celtic, Charlie Napier and Peter Scarff.
John’s next honour would arrive in February 1929, when he was chosen as captain of the Scottish Junior League team to face the new Irish Free State Association in Dublin and the Munster Association in Cork the following month. His Maryhill Hibernian teammate Charlie Napier was also selected.
Maryhill Hibs were again challenging for the honours that season, winning the Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire Cups and the Western Division Championship of the Scottish Junior League. They were defeated in the national League decider and the finals of the Glasgow Junior Challenge Cup, the Glasgow North-Eastern Cup and the Victory Cup.
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!