3. NAPOLEON
One of the greatest inside forwards that Scottish football has ever seen, Jimmy McMenemy was nicknamed ‘Napoleon’, and played for Celtic between 1902 and 1920, followed by Partick Thistle until 1922, and then, briefly, Stenhousemuir.
He also won twelve caps for Scotland and holds the record for being Scotland’s third oldest player (only Davie Weir and Jim Leighton beat him) when he played for Scotland against Ireland at Celtic Park in March 1920 at the age of 39 years and two hundred and three days.
He signed from Rutherglen Glencairn in May 1902 and scored in his debut against Port Glasgow in November of that year. He was one of the mainstays of the great Celtic side of the Edwardian era, where the “inside triangle” of Young at right half, Bennett on the right wing and Napoleon at inside right was “a sight to behold” on many occasions, and of the other great Celtic side immediately before and during the first world war.
He had made his reputation at inside right, but agreed to move to inside left to allow his prodigiously talented protege Patsy Gallacher to take his place at inside right. Napoleon was equally at home in either position and scored a remarkable number of goals from the inside positions – notably a mazy dribble and shot in the New Year’s Day hammering of Rangers at Parkhead in 1914, but his strength lay in his accurate passing, and his knowledge of the game which led Maley to say that, to Napoleon, the football pitch was like a chess board.
His record of eleven Scottish League medals and seven Scottish Cup medals (one with Partick Thistle in 1921) speaks for itself. His international career is distinguished by the part he played in Scotland’s victories against England in 1910 and 1914.
Illness and war service seemed to have put an end to his career in 1918, but he returned to play a glorious part in the League Championship victory of 1919. The decision to “pay him off” in 1920 at the age of 40 was not without its critics, but Napoleon went to Partick Thistle where he won a Scottish Cup medal with them in 1921 in a 1-0 victory over Rangers in April 1921.
Having twice coached for Partick Thistle, Napoleon was brought back to be the trainer for Celtic in October 1934. Given the advancing years and infirmity of manager Willie Maley, this in fact meant that he ran the team, and he therefore deserves great credit for the fine Celtic side of that era, which distinguished itself by winning the Scottish League in 1936 and 1938, the Scottish Cup in 1937 and the Empire Exhibition Trophy of 1938.
Had he been appointed Maley’s successor in 1940, Celtic’s war record would have been substantially different. His son John McMenemy played for Celtic and Motherwell, his other son Harry played for Newcastle United and the legendary Southampton manager Lawrie McMenemy is his great-nephew.
Oh dear what can the matter be?
Rangers got beat by Celtic on Saturday
Two goals from Quinn and one from McMenemy
Oh what fun it was there!
