I think I read somewhere last week that Celtic were interested in buying Paddy McNair. I also read at the same time that he was a Rangers supporters and had been seen outside Ibrox with a blue scarf etc. To which I said “So?”. He would not be the first, nor the last. But the real attraction was in the name. There has been another McNair who played for Celtic.
Alec McNair, “Eck” or “the Icicle” was probably not a Rangers supporters, as some have claimed. He came from Stenhousemuir, and if anything, he would have supported the local team for whom he played before Willie Maley spotted him, and he arrived at Celtic Park in 1903. He was not however born a Celt. But then again, that was the great strength of Willie Maley. He could make them Celts! He did likewise with Sunny Jim Young, although with others like Alec Bennett, Davie McLean and James Hay, the success, though marked, was less permanent.
Seldom have Celtic been better served by anyone than they were for the 22 years between 1903 and 1925 by Alec McNair. Alec holds the record of appearances for the club, playing a total of 604 times in League and Cup matches and that does not include the Glasgow Cup, the Glasgow Charity Cup and the innumerable friendlies that Celtic played at home and abroad in the glorious Celtic days of the early 20th century. The only man who comes close is Billy McNeill, who played from 1958 – 1975 “only” 17 years.
Alec’s record number of appearances is unlikely ever to be broken, for it is hard to imagine anyone playing for so long at one club. But he was involved in consistent and sustained success. He was seldom mentioned in newspaper reports – which is of course a great tribute to a right back – but he does score high in the memoirs of contemporary players and his Manager, Willie Maley, who sums him up as, “The coolest, most intelligent player I have ever seen”.
Even the referee, Jock Bell, said that, “It was a delight to see him wait for his man, pounce just when the moment was right and clear with such crispness and confidence”. He was a hard tackler, a fine distributor and he kept a cool head. Those of us fortunate enough to have seen Danny McGrain will have an idea of what a good full back looks like.
Eck lived in Larbert, near Stenhousemuir, all his life and travelled in to Glasgow every day for his training, except when he was employed in the war years in the Munitions Industry at Bo’ness forging metal for horseshoes. He was a “grate fitter” to trade. The Great War was a tough time for Eck, for his wife Mary Niven died in August 1915 and Eck had a young family to bring up. But in the same way that he would never shirk a tackle on the field, McNair faced that problem with fortitude, determination and perseverance. His family grew up to be a credit for him and his son Jimmy became a professional footballer with Stenhousemuir and Falkirk .
Eck McNair was very much a defensive right back. His colleagues (Willie Orr, Jamie Weir or Joe Dodds) tended to be the attacking Tommy Gemmell type of players and as centre halves often went forward in those days as well, it was vital that there was somebody dependable at the back. This was what McNair could do to perfection.
His mistakes were so rare that they were mentioned as collectors’ items. On New Year’s Day 1916 for example he fluffed a pass back to give Rangers an undeserved draw. Few people could remember that every having happened before. Indeed passing back to Charlie Shaw became Eck’s trademark, so that it became a Glasgow cliche to the question, “What will I do?” (about a job, a wife or any other problem). The answer was, “Pass it back to Charlie!”
One occasion long after Alec retired he was playing golf, and took a long time to work out what to do with a ball that had landed in a bunker. As he reflected, someone recognised him and shouted, “There’s only one thing to do, Eck! Pass it back to Charlie”.
Although he joined the club in 1903, it was not really until 1907/1908 that he settled in as right back. This was because Celtic had the admirable Donnie McLeod for this position, but also because McNair’s versatility meant that he could always be deployed as right half, centre half (particularly in 1906-7 when Willie Loney broke his arm) and even left back. Just occasionally he took the field as an inside right, the position that he had played in for Stenhousemuir before he joined Celtic.
But from 1908 until 1923, Celtic’s right back was Eck McNair. He won 12 Scottish League medals and Scottish Cup medals in 1907, 1908, 1911, 1912, 1914 and 1923. He won the respect of all who played with him and that included really great players like Jimmy Quinn and Patsy Gallacher. He won 15 caps for Scotland , his most famous game being the 3-1 win over England at Hampden in April 1914 in which Celtic colleague Jimmy McMenemy earned the plaudits, but it was the quiet confidence of McNair which won the day for Scotland. Indeed 1914 was possibly his best year – it was certainly the year in which Shaw, McNair and Dodds went from early October until late February and conceded only one goal!
Curiously for a man of his temperament, Alec was only captain of Celtic for a short time, being quite happy to work for the likes of James Hay, James Young and Willie Cringan. He possibly lacked the “devil” necessary for a captain, as he was more of a team man and he preferred to concentrate exclusively on the task in hand. And he was an ideal team man, for he never moaned, and was always supportive to youngsters.
His last big game was the Scottish Cup Final of 1923 in which Celtic beat Hibs 1-0. It was by all accounts a grim game, but newspapers are full of praise for the quiet veteran, now called “The Icicle” for his coolness and unflappability. Several times in the second half when Hibs were pressing, he was seen to gather the ball and “take the dog for a walk” to the corner flag and defy Hibs to take the ball from him. He was almost 40 and the Celtic crowd at full time rose to applaud him, knowing that they would seldom see his likes again.
Not the least of his characteristics was that he was a total gentlemen. He was so good a player that he did not need to foul, and was well regarded and respected by opponents, and that included great left wingers like Alan Morton of Rangers and Alec Troup of Dundee. The friendship of Troup and McNair was deep and owed a great deal to the time in April 1920 when Eck saved the life of the diminutive Troup from an angry crowd at Parkhead.
Allowing Troup and other Dundee players to reach the sanctuary of the pavilion, McNair turned on Celtic’s so called supporters and gave them a verbal barrage, which was vitriolic but apparently, even in those extreme circumstances, devoid of foul language. For Alec McNair, foul language was as unnecessary as foul play.
After retirement, he was Manager of Dundee from 1925 to 1927, but was not really cut out for the demands of that job and he settled down as a stockbroker in Falkirk, a job for which his temperament was far more suited. But he retained his love and interest in football, being a referee supervisor for a spell a short time before his death in 1951 at the age of 67. He is buried in Larbert Cemetery. One of the wreaths sent came from “Lodge Carron 139”.
Those who bother about such things may make of it what they will, but to my mind, Eck McNair was one of the great Celts of all time, and whenever I pick my all-time Celtic XI (as one does now and again) I agonise over who to put in the right back position. Bobby Hogg and Jim Craig deserve a mention, but it boils down to a choice between Danny McGrain and Eck McNair. And what a compliment it is to both men that they can be mentioned in the same breath as each other!
So now, then, Paddy, having read this about another McNair, how about joining us? Or did someone just make it up, as they often do in the summer?
David Potter
