On Wednesday 17 January 1940, Rangers Football Club held a dinner at St Enoch Hotel, Glasgow, in tribute to Willie Maley. It was a nice gesture by the Rangers board to honour a man who had been their greatest challenger throughout the history of the club.
Ibrox directors confined their invitations to Lord Provost Dollan, members of the Celtic Board, leading legislators and two representatives of each of the clubs in the city.
Rangers Chairman, James Bowie, spoke of the great work done by Maley and touched on the financial benefits of the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers. After his speech, he presented Maley with a silver salver.
Exact quotes from the evening are few and far between because the press were excluded from the event. It was simply reported in most papers as a fine sporting gesture to a Secretary-Manager, whose 52 years of service was the story of Scottish football.