The Day Mr Murray Lost Five Teeth Refereeing a Celtic Game

As luck would have it, the next game was against Rangers at Parkhead. It was a full-blooded encounter, ending 2-2, but then Celtic laid down a marker for themselves by beating Third Lanark 2-1 before 12,000 fans at Cathkin. It was a game not without incident and Sunny Jim was the unwitting catalyst of it all.

Celtic were leading 2-0 at half-time with two Jimmy Quinn goals, and early in the second half Sunny Jim cleared the ball and hit the referee, Mr Murray of Stenhousemuir, in the mouth. His whistle was at his lips and the result was a dreadful mess of the man’s mouth with five teeth subsequently having to be removed. Sunny was naturally quite upset about all this, apologised profusely and helped to carry Mr Murray off.

This might have meant the abandonment of the match, but it so happened that this match had been allocated neutral linesmen (this did not always happen in 1904 and on occasion clubs had to provide their own linesman) and one of the linesmen, Mr Miller of Motherwell prepared to take over. Willie Maley then said he would do the linesman’s job (he usually did so with the utmost integrity) but Third Lanark objected, not so much to Maley officiating, but to the fact that Mr Miller who had already had words with their centre half Sloan, would become referee.

Sunny Jim Young in action for Celtic

Thirds wanted the other linesman to do the job, but Mr Miller insisted he was refereeing, threatening to abandon the game and award the points to Celtic if they did not agree.

For a long time there was a stand-off with Sunny himself at one point offering jokingly to referee “Efter a’, it wis me that caused it”, until Third Lanark eventually agreed, under protest, to play under Mr Miller. Their misgivings about Mr Miller proved unjustified, and indeed Thirds scored late in the game, until the Celtic defence took charge once again and Celtic held for a 2-1 win. Maley on the line was even suspected of bending over backwards to Thirds and awarding a few debatable throws (or “shies” or “flings” as they were known) to Thirds.

Following a successful November, Sunny would have less happy relations with a referee on 17 December. By this time, Celtic’s consistent performances had seen them to the top of the League but this match at Parkhead against Partick Thistle (a 2-2 draw) was described as “wild”. The time the referee was Mr Deans of Dalkeith. In addition to the normal, full-blooded but healthy Glasgow rivalry, the weather was poor with persistent drizzle in the midwinter darkness, and the pitch was very soft and slippery with players inevitably following through with their tackles and hitting the man as well as the ball.

Celtic had gone ahead, but then Thistle had scored twice before Jimmy Hay playing left back and deputising as captain for the injured Willie Orr, equalised with a penalty kick which Thistle had disputed. Shortly after that Willie Black playing at left half to release Hay to the left back position was carried off injured after a nasty challenge from Thistle forward Jimmy Sommen.

Sunny, who had been having a poor game (“Young was led a sorry dance by the Partick Thistle left wingers, Wilkie and Gray” according to The Daily Record and Mail) then targeted Sommen for a few tackles. In the aftermath of one of them as time was running out, Sommen remonstrated and Sunny was seen to aim a kick at him and Sommen went down. Mr Deans had little option to order Young from the field as Sommen was stretchered off. Celtic thus finished the game with nine men as Black was unable to resume.

The Daily Record and Mail describes things thus: “The game was also marred by a good deal of hacking and foul kicking, and the most glaring instance occurred just on time when Young made a flying rush at Sommen, who dropped and had to be carried off. As Young had previously been cautioned, Referee Deans made him accompany his victim to the pavilion”. Clearly Sunny was not immune to what is now called “the red mist”, something that is by no means uncommon among highly charged, highly committed, emotional young men.

The Glasgow Observer, unsurprisingly, is not without sympathies for Sunny Jim. “Riley” says “Poor Black the quietest man of the twenty-two got the shipyard twist (sic) and was borne groaning to the pavilion. Sommen tried to send Sunny Jim high o’er the fence by a liberal use of “Force”. Next minute Sommen himself went soaring heavenward on the toe of Young’s boot. The Celt walked straight into the pavilion without waiting for the referee’s notice to quit, and Sommen followed Black into the ambulance ward”. Although there was little doubt that Sommen deserved all that he got, a lengthy suspension awaited Young in the New Year.

Celtic finished 1904 clear of Rangers at the top of the Scottish League.

To be continued…

David Potter

About Author

I am Celtic author and historian and write for The Celtic Star. I live in Kirkcaldy and have followed Celtic all my life, having seen them first at Dundee in March 1958. I am a retired teacher and my other interests are cricket, drama and the poetry of Robert Burns.

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