McCormack, Arthur

Right-back Arthur McCormack signed for Celtic in August 1911 from St Johnstone.

The Perth-born player had shown early promise in his football career and was an internationalist at junior level.

“In McCormack, Celtic have made a great capture. Is he Scotland’s coming back?“.

However his only appearance for the Hoops came in a 1-0 league victory at home to Aberdeen on October 14th 1911.

When Celtic had the quality of Dodds & McNair it was never going to be easy to break through, and he failed to do so, and so had to compete with Tom McGregor for the reserves spot.

Criticisms were that “he was a little deficient in tackling and did not kick a sufficient length“, which should be basic pre-requisites for any defender. Then again maybe he just needed more time & experience.

He was at Glasgow University reading law when with Celtic, but did continue with football even after leaving Celtic.

After returning from St Johnstone on loan he left Celtic to join Merthyr Town in the summer of 1912, where for Merthyr thankfully he ‘gained considerable speed and improved immensely in his tackling‘. So is it a case that Celtic missed out? We’ll never know, but wartime was creeping up and matters were to change very strongly. He remained at Merthyr until 1915, where it appears he may have then retired from football.