McGrory stands tall among game’s giants
(fromFIFA.com)
Wednesday 20 October 2010
Pele, Puskas, McGrory, Muller. For the majority of readers, and certainly those outside Scotland, one name in this quartet might be considered a little less illustrious than the others. As it is, and while Jimmy McGrory is undoubtedly the least-known of these goalscoring greats, the Celtic legend nonetheless stands proudly alongside Pele et al in the list of football’s ten most prolific marksmen.
A staggering tally of 550 goals from just 547 competitive appearances ensures his place amid such legendary company and, when it comes to league goals, only six players in the history of the game have managed more. Muller isn’t among them, nor indeed are any of his fellow countrymen, with McGrory’s colossal haul still a record in the United Kingdom, 171 higher than that of England’s all-time leading scorer, the Everton great Dixie Dean.
It’s a benchmark that will now surely stand forever, as indeed will two other McGrory milestones: 63 goals in one season (1927/28) and eight in a single game, Celtic’s 9-1 win over Dunfermline Athletic in January 1928. The ball with which he achieved the latter feat is now on display at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park, while the great man himself has a well-deserved place in the Scottish Football Association’s Hall of Fame.
Snubbing Arsenal, snubbed by Scotland
Though he measured in at just 5ft 6ins, no more than average for the time, this supreme predator’s great strength was his unrivalled ability in the air. Broad-shouldered and brave, McGrory – who passed away 28 years ago today – was also blessed with an extraordinary leap, earning him the nickname ‘The Mermaid’. Indeed, headers accounted for almost a third of his goals, with journalist Hughie Taylor writing of the “tingling feeling” of watching the striker “hover hawk-like, then twist that powerful neck, and flick the ball as fiercely as most players could kick it.”
Team-mate Johnny Paton also had vivid memories of these impressive physical attributes. “Jimmy was all strength and muscle, and he had a great bull neck,” said the former Celtic and Chelsea forward. “If he had been a boxer, you couldn’t have knocked him out. He was the hardest header of a ball I ever saw – along with Tommy Lawton at Chelsea – and had a great shot in his right boot.”
Yet, for all these attributes, McGrory started out his career playing at inside-right and inside-left before Celtic, in this third season with the club, finally decided to experiment with him as their central spearhead. The results were the stuff of legend, with McGrory’s final tally over double those of his closest rivals in the club’s all-time scoring list, Bobby Lennox and Henrik Larsson.
If he had been a boxer, you couldn’t have knocked him out. He was the hardest header of a ball I ever saw.Team-mate Johnny Paton on Jimmy McGrory
“My mind was set on scoring goals,” the great man himself told The Observer in 1971. “I got into positions from which I could head or shoot. When the ball did come, I did not have to waste any time. I hit it. I see players trying to control and manoeuvre the ball when it comes to them, then looking up to see what they are going to do with it. They waste so much time.”
Despite their talisman’s Herculean efforts, Celtic somehow contrived to remain in Rangers’ shadow throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, winning the league just twice during McGrory’s goal-laden 15-year career. In hindsight, perhaps this lack of success can be attributed to the same dearth of ambition that led to the Bhoys attempting to offload their prize asset to Arsenal when he was at the peak of his powers.
So devoted was McGrory to Celtic that the club’s board even went to the extreme of luring him under false pretences to London, where a meeting had been arranged with the Gunners’ renowned manager, Herbert Chapman. However, despite the prospect of becoming Britain’s highest-paid player, and his own unhappiness at the conduct of the Celtic board, McGrory snubbed Arsenal to continue a love affair that would endure for many years and decades to come. “McGrory of Arsenal just never sounded as good as McGrory of Celtic,” he would later remark.
His mother and father had been poor Irish immigrants, specifically the kind of people Celtic had been founded to help, and his love for, and loyalty to, the club – his club – remained absolute. Many believe that it cost him greater recognition at international level, with a paltry haul of seven caps attributed to perceived anti-Celtic sentiments among the Scotland selectors of that era. Nonetheless, on the few occasions he did pull on the dark blue jersey, McGrory succeeded in replicating his club form, famously scoring twice in a 2-1 win over England in front of over 134,000 fans at Hampden.
Moving into management
That was in 1933, and within four years he had moved into the dugout, learning his trade at Kilmarnock before inevitably returning to Celtic in 1945 to begin a 20-year reign. However, McGrory the manager was very different to McGrory the player, with his dynamic, forceful style on the park belying an affable and gentlemanly demeanour off it.
As Billy McNeill, the club’s European Cup-winning skipper, recalled: “He was always Mr. McGrory to me – and to all the other players. A lovely man with a pipe. Always smartly dressed in a collar and tie, it was hard to tell he was such a dynamo of a player in his day. But then a player changes as soon as he runs on to the park. He didn’t just love Celtic – he was Celtic.”
With team selection controlled by the club’s then chairman, he struggled to revive Celtic’s fortunes and contemplated resigning within three years of taking charge as the team narrowly avoided relegation. There were triumphs though, most notably victory in the 1953 Coronation Cup – a competition contested by four English and four Scottish sides – and in a famous 7-1 trouncing of Old Firm rivals Rangers in the 1957 League Cup final.
In 1964, McGrory also led an audacious, if ultimately unsuccessful, bid to bring Alfredo Di Stefano to Celtic Park, and he went on to work as the club’s public relations officer until his retirement. When he died, on this day in 1982, it prompted an outpouring of genuine sadness as Scotland mourned one of football’s true gentlemen, and the beautiful game lost one of its greatest-ever strikers.
FROM FIFA.COM
JIMMY McGRORY
By David Potter
Those who saw McGrory play will be diminishing in numbers, one fears, but there will always be something about the name ‘McGrory’ that will be associated with Celtic. The very fact of 550 goals, many of them scored with his head, is almost mundane in comparison with the aura of that name ‘McGrory’.
The McGrory family of the Garngad were exactly the kind of family that Brother Walfrid would have had in mind when he founded his football team. Jimmy, of course, was not born until the 26th April 1904, some ten days after another great Celtic forward had hit the headlines. On 16th April, Jimmy Quinn scored his hat-trick in the 1904 Cup Final that propelled him to hero status. The poverty-stricken Garngad would have something to cheer about, though they did not know that Quinn’s successor was about to be born.
The harsh life, already harsher thanks to the demands of the First World War, was made almost impossible for the McGrory family in 1916 when their mother died, leaving Jimmy’s father (himself a sick man) with seven children to bring up. But Jimmy could play football and soon found himself a place in the St.Roch’s junior team, earning an extra £2 per week, which was a godsend to the family finances.
His goal scoring exploits soon attracted the attention of Willie Maley, the Celtic Manager, and, in 1922, McGrory found himself at Celtic Park. Apparently reluctant at first to expose himself to the pressures of playing for Celtic, he nevertheless did not say “No” when approached, and made his debut against Third Lanark at Cathkin Park in 1923. He was farmed out to Clydebank for the 1923-24 season, but he was recalled at the end of that season to win a Charity Cup medal, beating Rangers in the Final.
The departure of Joe Cassidy to Bolton Wanderers in 1924 opened the door to young Jimmy, but he was dealt a sad blow in August 1924 when his father died. Jimmy attended his father’s funeral in the morning of August 30th 1924, then played against Falkirk at Brockville in the afternoon and scored in Celtic’s 2-1 victory.
But the game that really made him was the Scottish Cup Final of 1925. Much has been made of Patsy Gallacher’s equalizer, but equal tribute must be paid to McGrory’s great headed winner. A “survivor” of this Final would recall how the Dundee defence, and the Celtic forwards, lined up to face the free kick and, as Jean McFarlane took the kick, “a green and white figure catapulted forth” to head home. Maley insisted that young McGrory should hold the Scottish Cup on the charabanc back to Celtic Park that night.
McGrory then seldom looked back. On January 14th 1928 he scored 8 in a game against the luckless Dunfermline, and it was seldom that McGrory played without scoring at least one goal. It was all the more praiseworthy because it was not necessarily a great Celtic team in which he played. True, there were great players, but the team did not always perform as well as one would have expected it to do.
Maley tried to sell him to Arsenal in 1928 to pay for the new stand at Celtic Park, but McGrory simply refused to go from the team that he loved so much.
The green and white jersey seemed to be made for those broad shoulders, but the Scottish jersey was not pulled over the neck as often as it should have been. There does seem to be a justified cause for complaint in the paucity of Scottish caps, given that on the two occasions when he played against England at Hampden, he scored and Scotland won!
1933 is always said to be the birth of the Hampden Roar when McGrory picked up a great pass from Rangers’ Bob McPhail to score a classic goal for Scotland against England. Two weeks later, he made Hampden roar again when he scored for Celtic to win the Scottish Cup against Motherwell.
Yet he never played at Wembley for Scotland! Possibly he was slightly less prolific than Hughie Gallacher in 1928, but in 1930, 1932 and 1934, Scotland went to Wembley without him and lost, thereby creating the feeling among Celtic supporters (which took a long time to die) that the Scottish selectors had some sort of policy against Celtic. It was certainly very difficult to explain.
His best Celtic year was 1936 when he scored a record 50 goals to take Celtic to the League title. In only three games did he play and not score! Yet, once more, Scotland went to Wembley without him, the centre forward berth going to a fellow named McCulloch of Brentford! In 1937, his great Celtic career was at an end when he left Paradise to become the Manager of Kilmarnock.
In some ways it was a shame that he came back to be Manager of Celtic in summer 1945, for his two decades in charge were a period of disappointing underachievement. McGrory has every right to be proud of the Coronation Cup winning team of 1953, the League and Cup double of 1954 and the 7-1 beating of Rangers in the League Cup Final of 1957, but there was little other consistent success as the gentlemanly Jimmy was frequently out-manoeuvred by the Celtic Chairman, Bob Kelly, in matters of team selection. Kelly’s quirky likes and dislikes of players often seemed to dictate policy.
When Jock Stein arrived in 1965, McGrory was made the Public Relations Officer, a task for which the kindly hero was eminently suitable. He would conduct tours round the ground amiably and happily, with children (and their parents) often in awe of who the great man was. He was always willing to talk to supporters, occasionally amazing them by remembering them from years before. He talked happily about football, enjoying the European triumph of Jock Stein and anything to do with his beloved Celtic.
He married in 1931 but had no family. He died on 20th October 1982, and so many of his old fans said that a part of them had gone as well. He was basically what Celtic should be about – a man born to be a Celt, a man who was devoted to our Club, a good man, an exceptional football player and THE most prolific goal scorer in our Club’s proud and illustrious history.
Don’t Let it Be Forgot
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
https://tirnaog09.blogspot.com/2013/04/and-they-gave-us-james-mcgrory.html
‘Jimmy, it’s time to get up,’ whispered Harry McGrory in his soft Donegal accent to his sleeping son. Sometimes he hated waking the boy up. He was surely happier in his dreams than he was facing the harsh realities and grinding poverty they faced each day in Glasgow’s tough Garngad district? Young Jimmy opened his eyes, smiled at his Da and then, remembering that today was to be the day of his brother John’s funeral, his smile faded. ‘What time are we due at St Roch’s Da?’ he asked quietly. ‘An hour or so to go yet son so get dressed and have a good wash. Put on your school clothes. Yer Ma is making some breakfast in the scullery.’ As his Dad left the room, Young Jimmy got up and glanced out the window of the tenement they lived in at 179 Millburn Street. The street was quiet and the old buildings, blackened by the soot of industry and the nearby Gas Works, looked dilapidated and dirty. He dressed quietly and before leaving the room sat on his bed, closed his eyes and prayed for his brother John, lost to meningitis just a month after his first birthday. ‘Jimmy, your breakfast is out son,’ called his mother from the skullery jolting him out of his prayers. Jimmy opened his eyes, blessed himself quickly and headed for the smell of toast which wafted through the chilly flat. His Mother looked him over as he entered the kitchen, ‘Yer looking smart son, we’ll get you some boots before winter.’ Jimmy glanced down at the frayed school uniform and sandshoes he wore every day. It was not in his nature to complain as so many of the boys at St Roch’s Primary school were worse off. Some even came to school barefoot in the better weather. The McGrory family finished their breakfast and slipped out of the flat for the short walk down the hill to St Roch’s. Neighbours nodded at them with solemn faces, ‘Sorry for your loss,’ said Dan Murphy, shaking Harry McGrory gently by the hand, a sad look on his face. Others stood in silence as they passed, a few blessed themselves. The sad walk of the McGrory family was one which many families in the Garngad had made in those hard years. Infant mortality in such areas was a national disgrace and as always, the poorest carried the heaviest burden.
They entered the Church and Jimmy saw the little coffin waiting for them by the altar. Tears welled in his eyes for little John but also for his parents. He glanced at his father who sat to his left, eyes closed, rosary beads in his hand. Decent, hard-working Harry McGrory, a man who signed Jimmy’s birth certificate with a cross because he couldn’t write. A man who laboured and sweated for more than 60 hours a week in the Gas Works to try and feed his family. His mother, Kate McGrory, prematurely old due to the wearying effects of poverty and child bearing sat grim faced and stoic. Her faith in God helped carry her through her troubles but losing a child is always a heavy blow. Whisps of grey flecked her hair and care lines ploughed her proud Irish face though she was still not yet 35 years old. Young Jimmy didn’t know then that he would lose her too before his twelfth year was over. He sat quietly in the rapidly filling Church and glanced at the image of Christ on the cross suspended high above the altar. ‘Help me,’ he whispered quietly to his God, ‘help me to help them.’
20 years later….
England brought their formidable team north to face a Scotland team which though often erratic was capable of occasional brilliance. The crowd packed into Hampden that day was given as 134,710 but this figure didn’t include the thousands of boys ‘lifted’ over the turnstiles to gain free entry. The scores were tied 1-1 and a titanic struggle ensued as both teams sought the winning goal. The excellent Bob McPhail of Rangers sent a fizzing shot whizzing just over the England bar and the packed bowl of Hampden growled and roared sensing Scotland might just snatch a winning goal. With six minutes remaining McPhail drove towards the England goal and saw his strike partner pulling left to make space for him. Instead of shooting though, the adroit McPhail pinged a perfect pass to his strong running team mate who controlled it instantly and stepping inside the English full back found himself through on goal. The crowd roared. This was the moment of decision. The tall, muscular English goalkeeper Henry Hibbs rushed out at the attacker to deny him time to think only to find himself outfoxed as the blue shirted Scot lobbed him with a deft left foot chip. The ball arced through the air as 134,000 Scots willed it into the net. The roar which greeted the goal was described as deafening by commentators of the day. The scorer of the goal which gave birth to the Hampden roar was James Edward McGrory of Celtic FC. The little boy born into poverty in the Garngad was the toast of Scotland.
Jimmy McGrory was the greatest scorer of goals in the history of British football. He amassed an incredible 538 goals in 534 professional appearances for club(s) and country. Most of these goals were scored for his beloved Celtic. A club which under the autocratic Willie Maley paid McGrory far less than he was worth and shamefully tried to sell him to Arsenal without his knowledge or consent. McGrory remains to this day Celtic’s all-time top scorer with 410 goals, a record that surely will never be surpassed? He played in an era when Celtic had lost supremacy to Bill Struth’s powerful Rangers team but he still found the net with astonishing consistency. That he earned just seven caps is perhaps testimony to the good strikers around at the time although many, including his friend Bob McPhail, were embarrassed at his exclusion from the Scotland team at times. Others muttered darkly about Celtic men being overlooked unfairly because they wore the green. The game of the 1920s and 30s was a lot tougher than the modern game. McGrory lost count of the number of times his nose was broken by the heads of aggressive centre halves but he fought hard for his goals and gave as good as he got. This normally gentle and devout man became a fearsome warrior once he crossed that white line. However, he also set the highest standard of sportsmanship and shook the hands of even the most unscrupulous defenders once the game was over.
McGrory’s 20 year spell as Celtic Manager (1945-65) coincided with a frankly dreadful era for the club. Yes there were moments of genius and delight like the Coronation Cup victory of 1953, the League and Cup Double of 1954 and the never to be forgotten 7-1 demolition of Rangers in the League cup final of 1957. But Celtic fans in that era lived with a board which regularly sold their best players, paid relatively poor wages for such a big club and had, in Bob Kelly, a Chairman who picked the team and undermined the manager. McGrory, the gentle boy from the Garngad didn’t possess the nasty streak necessary to succeed as a Manager or indeed the temperament to stand up to the autocratic Kelly. Bertie Auld said of him ‘He was the most decent and honest man I have ever met.’ Nice as those words are, they don’t describe the qualities a top manager requires to succeed in the tough world of professional football. In 1965 a tired McGrory stepped aside and allowed a new man with new ideas to take the helm. The new manager told his Chairman that team selection would be his decision and his alone. The new manager had the steel, presence and ability to mould the talented young players developed under McGrory at Celtic Park into a formidable team which would restore the club to greatness. His name was Jock Stein.
James McGrory had managed Stein in his playing days and knew his abilities to organise and inspire. He also knew early in 1965 that it was time to let go, time to let Jock take control. His role as Public Relations officer kept him involved at his beloved Celtic Park as the Stein era commenced. Everyone, including Stein, referred to him as ‘Boss’ and treated him with the respect he was due. With Celtic marching on to a dominance in Scotland that would last a decade, Stein guided them to the 1967 European Cup Final. McGrory travelled to Lisbon having lost his brother Harry shortly before the final. When the game was over and Stein’s immortal team had written their page of glory in Celtic’s history, an emotional McGrory was passed the big Cup by Jock Stein. He says in his own words that he just sat there holding the trophy and crying like a child. Perhaps this great Celt was overjoyed that at last his beloved team had rediscovered their greatness. Perhaps he was also reflecting on those no longer around to enjoy this triumph.
Postscript
‘Jimmy,’ shouted his sister to the young player walking from the Garngad to Celtic Park for training. ‘Don’t be giving all your wages away today eh?’ He smiled back at her, ‘I’ve only got a few bob on me, will you stop worrying.’ She looked at him, a wry smile on her face, ‘Get the tram home then if it’s raining.’ They parted and young McGrory, Celtic’s new hotshot striker continued the walk through the streets of depression hit Glasgow to Celtic Park. There would be no tram home after training though as every beggar and down at heel Glaswegian who asked him for a copper was met with a patient smile and couple of coins. By the time he reached Celtic Park McGrory had not a penny in his pocket. It was not an unusual occurrence.
Jimmy McGrory was a decent man. A humble and devout Christian, who demonstrated by example rather than preachy words how to live a good life. If his incredible prowess as a striker was not matched by his achievements as manager of Celtic then we can forgive him that. Like us, he loved Celtic deeply and gave 100% for the club. We are honoured to count such a good man and such a splendid player among the lists of Celtic Legends. Those of us too young to have seen him play should still consider his goal scoring record with awe. We should also respect a decent, honest man who was a truly great Celt.
Sleep well Boss and Thank You.
James Edward McGrory (April 1904 –October 1982)
Celtic Legend
Eleven reasons why Jimmy McGrory was not a success as
Celtic manager
By David Potter 15 October, 2021 No Comments
-https://thecelticstar.com/eleven-reasons-why-jimmy-mcgrory-was-not-a-success-as-celtic-manager/4/
ELEVEN REASONS WHY JIMMY McGRORY WAS NOT A SUCCESS AS CELTIC MANAGER…
Jimmy McGrory was Manager of Celtic from July 1945 to March 1965. His record was poor – one Scottish League, two Scottish Cups, and two Scottish League Cups and one Coronation Cup. Hard luck stories weren’t really all that frequent either – four Scottish Cup final defeats, one Scottish League Cup defeat and only once we were second on the Scottish League. We won the Glasgow Cup four times, the Glasgow Charity Cup three times and shared it once.
We had a support that was potentially more numerous than that of anyone else in the world (they waned badly by the early 1960s however) and had some wonderful players like Tully, Fernie, Collins, Evans, Peacock, two McPhails, McNeill, Crerand – men who could stand comparison with most players in Celtic’s history. Why did we do so badly under the lovable and still heroic Jimmy McGrory?
There are 11 reasons that one can identify. These reasons, naturally intertwine with each other and naturally they all come back to the Chairman and Directors of the club, as is always the case. In a country one blames the Prime Minister when things go wrong, in a school one blames the Headmaster, in a business firm one blames the Chief Executive, and in a football club, one blames the Chairman. Twas ever thus, of course, but the men at the top are the men who can do something about it!
1. Jimmy McGrory was not, by nature, a Manager. Great players do not always make great Managers. On the other hand, great Managers are often GOOD, but not great players. One thinks of Ferguson, Shankly, Stein and Maley, who were all competent but not outstanding players on the field but were great Managers. In McGrory’s case, there was a lack of “devil”.
Managers sometimes have to be tough, hard, even devious. James McGrory was tough, certainly, on the field but was basically too nice a man for this tough and undeniably cut-throat world of football management. Even Rangers supporters and players had respect, and a few even had a little affection for the man with the phenomenal goal scoring record and who was a household name for his gentlemanly demeanour and lack of boorish behaviour.
2. Chairman Robert Kelly dominated things. He had been Chairman since 1947 and was difficult to dislodge because of who his father (James Kelly) had been. No-one could doubt his commitment to the club, but his judgement was often faulty.
Much was made of the undeniable fact that it was he who chose the team. There was nothing remarkable in that, for even in Maley’s day, the Directors and Chairman, in theory at least, chose the team. The difference between Maley and McGrory in this regard was that Maley was a far stronger and more persuasive character and had in any case a very good relationship with the Directors, until he got old and awkward!
McGrory was far more malleable a character and was too keen to do what he was told. Kelly deserves credit for his fight to retain the Irish flag at Celtic Park, and also for his work with the SFA . It is often claimed that Celtic were some sort of pariah club in Scotland. Not so! Kelly made sure that Celtic were at the centre of things. It was his judgement in specific footballing matters which was suspect. And he did make many mistakes. The four unsuccessful Scottish Cup finals, for example, in 1955, 1956, 1961 and 1963 could all be blamed on a poor team selection.
Charlie Tully
3. Celtic had many good, even class players, but they did not always coalesce as a team. There was for example, Charlie Tully. He was a personality player and in some ways his arrival in 1948 was just exactly what the deprived Celtic support craved and needed. He had all the trickery, craft, ball control and skill that one would want – but he wasn’t always a team player. It wasn’t that he was necessarily always selfish, but he sometimes was several steps ahead of his team mates.
Willie Fernie was similar. On his day, as good a player as any in the country, but often accused of overdoing the dribbling and failing to release the ball to team mates. Pat Crerand was a brilliant passer of the ball, but notoriously critical of some of his team mates, one in particular. John Hughes could run through a brick wall with the ball, but was notoriously unpredictable, yet capable of some astonishing brilliance. But these individually outstanding players did not make a team.
4. The supporters let them down. There is a certain element of truth here, but this was basically an effect rather than a cause of poor performances. The unhelpfulness of the supporters came across in two ways. One was sheer hooliganism. Away defeats were often accompanied by totally unacceptable outbreaks of bottle throwing, fighting with locals and vandalism of public and private property. Falkirk seemed to get it more than most towns, but it happened at Dundee, Perth, Kilmarnock, Stirling and Edinburgh, and it was no uncommon sight to see Celtic players appealing to their fans to behave themselves.
Fans entering Celtic Park in 1962 for a game against Rangers, it ended in a 1-1 draw.
But even more widespread and a great deal more deleterious to the performance of the team was the booing, catcalling and slow-handclapping of the team with several players being particularly targetted. Steve Chalmers, Bobby Murdoch and John Hughes were frequently picked on, and only to a point could one sympathise with the viewpoint that the support had been frustrated for so long. It simply did not help the team.
5. The other teams in Scotland were good. Funnily enough, this was not necessarily a great time in the history of Rangers either, but they were usually professional enough, organised enough and lucky enough to eke out victories, particularly in the early 1960s when Celtic often gave the impression of being beaten before they started and that, somehow, Celtic were not allowed to beat Rangers! Rangers had some good players –one thinks of Ian McMillan and Jim Baxter – but most were competent and brutal rather than clinical and brilliant.
The Hibs Famous Five
But there were other good teams around as well – Hibs in the early 1950s had their Famous Five forward line, Hearts developed into a top class outfit in the late 1950s and early 1960s and many people were of the opinion that the Dundee side of 1962 was one of the best teams that Scotland had ever seen. In addition, Kilmarnock and Dunfermline, both from a low budget, did well in both Scotland and Europe. But, no matter how good the opposition were, it is incumbent upon Celtic to be better.
6. The facilities were not very good. The stadium was an absolute disgrace with that awful cow barn of a Jungle in place with its holes in the roof and the flaky stuff looking suspiciously like asbestos that kept falling down on one’s head. In 1957 a shelter was built at the Celtic End or Railway End of the ground, but it only reached half way down and there were windows at the back which were sometimes broken and no-one thought of repairing them.
Weeds grew on the terracing, and floodlights came to Celtic Park in 1959, several years after other teams like Rangers and Hibs, and players had to be sold to pay for them. If it is true that children and families do not thrive in sub-standard housing, it is difficult to reject the contention that football players do not do well in an awful stadium, which nevertheless still rejoiced in the name of “Paradise”!
7. Training was very poor. Several players, notably the late Charlie Gallagher, mentioned that other teams often finished the game in better shape than Celtic did. There was a training ground of sorts at Barrowfield, a few hundred yards away on the other side of London Road, but quite a lot of the training was done on Celtic Park itself and it consisted of endless running round the track under no supervision, and very rarely was there any practice in ball skills.
Stories are told of players nipping into the Jungle for a smoke when they should have been training. This is often told in the context of “laddish” behaviour and “oh, weren’t they awful” but this slipshod approach to training probably cost Celtic several trophies. For this the Manager must take some of the blame.
8. Youth policy – shortly after the 7-1 game in 1957, the team began to break up and established players were replaced by youngsters. There was an excellent example in England of a very successful youth policy employed by Manchester United Manager (and unashamed Celtic supporter) Matt Busby.
They were called the Busby Babes, and the Chairman looked for a Scottish parallel, calling them the Kelly Kids. The trouble was that youth policies take time to work, and need to be strongly monitored, but the club allowed the departure to Dunfermline Athletic in 1960 of the one man who might well have made a success of all this, Jock Stein.
No-one seemed capable of moulding the talented youngsters, and things were allowed to drift, with, for example, youngsters being given two or three games in the team and suddenly dropped without anyone telling them why. On several occasions, Mr McGrory gave journalists the impression that he did not even know the names of some of his youngsters.
9. Referees – only to a very limited extent can one blame referees for Celtic’s lack of success. Yes, Celtic got the occasional bad deal from an official, but so too did other teams. Bobby Davidson of Airdrie, for example, was much excoriated at Parkhead, but where he was really unpopular was Ibrox after the 1958 Scottish Cup semi-final replay when what looked to Rangers supporters a very valid equaliser was ruled out. As far as Celtic were concerned, it would be very hard to sustain a case that the 20 years of failure were in any way contributed to by any sustained campaign against them by referees. The odd decision, yes, but no more than other teams.
10. Match Fixing – we are on dodgy ground here, and nothing can ever be proved. Was there a “Trojan Horse” inside Celtic Park? There were certainly rumours, and one would have to be very naïve to say that it could never happen, but there is a distinct lack of evidence. Goalkeeper Dick Beattie was indeed convicted of this crime, but that was years later when he was playing in England and there was never any evidence to connect him with this sort of thing at Celtic. He did have a dreadful game in the 1957 Scottish Cup semi-final replay against Kilmarnock and was badly at fault for the second goal in the 1956 Scottish Cup final against Hearts – very uncomfortable watching on You Tube! – and it may be that some newspaper reports of those games are trying to say something, but no, the balance of opinion must be that this was not a factor. It certainly was not a factor for the whole 20 years!
11. The media? Once again, this may have been a factor, but cannot really be said to have been a major reason for Celtic’s lack of success in the black 20 years from 1945 to 1965. There is little point in denying that the BBC TV (Peter Thomson (“Blue Peter”) in particular) and the Scottish Daily Express, for example, in the early 1960s were pro-Rangers. But on the other hand, Celtic were so big in terms of support and circulation figures,that it would not make sense to ignore them.
And there were times when The Glasgow Herald in particular showed a distinctly pro-Celtic inclination, not least in the dispute about whether the Irish flag should be allowed to fly at Celtic Park. Similarly, the 7-1 victory was universally praised to high heaven by every section of the Scottish media. The truth was, and always has been, that success on the field will be reflected by praise in the Press. There was little coming out of Celtic Park to enthuse anyone. It may be, however, that the all-pervasive lauding of Rangers may have had an effect of the impressionable young Celts of the early 1960s, and have contributed to the feeling that Rangers were somehow pre-destined to triumph.
To sum up, it all comes down to the simple fact that Celtic were baldy led and badly organised. Mr Kelly eventually admitted he was wrong and brought back Jock Stein to lead the club. Jimmy McGrory remained much loved and admired by everyone. He was a great player – probably a candidate for the centre forward spot in an all-time World XI – and he was gentle, modest, friendly and lovable. After 1965 he became the Public Relations Officer, a job for which he was ideally suited. Jock Stein still called him “Boss” and told his players to do likewise.
But Jimmy McGrory was no Manager.
David Potter
