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‘The Mighty Quinn’
Personal 
Fullname: James Quinn
aka: Jimmy Quinn, “The Mighy Quinn”, “The Croy Express”
Born: 8 July 1878
Died: 20 Nov 1945
Birthplace: Croy, Lanarkshire
Signed: 31 Dec 1900 (prov), 12 Jan 1901 (full)
Left: 30 Jan 1915 (retired)
Position: Centre-forward
Debut: St Mirren 3-4 Celtic, League, 19 Jan 1901
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: 11
International Goals: 7
Biog
| “He was the keystone in the greatest team the Celts ever had.” Willie Maley |
The shy and unassuming son of a hard-working Irish family Quinn was spotted by Willie Maley in 1900 playing junior football for local side Smithston Albion.
Having already turned down the chance to sign for English side Sunderland as Wearside was too far from his family home the gifted Quinn also initially refused the offer to sign for the Bhoys.
Accustomed to the quiet life Quinn was not sure about a move to Glasgow even though the city was relatively closer by to his Dunbartonshire home.
Further to that he had doubts about whether he was even good enough to make the step up from Junior football. Maley knew different and the persuasive official eventually convinced Quinn to come to Parkhead by ensuring him he could travel each day from Croy on the train.
Quinn eventually signed provisional forms with Celtic on New Year’s Eve 1900 and became a full time player 13 days later.
Maley’s persuasive efforts were to be greatly rewarded time and time again over the next 15 years as Quinn became the most feared forward in the Scottish game. His impact on the Bhoys was immediate – scoring on his debut at St Mirren as Celtic ran out 4-3 winners in a league clash on January 19th 1901.
Originally starting out as left-winger the strong running player was converted into a centre-forward and it was in this position the Mighty Quinn truly excelled. Uncompromisingly tough and with the strength of a buffalo Quinn was an explosive talent with both pace and a ferocious shot.
But even as a winger he knew his way to goal. In his first Scottish Cup final (1901) he may have ended up on the losing side but not before stealing the show with a wonder goal which saw his pace and strength beat six Hearts player before scoring.
As a centre-forward Quinn was a peerless power with no apparent weakness to his game. Brave, quick, great aerial prowess, excellent awareness, nimble feet and with a power-packed precision shot.
His unrivalled ability as a centre-forward was perfectly illustrated in the Scottish Cup final of 1904 when he bagged a hat-trick at Hampden as Celtic came from 2-0 down to defeat Rangers 3-2.
The fearsome firepower of this humble man from Croy was the foundation on which a glorious era in Celtic’s history was built. With the magnificent and rampaging Quinn terrorising opponents Celtic were to win six League championships in succession as well as adding four Scottish Cups to their haul of silverware. The player was also capped 11 times for Scotland.
Knee trouble eventually brought an end to this most memorable of careers but not before this former collier boy made an eternal impression on football history and in the hearts of all Celtic fans for generations to come. Even as he headed to his playing retirement, he couldn’t help but score. In his single league match in the title winning season of 1913-14 he scored a double over Morton in the league, and in his final season in 1914-15, he scored four goals in six league games as Celtic retained the league title.
Jimmy Quinn played 331 league & Scottish Cup games for Celtic and scored 216 goals in these games. His family connections continued with the club, with his grandson (also né Jimmy Quinn) playing for the club, however this grandson could not match his grandfather, and played a relatively smaller number of games and never cemented a regular place in the first team.
Jimmy Quinn passed away in 1945, and Willie Maley penned a fitting valedictory on the Celtic legend:
“He was the keystone in the greatest team Celtic ever had.“
The Mighty Quinn is a Celtic icon who will never be forgotten, his incredible record will see to that.
Quotes
“He was the keystone in the greatest team the Celts ever had.”
Willie Maley
“Celtic without Quinn is like Hamlet without the Prince”.
(In March 1906 match report)
“I was understudy to one of the best centre-forwards who ever played: Jimmy Quinn.”
Ex-Celt Davie McLean
A curious quote from 1924:
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES (goals) |
LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1901-15 | 273 | 58 | n/a | n/a | 331 |
| Goals | 187 | 29 | – | – | 216 |
Major Honours With Celtic
Scottish League
Scottish Cup
- 1904, 1907, 1908, 1911, 1912
- 1914
- (He played in a very early round in season 1913-14 in the Scottish Cup)
Glasgow Cup
- 5
Glasgow Charity Cup Medals
- 4
Note: For the league titles in 1913-14 & 1914-15, he played only a few times (albeit still scoring), but we have added these successes in the above.
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Anecdote
New years day 1907
Rangers’ Joe Hendry had just fouled Jimmy McMenemy, Quinn came charging across towards him and slipped on the wet turf knocking Hendry to the ground and landing accidentally on his face. Quinn was sent off and suspended for 2 months.
The Celtic fans thought this was a deliberate ploy by the authorities to prevent Celtic becoming the first club to win the Scottish league and cup in the same season. A supporters campaign was started to compensate Quinn for his loss of earnings. A grand total of £277 was raised as money poured in from across Scotland, Ireland and the USA. Concerts were held and Jimmy was presented along with the money a gold watch and earrings for his wife Annie.
After Quinns suspension Celtic went on to win the double for the first time in Scottish football.
Articles
Another championship nailbiter thanks to mighty Quinn –
Football
Times, The (London, England)
May 19, 2005
Author: Alex Murphy
At the end of the 1904-05 season, the Old Firm finished level on 41 points each and, according to league rules, the teams had to play off for the title. In hindsight, that seems a trifle harsh on Rangers, who had scored 15 goals more than Celtic in the 26-match campaign and conceded three fewer, but, nevertheless, they faced a title decider at Hampden Park on May 6, 1905.
A crowd of over 30,000 saw Celtic win 2-1, and it was a victory that swung the balance of power in Glasgow. Before that winner-takes-all shoot-out, Rangers had won four of the previous six championships but Celtic’s triumph set up a run of six titles in a row.
Although the Celtic goals that beat Rangers came from Jimmy McMenemy, the inside right, and Davie Hamilton, the outside left, the season really belonged to Jimmy Quinn, the centre forward, whose goals kept Celtic in the hunt when Rangers appeared to be marching away with the title. The campaign was a triumph for one of the most idiosyncratic characters ever to wear the green and white hoops.
Away from the park, Quinn was crippled by shyness and consumed by self-doubt. As a promising youngster he had come to the notice of Willie Maley, the Celtic manager, who made up his mind to sign the boy. But Quinn assured Maley he was not good enough for the big league and he wanted to stay with his pals in junior football.
Maley begged him to join Celtic, and in the end he got his man with methods only just the right side of chicanery. The move did not quell Quinn’s diffidence his nickname in the Celtic dressing-room was “Jamie the Silent”.
On the field, though, Quinn became a warrior in the Celtic cause, willing to fight his corner with the roughest defenders, and he would hobble home after matches, his legs grotesquely swollen with cuts and contusions.
All season long, Quinn maintained a running battle with referees and markers, but his never-say-die attitude lay at the heart of his team’s success. In the Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers at Celtic Park he was sent-off for fighting. The decision sparked a riot that brought the game to an early conclusion, and Celtic were obliged to forfeit the game.
The incident stirred up so much ill-feeling that a neutral English referee -Mr Kirkham from Preston -was drafted in for the title play-off. The Scottish Football League felt it would be impossible to find any referee in Scotland not infected by the ill-will that ran between the two clubs.
Yet, for all his problems with officialdom, the mighty Quinn managed to score 19 goals in the 21 games for which he was not suspended. The tally included hat-tricks against Port Glasgow Athletic and Motherwell, and a priceless double in the penultimate game of the season, when Celtic beat Rangers 4-1 at Ibrox to drag themselves back into the championship reckoning.
Quinn’s battered limbs finally failed him in 1915, when he retired with his place in the Celtic pantheon assured. He died in 1945, and Maley penned a fitting valedictory: “He was the keystone in the greatest team Celtic ever had.”
Star , Issue 8514, 5 January 1906,
JIMMY QUINN
By David Potter (from KeepTheFaith website)
It is now just over 100 years since Jimmy Quinn burst on to the Scottish scene in a big way. This was the Scottish Cup Final of 1904. Imagine the scene. 65,000 crowd (huge for 1904) and a new stadium hosting its first big game. Hampden had been opened the previous Hallowe’en, but had still not yet convinced everyone that it was fit enough to host the Scotland v England game in April 1904. Celtic Park still got the nod.
But when Celtic and Rangers found themselves in the Scottish Cup Final of April 16 th 1904 , clearly neither Ibrox nor Parkhead could be used. Hampden it had to be.
Hampden and Quinn therefore emerged together, for Quinn scored a hat-trick to win the Scottish Cup.
Maley had often wondered if he had made a mistake with Big Jimmy. He certainly had the build; he came of a good, respectable Catholic family, but seemed (curious for a man of that bulk) to lack confidence in himself, preferring for example his home town of Croy to the thriving metropolis of Glasgow . Maley had played him on the left wing, inside left, occasionally in the centre, but without any great and sustained success.
But centre forward it had to be, for Alec Bennett was unsettled at Parkhead and Alec had been playing in the centre. Alec was a Rangers supporter and was not happy to play against them in the 1904 Cup Final. So Quinn it had to be. His goals that day at Hampden were magnificent, all scored through his sheer power to run at and apparently through defenders. A hero was born.
From now on Quinn and Celtic took off. The League Championship was won in the next six years, and Quinn’s apparent diffidence disappeared overnight. The Scottish Cup was won in 1907, 1908, 1911 and 1912. Yet, although he scored 216 goals, Quinn was more than merely a goal-scorer. He was a centre forward in the old style in that he could forage for the ball, lead the line, distribute to his wingers and frequently turn up on the wing himself to rampage down either flank.
Nor did he disdain the rough stuff, a very prevalent feature of Edwardian football. Twice he was ordered off against Rangers, both times for retaliation when severely provoked, but this merely made him all the more of a folk hero as concerts were held by his devoted fans to compensate Jimmy for loss of earnings. On the second occasion, after being dismissed on New Year’s Day 1907, he came back in March to play against Rangers and earned the plaudits of everyone by simply walking away when kicked in the stomach by a Rangers player.
Jimmy Quinn played 11 times for Scotland, his most famous game being the 1910 International against England when he and Jimmy McMenemy scored the goals that won the day for Scotland in front of a six figure crowd.
After 1910, injuries began to catch up with Quinn, and by the outbreak of World War One, his career had more or less finished. Yet even when not playing for the team, he turned up and helped the trainer to “carry the hamper” off the train at away games, sometimes smoking a clay pipe and looking “just like an ordinary man”.
Indeed he returned to ordinary life in the pits of