Sharkey, James

S | Player Pics | A-Z of Players

Personal

Fullname: James Sharkey
aka: Jim Sharkey, Snake Hips Sharkey, Old Snake Hips Sharkey
Born: 12 February 1934
Died: 19 Oct 2014
Birthplace: Glasgow
Signed: April 1954; 1 Dec 1954 (full)
Left: 8 Nov 1957 (to Airdrie)
Position: Forward
Debut: Celtic 2-0 Raith Rovers, League, 1 Oct 1955
Internationals: none

Biog

Jim Sharkey was a talented ball playing forward who was signed by Celtic from ‘League Hearts’ on provisional forms in April 1954. Jim Sharkey attended the Sacred Heart primary school in Bridgeton, the school where Brother Walfrid was based when he first established the Poor Children’s Dinner Tables.

Initially farmed out to Rutherglen Glencairn he returned to Parkhead and made his first team competitive debut in a 2-0 league victory at Raith Rovers on 1st October 1955 when he helped himself to a debut goal.

Although not blessed with great pace Sharkey had a great touch and could ease past opponents thanks to his excellent footwork. He scored in the second minute for Celtic in the 1956 Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Clyde, with one newspaper headline the following day memorably titled: ‘Sharkey Fishes Celtic out of the Clyde‘.

He was not named in the team which lost in the final to Hearts after he was reported to have been drinking sherry in the company of Charlie Tully while at Seamill in the build-up to the game. Jim was furious at the decision and made sure that chairman Bob Kelly and the board knew his feelings:

“We went to Ferrari’s after the game. I don’t drink a lot but I was really upset for being dropped. That night I did have one or two too many so I thought I’d tell the manager what I thought about it. I wasn’t very happy. I walked up to the top table and told Mr Kelly and Mr McGrory that I would have played for their team for nothing but that now they could stick it up their bum, Mr Kelly in particular. And I walked away.” (from “Talking with Celtic”).

He apologised afterwards a few days later, and we’re sure that all football men have heard far worse from players who have had a few drinks.

However, after that episode he was picked little for the First XI, but managed to sign off on a high in a 3-2 victory over Rangers in the league in September 1957. He had said that he had given up his day job as a butcher for the 1956/57 season but this was to no avail. Part of the problem might also just have been bad management (Celtic were a shambles at board & team coaching levels).

Jim Sharkey was sold to Airdrie in November 1957 – he had played 27 times for the Bhoys and scored eight goals. At Airdrie, Jim Sharkey was an inspirational figure and his performance inspired the Lanarkshire side to some great results. They even finished above Celtic in the league in season 1958/59.

However he moved on to Raith Rovers in May 1961 after being accused of going easy against Celtic in a Scottish Cup semi-final defeat. Celtic had won 4-0 and it was hardly all his fault. One report states that Jim Sharkey had at one point hit a good shot which Haffey had to dive across goal to save, so hardly indicating that he was easy on Celtic in the match.

He took Bertie Auld’s advice and moved to play on for 10 years in non-league football in England, including a stint at Cambridge Utd. After football he later moved on and was working as a porter at Pembroke College (Cambridge University) even into the early 1990s.

He passed away in Oct 2014, and as a mark of tribute, the Celtic team wore black armbands in honour of him in the match on 26 Oct 2014.

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

none

Pictures

• Player Pics

Books

Evening Times

Jim Sharkey was Guest Writer for the Evening Times on 26th December, 1958, when he was an Airdrie player. Airdrie were doing well at that point with Sharkey in the team. He had this to say:

“Although I didn’t know it the happiest moment of my football life arrived in November last year, when I was transferred from Celtic to Airdrie.”

“I was not particularly keen to leave Celtic who are, after all, one of the biggest clubs in the land. Today I can truthfully say I have had few regrets.”

“Airdrie are a wee club. From the directors down, we are all pals. There are no jealousies or “cliques””.

“Mind you I was no blue-eyed boy with Airdrie supporters at first, and perhaps they were not unjustified in giving me the cold shoulder as I was not playing particularly well.”

“Now I have been accepted by the Airdrie fans and I am feeling on top of the world.”

“But if I may be critical for a moment, we feel we have been let down a trifle by the Airdrie public this season. Although we have done our best on the field and are getting results, the crowds have not rallied round. I think we deserve better than an attendance of 5000, the figure at our last two home games.”

“It is a great consolation to know that I am a reasonably successful player with Airdrie, for the fact that I failed to make the grade with Celtic was a bitter blow for me.”

“Maybe I became a senior too soon . With the exception of games for my R.A.F. unit side, my football experience before I was signed by Celtic in the season 1954-1955 was six weeks with League Hearts, the Glasgow Juvenile club, and one week with the Junior Rutherglen Glencairn.”

“Celtic did not call me up until the following season and I quickly made the first team.”

“Although I had been playing inside forward with the Reserve team, Celtic pitched me in as leader of their first team attack – rather a compliment with players like John McPhail and Neil Mochan available.”

“Although I made 26 appearances in that first season in spite of the fact that I was quite seriously injured in a Scottish Cup tie with Morton at Greenock and was sidelined for two months.”

“A clearance by the Morton goalkeeper hit me full in the face. I was unconscious for the rest of the game, I had two teeth knocked out and two stitches put in my nose. I am still slightly marked as a result of the accident.”

“I recovered sufficiently to help Celtic beat Clyde in the semi-final. I scored a first minute goal and thought I’d done quite well. But for the final with Hearts I was dropped along with Jimmy Walsh, now of Leicester City.”

“I was upset but determined to fight my way back. At the start of season 56-57 I gave up my everyday job as a butcher to become full time.”

“But I never fitted in. I think I tried too hard to justify the fact that I was a Celtic player.”

A forthright and calm assessment by a man prepared to speak out and speak his mind. Jim during his time with Airdrie was a green keeper. He was known as ‘the Tully of Airdrie’ and was one of the main reasons for their second position in the League at Christmas ’58.

After a period with St Mirren, Jim became a porter at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Tribute to former Celt Jim Sharkey

http://www.celticfc.net/news/6945
By: Newsroom Staff on 26 Oct, 2014 11:01

THE Celtic players will wear black armbands at today’s match against Kilmarnock in memory of former Celt, Jim Sharkey, who recently passed away at the age of 80.

Jim signed for Celtic in 1954 and made his debut a year later, on October 1, 1955, in a league game at home against Raith Rovers. And he marked his first appearance for the Hoops with a goal in the 2-0 victory.

He would go on to make a total of 27 appearances for the club, scoring eight goals before leaving in 1957 for Airdrie.

The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Celtic are with Jim Sharkey’s family and friends at this sad time.

Jim Sharkey: Footballer whose potential remained unfulfilled despite his wiry elegance, his ability and his glorious imagination

Ivan Ponting

Friday 07 November 2014

The Independent Newspaper

Jim Sharkey was a footballer of flair and audacity, and if his career had panned out differently he might have been a Celtic hero of the ages.

Sadly, he never fully realised his vast potential and bowed out of Parkhead at the regrettably premature age of 23.

The elegant yet wirily resilient Glaswegian was a centre-forward or inside man blessed with sumptuous ability on the ball, his game a heady cocktail of slick skills, immaculate balance and glorious imagination. Though not pacy, he was a subtle dribbler, artistic passer and explosive shooter, and after joining the Bhoys in 1954 from Rutherglen Glencairn, he scored on his senior debut in a home encounter with Raith Rovers in October 1955, also setting up another goal for Matt McVittie with an extravagant dummy.

There was even better to come that Boxing Day, when Sharkey sparkled and struck twice in a 5-3 Glasgow Cup final replay victory over Rangers at Hampden Park, and fully-fledged stardom was beckoning.

But then the plot began to go awry. In the following February he was so seriously hurt by a ball blasted into his face at Morton that he suffered black-outs for several months. He continued to play, though, only to be dropped from the team for the 1956 Scottish Cup final against Heart of Midlothian for an alleged misdemeanour involving sherry and, despite making an apology to the club, his star was suddenly in the descent.

Duly in November 1957, having scored eight goals in his 27 League and cup appearances, Sharkey was transferred to top-tier rivals Airdrie, where he was dubbed “The Tully of Broomfield”, a complimentary reference to his similarity in style to Celtic’s revered Charlie Tully. For four years he prospered with the Waysiders, inspiring them briefly to reach second place in the table in October 1958, only to leave in the spring of 1961 after being accused, ludicrously according to many contemporary observers, of not trying in a Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic.

Next he joined Raith but his impetus was dealt a shattering blow when he suffered a broken ankle, with nobody near him, against St Mirren at Love Street in January 1962.

Freed at the end of the season, thereafter he featured briefly for the Northern Irish club Portadown, before serving a succession of English non-League sides including Cambridge United, Wisbech Town, Corby Town, Bury Town, Newmarket Town and Girton United, for whom he was player-manager.

Later he worked as a porter at Pembroke College, Cambridge, though it was back at Parkhead, where he was once poised so tantalisingly on the threshold of success, that Jim Sharkey will be remembered most vividly.

James Sharkey, footballer; born Glasgow 12 February 1934; played for Celtic 1954-57, Airdrie 1957-61, St Mirren 1961-62, Portadown 1962; died 19 October 2014.

Jim Sharkey, 1934-2014

https://web.archive.org/web/20141104063602/http://www.cambridgefansunited.org/jim.html
100 Years of Coconuts and Cambridge Fans United were saddened to hear of the death on Sunday, 19 October 2014 of Jim Sharkey, who played for Cambridge United for a short time in the 1960s but made a huge impact on the club and its community.

Jim was born in Glasgow on 12 February 1934. He signed for Celtic at the age of 20 and made his competitive first-team debut for the Bhoys at Raith Rovers in October 1955, helping himself to a goal. He went on to make 25 appearances and score eight goals before transferring to Airdrie in November 1957. His time at Parkhead had marked Jim out as a ball-playing inside forward of great skill, with a wonderful touch and perfect ball control – his nickname of Snake Hips testified to his ability to ghost past opponents.

His opportunities at Celtic had been limited following the 1956 Scottish Cup final against Hearts, for which he was dropped after reports that he had been drinking sherry before the game. Jim, never a big drinker, took the decision badly and, this time really fortified by strong drink, told the Celtic management he would have played for the team for nothing but they could now ‘stick it up their bum’. He apologised a few days later but his Celtic career was doomed.

At Airdrie, Jim let his skill do the talking and inspired the team to some wonderful performances, but moved on to Raith in May 1961 after being accused of going easy against Celtic in a Cup semi-final.

Jim had done his National Service at RAF Stradishall – and played for Haverhill Rovers – before signing for Celtic, and he returned to East Anglia when Alan Moore signed him for Cambridge United in 1962. At the Abbey Stadium, where he joined fellow Scots and former teammates Matt McVittie and Billy Welsh, he was soon earning rave reviews from the Cambridge Daily News. The paper praised a ‘staggering exhibition of footballing arts and crafts’, called him ‘the arch-schemer, distributing the ball with uncanny accuracy’ and described his ‘shrewd ball distribution and entertaining cheekiness in eluding challenges with deceptive body swerves and feints’.

Known as Gentleman Jim, he was also noted for his sense of humour and dapper appearance, fooling teammates into believing he was a new director when he first appeared at the Abbey in his trademark bowler hat and carrying a rolled umbrella. Stories abound of him taking the pitch in the bowler, and he once appeared in a benefit match encased in a large overcoat.

Jim only stayed at United for one season, but what a season it was. The 1962/63 campaign saw neighbours Cambridge City take the Southern League title with United a mere three points behind in second place, and Jim played a major role in that success. His place in the pantheon of U’s legends was assured by the time he signed for Wisbech Town late in the season. He had played 41 times and scored seven goals for United.

He stayed in Cambridge, going on to play for Corby Town, Bury Town, Newmarket Town, Sawston United and Girton. He worked for many years at Pembroke College and his imposing, upright figure was a common sight in Trumpington Street.

Seldom has a player had such an impression on a team in a short space of time as Jim Sharkey had on Cambridge United.

The funeral will be held at Cambridge City Crematorium, East Chapel, on Monday, November 3 at 10am. Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to Alzheimers Research UK and Cancer Research UK c/o Weyman Funeral Services, 26 Abbey Walk, Cambridge CB1 2QJ.

Your Memories
Colin Proctor –
One great story, doing National Service in 1960 and most of my mates being 1st division fans, was always rubbed up the wrong way supporting a non league team.
Seeing at that time, we were the best in the country and never give up on how good we were, I arranged for 30 of us to go to Guilford, as thats who we were playing in the Southern League.
Seeing the home team arrive, Gentleman Jim Sharkey got off the coach in his best suit, bowler hat and umbrella.
Although we only won the game 1-0, we pissed all over them and Jim was MOM. By the way, Jim had very bad feet and some times played in ordinary walking boots.
My army friends could not understand how CU were stuck in non league.
After that game, I was 10 feet tall, thanks too our Jim.
RIP Jim, a true friend.
Col

Coachman
I used to play snooker with Jim back in the late 80’s. It was always for a fiver a game, and with Jim being a decent player, he would give all comers a few points lead. Needless to say he won most games, taking plenty of fivers off me. I saw Jim recently on the guided bus and reminded him of our snooker sessions. Whilst he probably didn’t remember me, he did recall the snooker, and as he got off my bus he gave me a pound for “half a lager”…….a true Scot, and a really lovely man. R.I.P Jim Sharkey

Habbinite
RIP Jim. He was a porter at Pembroke College in the early 1990s when I was there… a true gentleman and he often used to talk to me about his playing days as he knew I had come up to University here to watch the mighty U’s…

All Content on this Website remains the property and copyright of Cambridge Fans United and may not be reproduced or used without written permission. Thanks are given to CUFC who have kindly given their permission to use their images and photographs on this site.
Cambridge Fans United are pleased to have CambridgeMarketing as their marketing partner