Jimmy McGrory
(James Edward McGrory)Thumb
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Garngad, ScotlandPosition
Centre-Forward
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James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic, Clydebank and Scotland as a forward. He later managed Kilmarnock and Celtic.
McGrory is the all-time leading goalscorer in top-flight British football, with a total of 550 goals in 547 competitive first-team games at club and international level.
A legendary figure within Celtic's history, he played for the club for 15 years between 1922 and 1937 (aside from the majority of the 1923–24 season wich was spent on loan at fellow Division One side Clydebank), and is Celtic's top scorer of all time with 522 goals from 501 games and holds their record for the most goals in a season, with 62 goals from 46 games in the 1927–28 season. He has also notched up a British top-flight record of 55 hat-tricks, 48 coming in Scottish Football League games and seven from Scottish Cup ties. Some argue that he scored 56, as he hit eight goals in a Scottish League game against Dunfermline Athletic on 14 January 1928, a British top-flight record.
After a spell managing Kilmarnock from December 1937 to July 1945, he became Celtic manager, where he remained for just under 20 years, until March 1965 when he was succeeded by Jock Stein.
Although only 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) tall, McGrory was renowned for his prowess and ability for headers. His trademark was an almost horizontal bullet header, which he used regularly in scoring, and which earned him the nicknames "the Human Torpedo" and "the Mermaid".
McGrory was born at Millburn Street in the Garngad neighbourhood of Glasgow. He was the son of Henry McGrory and Catherine Coll, both of whom were Irish Catholic immigrants from Ulster. Henry and Catherine had been married at Saint Baithin's Church (known locally as 'the Chapel') in St Johnston, a village in The Laggan district in the east of County Donegal, before emigrating to Scotland. Catherine was from the townland of Cavanacaw and Henry was from the townland of Tullyowen, both in St Johnston, where Jimmy's elder brother was born before the family left Ireland. They lived in Glasgow's East End on his father's wages as a gasworks labourer.
McGrory gained a total of seven caps for the Scottish national team, scoring six goals. In the mid and late 1920s he was generally overlooked, as were Dave Halliday and Hughie Ferguson, in favour of Hughie Gallacher who played 18 times in that period, scoring 24 goals in 17 victories and one draw. McGrory's full international debut was at Firhill in 1928 against Ireland when Gallacher was on a two-month suspension; Scotland lost 1–0 to an opponent Gallacher usually scored freely against. McGrory became something of a scapegoat, waiting over three years for his full international recall.
McGrory's six other caps were in the 1930s when Gallacher was unavailable due to a ban affecting non-English players playing for English clubs (Gallacher had been at the centre of this club-versus-country dispute when, under pressure from Newcastle United directors in April 1930, he played for them against Arsenal rather than for Scotland against England – Arsenal felt especially aggrieved since they had released Alex James and David Jack to play in the international at Wembley). In these six games, McGrory scored six goals, but despite this strike rate he was never given an extended run in the team; his final appearance, the only one in which he did not score aside from his debut, was also against Ireland and resulted in defeat, this time at his home club ground Celtic Park. The press were critical of the Scottish players individually and collectively, and McGrory was one of five in the Scotland team who were not selected for international duty again.
McGrory received his first calling to play for the Scottish Football League XI on 27 October 1926 to play against the Irish League XI at Tynecastle Park, scoring once in a 5–2 win. He then featured in the match with the English League XI at Filbert Street on 19 March 1927, and scored one goal in a 2–2 draw. He scored twice in a 6–2 defeat against the same opposition at Ibrox Park on 10 March 1928. McGrory played in six Inter-League matches in all, scoring six times.
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