Jimmy McMenemy

Jimmy McMenemy was one of the very early greats to play for Celtic Football Club, having a starring role in two legendary sides – the six-in-a-row squad of 1905-10 and the four-in-a-row team of 1914-17.

He spent 18 years with the club, making 516 appearances and scoring an impressive 164 goals.

He was also a creative lynchpin in the side, and it was his skill on the ball, his ability to stay calm and collected, and his organisational prowess which earned him the nickname, ‘Napoleon’.

Those traits would be in evidence later in his career when he returned to Celtic Park as the club’s trainer, helping to orchestrate further success for Celtic in the 1930s.

“Keep the heid”
Jimmy’s trademark calming cry when games got heated.

While Jimmy Quinn would be the man making the headlines with his goalscoring exploits, he would be the first to acknowledge the array of talent alongside him which helped Celtic become the dominant force in Scottish football over the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Jimmy McMenemy was one of those talents – one of the very best – and his importance to the team was never under-estimated by his manager, his team-mates or his fellow Celtic supporters, who appreciated just what he did for the Celtic cause.

PRELUDE TO PARADISE
Jimmy McMenemy had somewhat of a chequered career prior to joining Celtic but rarely straying far from Paradise in doing so. As an 18-year-old he was with Rutherglen Young Celtic Juveniles in 1898 before joining another Juvenile side, Cambuslang Bluebell the following year. He also had a trial with Dundee that year before signing for Cambuslang Hibernian in 1900 and Rutherglen Glencairn the following year. He had trials for Everton and on April 28, 1902 he played for them in a 1-1 draw against Celtic in the East End of Glasgow. However, that wasn’t his first Celtic involvement as he played a trial game in a friendly against Motherwell on August 16, 1900 and then, just 12 days before playing for Everton against Celtic, he played for the Bhoys in a 0-0 draw with Blackburn Rovers. The trials and tribulations stopped on June 6, 1902 when he signed for Celtic.

DEBUT BHOY
It was on September 29, 1902 that Jimmy McMenemy made the first of his 516 appearances for Celtic, pulling on the green and white stripes to face Hearts at Celtic Park in a league match. The game finished in a 2-2 draw, with Johnny Campbell and Peter Somers scoring the goals for the Celts. It wouldn’t be too long before McMenemy scored his first goal for the club, netting in a 3-0 victory over Port Glasgow Athletic towards the end of November. He scored one more goal that season, against the same opponents in the corresponding away fixture. That match finished 1-1. The following season, McMenemy became a regular in the starting XI, and that would remain the case for the next 18 years.

HIGHLIGHTS
Within a couple of years of Jimmy McMenemy joining Celtic, the club embarked on a sustained period of dominance in Scottish football, and the man who would garner praise from all quarters, along with the nickname ‘Napoleon’, was central to that success. He was Celtic’s ‘general’, orchestrating the play and providing a creative spark that other teams found impossible to extinguish. He scored 164 goals for the club, a formidable total in itself, although that was only part of his contribution, and Jimmy Quinn’s phenomenal goals tally of 216 owes much to Napoleon McMenemy.

He was Celtic’s ‘general’, orchestrating the play and providing a creative spark that other teams found impossible to extinguish.

The first of six consecutive league titles was delivered in 1905, although the destination of the title was only decided by a play-off between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden after both sides had finished level on points at the end of the season. Celtic won the game 2-1, with McMenemy scoring one of the goals, and the team were on the road to six-in-a-row.

There were 11 league titles for McMenemy, with a solitary title in 1919 coming after the six-in-a-row and four-in-a-row successes. There were also six Scottish Cup triumphs with the Hoops, the first of which came in 1904 and the last some 10 years later, although he would later add another Scottish Cup winner’s medal when he played in the Partick Thistle side that lifted the trophy with a victory over Rangers in the 1921 final.

BOWING OUT
In season 1919/20, Jimmy McMenemy had played in every game but one up until mid-February and didn’t return until April when the Hoops played 11 games in 28 days, including a run of six games in 11 days. His final game came in the midst of all that when St Mirren visited on April 22, 1920. The visitors took the lead through Denis Lawson in the fifth minute with their keeper, Willie O’Hagan, playing brilliantly. However, Tommy McInally and then Willie McStay from the spot gave Celtic a 2-1 lead at the break before St Mirren equalised through James Thomson with five minutes to go. The 10,000 fans who saw that game at Celtic Park weren’t to know that it would be the last time they’d see McMenemy in the Hoops. He left the club in June that year, moving across the city to join Partick Thistle, playing with them for a further two years before he moved into coaching at Firhill.

FROM STRIPES TO HOOPS
Celtic played their first ever game on May 28, 1888, beating Rangers 5-2, with Neilly McCallum having the distinction of scoring the first ever goal for the club. On that day, the team wore white shirts with a green collar, and a Celtic cross in red and green on the left breast. The kits were presented to the club by Penman Bros, a firm of drapers and clothiers based at Bridgeton Cross. They remained the club’s colours until the 1889/90 season, when they started wearing green and white striped shirts, and the first major trophy successes for the club came in those colours – the Scottish Cup in 1892 and the league title a year later.

Celtic continued with the green and white stripes until 1903 when they switched to the more familiar Hoops, while retaining the same club colours. It was at the beginning of the 1903/04 season, on August 15, that Celtic first wore their new kit design in a competitive match. Partick Thistle were the visitors to Paradise, and the Hoops won the match 2-1, with Jimmy McMenemy scoring what proved to be the winner after his friend and team-mate, Alec Bennett had scored Celtic’s first goal.

516 CELTIC CAREER APPEARANCES
League: 457, Scottish Cup: 59

164 CELTIC CAREER GOALS
League: 141, Scottish Cup: 23

17 CELTIC CAREER MAJOR HONOURS
League titles: 11,  Scottish Cups: 6