Sam English - The forgotten tragedy

Today is the 71st anniversary of one of the most dramatic not to say tragic events ever in the history of the Scottish game. I refer of course to the Old Firm league match at Ibrox back in 1931 where John Thomson, Celtic's goalkeeper lost his life.

Much has been written about this incident, yet from a Rangers point of view little is known about the other central character in this drama, our centre forward Sam English. This fact was brought home to me yet again after the recent home match v Dundee, when the official Club programme gave us what can only be termed as a derisory look at the man.

Sam English hailed from Coleraine, but his family had moved to Scotland when Sam was young. He made his name as a centre forward with junior club Yoker Athletic where in just three seasons (28/29, 29/30, 30/31) he scored a phenomenal 293 goals.

In his first season at Ibrox he was to go on and break all the clubs scoring records 56 goals all told in just 48 games, this included a Club record of 44 league goals in one season. But his career was to remain overshadowed by the Thomson incident.

"On September 5th 1931, an undefeated Celtic side came to Ibrox to challenge the defending champions before 80,000 people. Five minutes into the second half Rangers broke away. Jimmy Fleming sent Sam English clear, and as the centre-forward settled himself for a shot from around ten yards, John Thomson the brilliant young Celtic goalkeeper dived at his feet. English injured, limped out of the collision. The ball went wide, Thomson lay still.

English, realising that Thomson was badly hurt, signalled frantically to the sidelines. Behind the goal the Rangers fans, not knowing the seriousness of this clash started to chant. David Meiklejohn, their captain and a forbidding figure, ran behind the goal and silenced them. Thomson, his head swathed in bandages, was stretchered off suffering from a depressed fracture of the skull. He was taken to the Victoria Infirmary where, after unavailing surgery, he died at 9:25pm.

Scottish football was stupefied, Thomson was 23 years old, admired throughout the country, regardless of club allegiances, as a goalkeeper peerless. He was agile and graceful, and courageous beyond belief. In February 1930, he had suffered a fractured jaw at Airdrie in making just such a save.

Twenty thousand people packed Queen Street and Queen Street station in Glasgow as his coffin was on its way to Cardenden, his native village in Fife. Every Celtic player made the journey. Every club in the league, and many others, was represented.

The death of John Thomson touched everyone in the nation in a manner previously unknown and which has perhaps only been equalled by more contemporary tragedies - in a Scottish context - Jock Stein and Davie Cooper.

In 1931 the tragedy had a profound long-term effect on the career of Rangers player Sam English. In truth the cumulative effect of the events of September 5th 1931, and of the unnecessary and wholly irresponsible comment of Celtic manager Willie Maley at the subsequent hearing - "I HOPE it was an accident" - haunted English for the rest of his life, even though he was fully exonerated of any blame, both by enquiry and by those flickering black and white film images of the incident which clearly illustrate that it was the unfortunate Thomson's own forward momentum which caused his head to strike the knee of the Rangers forward"

So that's it. A tragedy unfolds, we write about it and remember it every ten years or so when the anniversary is remembered in decades, and then put it back to a recess in the mind? Well I don't think that is the way it should be. It is time to once and for all nail a few myths about what happened all these years ago.

For instance, Celtic fans always try to claim some imagined moral highground (surprise, surprise) over the fact that Davie Meiklejohn had to hush the Rangers fans up, as the realisation dawned among the players that this was no run of the mill injury.

Rangers fans were in the wrong, but they acted in exactly the same manner as every other set of football fans the world over. And how is this for irony. Four years ago last March a Rangers player, Erik Bo Anderson, was stretchered off at Celtic Park in a Scottish Cup quarter final tie with a fractured skull - the exact same injury as John Thomson - to the same cacophony of boos, cat-calls and jeering, which happened at Ibrox 66 years previously. Only this time there was a twist. Coins and objects were also thrown at the stricken Ranger.

As I've said before. There will be snowballs in hell before we ever need to take lessons in morality from that shower.

Next up we have the funeral. Every Celtic player made the journey to Cardenden, that much is true. What the papers won't tell us and what our pals from across the city like to keep hidden is that Celtic manager Willie Maley and the other Celtic minded bigots, refused to enter the Church for their fellow Celt's funeral service.

It says everything about this excuse for a sporting organisation that they continually make a virtue out of signing and playing Protestants. Yet here they were at the most tragic event in their history and the Celtic management wouldn't recognise, couldn't bear to enter a Protestant house of worship. Sums them up more than I ever could.

As for Maley's comments at the enquiry? After his behaviour at the funeral, it should not come as a surprise, that he reacted in the manner that he did. You are left with the disturbing thought that the fact that Sam English was a Northern Irish Protestant, was innermost in Maley's thoughts when he made that most poisonous and bitter statement. It was a truly astonishing and disgraceful end to the tragedy.

As I've said earlier, there seems to be a dearth of knowledge about Sam English. Even people phoning up Northern Ireland for information, don't seem to have come up with anything which could be termed as extensive.

Which is a shame. Any time I ask some of the old timers of my acquaintance about Sam English, they speak in hushed tones and give a rueful shake of the head as if to acknowledge that a part of him died that dreadful day also.

For the record here are some of Sam English's career statistics.

For Yoker Athletic - Three seasons 1928/29, 29/30, 30/31 - 293 goals.

For Rangers

1931/32

League 35 games: 44 goals

Scottish Cup 7 games: 9 goals

Glasgow Cup 4 games: 1 goal

Charity Cup 2 games: 2 goals

Total 48 games: 56 goals.

32/33

League 25 games: 10 goals

Scottish Cup 5 games: 1 goal

Glasgow Cup 3 games: 4 goals

Friendlies 6 games: 4 goals

Total 39 games: 20 goals

Combined Total Performances 87

Combined Total Goals 76

The Govanhill Gub