noted_players

Player with most appearances: Martin Feeney (356)1950-1960.

Player scoring most goals: James Callaghan (211) 1950-1953

Players stepped up:

George Kinnell (Aberdeen, Stoke, Sunderland)                                      John Lunn (Dunfermline player & Scottish Cup
In the sixties, when George Kinnell wasn't                                               Winner 1961-1973 ),
impressing fans much after his transfer from
Aberdeen:                                                                                                               James Philp (East Fife),
We paid twenty grand for Kinnell,
For Kinnell, for Kinnell, for Kinnell...

John Lunn
(Dunfermline player & Scottish Cup Winner 1961-1973 ),

Willie Cunningham (Dunfermline, Preston North End,                               Willie Callaghan (Dunfermline & Scottish
Airdrie,Southport)                                                                                       League)

Born in Fife on 22 February 1925, tough tackling full back
William Curruthers Cunningham arrived at Deepdale from
Airdrie for a £5,000 fee on 28th June 1949, after 93
appearances and 9 goals for the Scottish club.

Although only 5ft 6in tall, Cunningham had begun his career
as a centre half with Dunfermline, combining part-time football
with a job down the local mines.

He made his North End debut against Grimsby Town at
Deepdale on 24th August 1949 and made his four hundredth
league appearance in a goalless draw against Bolton Wanderers
on April 18th 1961, the last of the 1954 Cup Final team still
playing for the club.

Willie was capped eight times for his native Scotland - including
captaining the side during the 1954 World Cup finals.

On leaving Preston in 1963 he had a brief spell as player/manager
at Southport before returning to Deepdale as Reserve Team trainer.

Apps - Goals
1946 Dunfermline 3 - 0
1946-49 Airdrie 93 - 9
1949-63 Preston N E 487 - 3
1963-65 Southport 12 - 0

Jim Baxter the most famous player to wear
"The Primrose":
(Raith Rovers, Glasgow Rangers,
Sunderland, Nottingham Forest, Scotland)

Jim also played for "The Rest of World" v England in
1963, alongside the greats of that era;
Lev Yashin(U.S.S.R.), Djalma Santos(Brazil),
Raymond Kopa (France), Eusebio (Portugal),
Uwe Seeler (West Germany), Luis Eyzaguirre (Chile), Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (West Germany), Svatopluk Pluskal, Jan Popluhar, Josef Masopust (Czechoslovakia), Denis Law (Scotland), Francisco GENTO Lopez (Spain), Ferenc PUSKAS (Spain), ALFREDO DI STEFANO Laulhe (Spain), and Edson Arantes Nascimento PELE (Brazil)

Jim Baxter: A profile (Courtesy of the BBC)

Jim Baxter was born in the Fife mining village of Hill O'Beath on 29 September 1939. Having begun work down the mines while playing junior football with local side, Crossgates Primrose, Baxter continued his day job after signing part-time for Raith Rovers in 1957. He soon signed on full-time at Starks Park and picked up international recognition for the first time when he was selected for Scotland under-21s against Wales in 1958. A move to Rangers materialised in June 1960 for a fee of £17,500 and he made his competitive debut for the club against Partick Thistle in the League Cup on 13 August that year. Old Firm dominance His first league match also came against Thistle and his first goal arrived in a 3-1 win over Clyde on 5 November. Baxter's Rangers career was laden with trophies, coming as it did in the years prior to Celtic's nine-year dominance of the Scottish First Division. In the five years he played in his first spell at Ibrox, he won three championship medals (1961, 1963 and 1964), three Scottish Cup medals (1962, 1963 and 1964) and four League Cup winners' medals (1960, 1961, 1963 and 1964). That first year saw Baxter collect a League Cup winners' medal by the end of October as Rangers beat Kilmarnock 2-0 in the final. They also wrapped up the league title and reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup only to lose out to Fiorentina in the final. Those five years were also notable for the remarkable record Rangers enjoyed against fierce rivals Celtic. Although Baxter's first involvement in an Old Firm
clash on 20 August 1960 ended in a 3-2 defeat,
he tasted defeat only once more in 17 games
against Celtic. Baxter played 254 times for
Rangers

'Slim Jim', as he was known, won the first of 34
full international caps in the months following
his move to Rangers. His debut came in a
5-2 victory over Northern Ireland on 9 November
in the British International Championship. Some of
Baxter's finest moments came in a Scotland jersey and,
fittingly, he is best remembered for performances against the
Auld Enemy at Wembley. In 1963, Baxter inspired 10-man Scotland to a 2-1 victory over the English, scoring both goals himself after Eric Caldow had broken his leg.
But it is the 1967 match when Scotland became world champions' for a day that sticks out in the memories of any Scots who have seen the pictures. Scotland won 3-2 that day against the World Cup winners and Baxter
ran the show, mocking the English team with all manner of trickery. It was typical of the man, who many considered
arrogant, but who could not have been the same player if his cheek had been curtailed. Early retirement In April 1965,
Baxter made his final appearance for Rangers in that period before moving to Sunderland for £72,000. He spent 18 months at Roker Park but never quite recaptured the form he had shown at Ibrox. Baxter had never been the best trainer in the world and, like fellow genius George Best, he was often to be seen with a drink in one hand and a lady on the other. A move to Nottingham Forest in December of 1967 was less successful yet and 18 months later he found himself back at Ibrox. But he was not the player that had left Glasgow four years previously and with the arrival of new manager Willie Waddell, he knew his days were numbered. He played his last game in the light blue of Rangers in December 1969 in a 3-2 win over Aberdeen, retiring soon after. That brought to a close a Rangers career encompassing 254 games and 24 goals. Baxter ran his own pub for some time, but his love of the good life eventually saw that collapse. His drinking habits finally led to two life-saving liver transplants in the mid-90s, after which he pledged to stop drinking. He was diagnosed as having cancer of the pancreas at the beginning of February and died on Saturday 14 April at home in Glasgow.
The Tartan Army unsuccessfully attempted to get the new Wembley footbridge named after him just to annoy the English, with many Scots flooding a poll held by radio station Five Live.

A Working Class Hero? Is Jim Baxter To Me!

"Go on grand-dad tell us, Tell of us of the day? When Scotland with Jim Baxter at his best Beat the England team away"
"Well if memory serves me right My bonnie wee lad, the story go's like this Scotland made the trip to Wemberly in '67' To play the champs of '66'"
"Were England unbeatable grand-dad"? "Unbeatable? Tis hard to say But Scotland led by Baxter Sure made them pay that day
With Jules Rimet stood watching Jim Baxter was our conductor in dark blue Sent pinpoint passes like greased lightning
Almost thirty, forty yards, it's true

"What did England do grand-dad, Did they try to stop him playing"? "Aye my bonnie wee lad, they did try that But Baxter? He out played them
Grown men were seen to cry the tears For a nation once more proud As Baxter and his Scottish peers Brought cheers that echoed loud
Jim Baxter sat upon the ball In the middle of the park Then he'd start the England nightmare off again With a taunt, a feign, a pass
They tried hard to get the ball off him My, how those English boys did try But Baxter tantalized and sucked them in
Then nonchalantly knocked it wide

That game you boys play in the street Keepie uppie... is it called?
Jim Baxter played that in front of ninety thousand fans,
Right along the Wemberly touchline The England team were
overawed
A young man in his prime he was Possessed with ball at feet
When England saw him gliding o'er the green Yon blonde
cap'n called "retreat"

Baxter walked about the pitch A God amongst mere men He'd beat one man,
then turn around Then beat that man again"
"The scoreline! Tell us granddad How did it end up"? "Son, the result? It did nae mean
a thing When you drank the heavenly elixir From Jim Baxter's dark blue cup

When this game is often talked about You'll hear praise as old one's sing it
What a match! A terrific victory But how the hell did Scotland win it?
The other twenty one? Are sadly part of history son
T'was Jim Baxter in a dark blue shirt.....
finest ninety minutes"!

© kjp raymond 2006

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