Whilst Sir Alex Ferguson was guiding Manchester United towards further Premiership glory last Saturday with a win over Everton, one of the team-mates from his very first game in senior football was back playing where it all began for the Old Trafford boss.
Full-back Willie McBride was in the Queen’s Park side when a then 16-year-old Ferguson made his goalscoring debut away to Stranraer in a 2-1 defeat on 15th November, 1958 and he jetted into Hampden at the weekend from his Canadian home to take part in a six-a-side match against an old boys select from Albion Rovers.
McBride is now well into his seventies however, he returned to Glasgow on a week’s holiday to don Spiders’ colours once more in the one-off event arranged by the Queen’s Park association for their former players, The Queensparkers.
Despite the Coatbridge men winning 5-2 with their Manager, the youthful 46-year-old first team Manager Paul Martin, scoring one of their goals in front of disbelieving Cliftonhill players, the Queen’s Park old boys enjoyed their day and they have also enjoyed the growing membership list of their organisation which contains some fairly famous names.
Club President, Alan Hutchison, said: “We had some 20 former players taking part in our over-40's game and it was great to see them turn out in black and white hoops again.
“Willie’s wife gave him the return plane tickets as a birthday present and he played the opening half of the game against the Rovers. He then stayed on to watch the first teams of both clubs play in the afternoon and I am sure he enjoyed our injury time winner in that game as well.”
McBride, and ironically Martin, are just two of over 100 former Queen’s Park players who have joined The Queensparkers since it was launched during Jim Hastie’s spell as President of the club from 2008 to 2010.
The amateur club changed its constitution to allow a player who had played professionally to play for Queen’s Park over ten years ago and through time, the club started thinking about former players who had lost touch with the club, including those who had careers that went in the different direction of amateur to professional.
The outcome of these deliberations was The Queensparkers, a vehicle to encourage not only former players but coaches, medical and physiotherapy assistants and kit-men to re-establish friendships with each other and become associate members of the club.
Hastie advised: “The aim was to promote better links and communication between the club and it is certainly going along in that direction. We had over 70 Queensparkers and their guests for the match with Albion Rovers which was wonderful and more than we had hoped for when we started off.”
The six-a-side match is just one of the events the club runs to bring their network together with Hastie adding: “We look to run four events per season and try to centre these activities around a first team game or training session. Playing does not suit everyone as we have a wide range of ages to cater for.
“We have organised a tour of Hampden, a visit to Lesser Hampden which has an artificial surface that many Queensparkers will not recognise, talks from previous coaches and other activities including a visit to The Scottish Football Museum.”
As well as Sir Alex, other famous names associated with Queen’s Park have signed up. Honorary Life Member of The Scottish Football League, Lord Macfarlane of Bearsden KT, Malky MacKay Senior and Junior (the latter being the current Watford Manager), Scotland Under-21 Head Coach Billy Stark and former Hampden Head Coach, Harold Davis, are all members.
Recently passed actor Bill Murdoch, who played in goal for Queen’s Park after being released by Jock Stein at Celtic, was another noted name to have appeared on The Queensparkers' register. Murdoch appeared in Braveheart and A Shot at Glory as well as Taggart, a record six times, and Rab C Nesbitt, Hamish Macbeth as well as Monarch of the Glen.
Lord Macfarlane was delighted to talk about his links with the Hampden club saying: “I am a very keen member of The Queensparkers as my links with Queen’s Park go back to when I was still at school.
"I played for The Strollers in 1944 and 1945 and I have kept my letter from Jackie Gardner inviting me to the club from that time. It gave me the advice that I should perhaps stop playing rugby in the morning before playing football for Queen’s Park in the afternoon.
“We had a very good side with Walter Waddell and Billy McPhail in it. Walter’s brother was Willie Waddell of Rangers and, of course, Billy went on to play for Celtic, scoring a hat-trick in a League Cup Final.
"I played for both The Strollers and The Hampden XI however, I was only ever a reserve for the first team.”
Lord Macfarlane’s playing days unfortunately ended in 1945 when he suffered a broken neck whilst he was serving with the British Army in Palestine with the 85-year-old Lord saying: “I came home on board a Hospital Ship and spent more than a year in hospital and never rebuilt my football career after that. I do however, maintain a huge soft spot for Queen’s Park.”
That soft spot has seen the Play-Off hopes of Gardner Speirs’ side being discussed in the House of Lords with Lord Macfarlane happily taking on the role of keeping his peers up to date.
The Honorary Patron of the Hampden club said: “A number of people in Parliamentary circles are amazed when I tell them about an amateur club doing so well in The Scottish Football League. They think I am kidding them on especially when I add that the club owns Hampden Park.”
Lord Macfarlane added: “This season has followed the usual pattern at Queen’s where they start the season slowly because of the number of new players they have to bring in and then finish it strongly once all the players come together.
"They have done splendidly recently and I hope to watch them progress against Montrose next Saturday.”
The first President of The Queensparkers was an honour bestowed on another former Fergie team-mate, Peter Buchanan, a striker who banged in close to 160 goals in 250 games for Queen’s.
“Sir Alex Ferguson and I could both use our elbows!” joked 73-year-old Buchanan, who played for the Glasgow side from 1959 until 1970, continuing, “but I scored more goals than him and I share the top tally for a season of 33 goals in a Queen’s Park side.”
Buchanan went on to say: “The Queensparkers is a tremendous innovation and it has been great to see membership flourish over the past couple of years. We have over 100 members now and as well as Willie popping over from Canada last Saturday, we had two former players in from Australia as well.
“We have not set a target for membership or anything like that as it is a not for profit association. We know that there are hundreds of people with an association with Queen’s Park out there and would welcome as many of them as members that want to join. It is not just for players it is also available to backroom staff as well.
“The former Secretary of The Scottish Football Association, Ernie Walker, is also a member as it is something we offer former officials at the SFA as well.”
Buchanan added: “We have had a few events on match days and our average attendance for the lunch before kick off is 40 Queensparkers plus guests.
"Our days all tend to be different with a tour of the modernised Hampden being a favourite as was the talk by our former Head Coach Eddie Hunter.
“The six-a-side match was one for the over 40’s that still want to play football and we give them a chance to don the famous black and white hoops again. Jim Nicholson took charge of that one although we might need a new Manager after Albion Rovers won but to be fair, Ross Caven, who played for us for two decades, guested for them.”
Buchanan is not just a passive member of The Queensparkers as he attends every home and away match of Gardner Speirs’ first team saying: “We are doing well this season and hopefully, we can keep it going a bit longer and make the Play-Offs.”
Another regular attendee at Queen’s games over the past couple of seasons has been George Crooks. The 45-year-old was a winger with the Hampden side starting off in their Under-18 side in 1981 and ending his career on Boxing Day 1992 after being involved in 180 games and scoring 25 goals and he is an example of one of the former players enticed back to his old club by The Queensparkers.
Crooks said: “When you leave a club and stop playing, you tend to drift away from things through family and work commitments. It is difficult to re-integrate and The Queensparkers gives you a way back in and from there you can decide whether you remain involved as a supporter at games or other events.
“Last Saturday was great and I met some former team-mates including Joe McFadyen, who I had not seen in over 15 years. Everyone wants to hang on to their playing days and feel that their contribution to the club was important and this gives you the opportunity to do that.”
Meeting old friends has also helped former players place a value on what playing for Queen’s Park has given them with Crooks saying,: “The Queensparkers is non-ageist and it does not matter how old or how young you are. What matters is that you have been involved in football and at a time when the game is incredibly commercialised, The Queensparkers give you a feeling that you have contributed to the good of the game.”
It is no small contribution that Queen’s Park players and officials make as Crooks explained: “At the end of one season, we went on a football tour of America and came back on 18th May to be told that pre-season training was starting two weeks later on 2nd June.
"We trained three nights a week then so whilst it was an amateur club, the standards were high. I believe that is still the case now.”
Crooks recently attended a Thursday night training session and quickly learnt that methods have changed in the two decades since he stopped playing.
He said: “We were surprised at how little contact was being made during games and my former coach, Millar Hay, asked why that was. Gardner explained that to avoid injuries, players are encouraged not to tackle during these sessions.
“Players were regularly carted off during Eddie Hunter’s training sessions so times have changed.”
Crooks added: “Seeing the updated pitch at Lesser Hampden shows the progress the club have made and at another event, we got access to areas of Hampden not normally seen. I was not aware of the Lecture Theatre or the hyperbaric pool.
“I was there when Eddie did his talk and it would have been great to have the right of reply as his style of management was unique,” laughed Crooks who added, “Having been involved with The Queensparkers, I know that it does not matter if you were involved for two weeks or two years and whether you played one game or a thousand, you get a warm welcome.”
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