MEMORIES are made of this
Jim McCalliog has only to shut his eyes and he is back at Wembley scoring the winner for Scotland or lifting the FA Cup. Now, thanks to the Football Memories groups, he can use those recollections to light a spark with dementia sufferers
MEMORIES, memories. Jim McCalliog stands outside a football reminiscence group with his wife, Debbie. ‘A guy comes up and asks if I’m here to listen to the speaker. I don’t tell him I am the speaker but Debbie has not let me forget that.’
The purpose of the Football Memories groups across Scotland is to prompt a spark in those who have difficulty recalling the past. Blessedly, McCalliog, at 74, has no difficulty summoning the greats and, indeed, ghosts from his past.
His medal selection is locked securely in a safe and his subsequent exploit at winning Four in a Bed — a Channel 4 reality show among B&B owners — is similarly guarded. ‘I don’t really want to talk about that,’ he says with a chuckle. This is misplaced embarrassment rather than any bias towards taciturnity.
He is eloquent and insightful, after all, on a career that saw him play in two FA Cup finals, score a goal on his debut for Scotland when England’s World Cup winners were beaten 3-2 at Wembley, and captain a team in a European cup final where, inevitably, he also hit the back of the net.
The journey has taken him from the Gorbals, through some of the biggest clubs in English football to Fenwick in Ayrshire, where he runs his B&B. It is a professional life that has had spectacular moments but McCalliog is at his most arresting when he testifies to the way it was on the threshold of his career.
‘I was strong mentally,’ he says. McCalliog is speaking of himself at 15. He had walked from his home in the Gorbals to Ibrox, boots over his shoulder, to help Scotland schoolboys defeat England in 1962.
On his return home, his mother told him there was a ‘gentleman to see him’. It was Tommy Docherty, then manager of Chelsea, He was politely rebuffed.
‘I had already agreed to join Leeds after a talk with Don Revie,’ he explains. ‘There were a lot of scouts watching me then. There were a lot clubs interested in me. We got a good deal at Leeds. I wasn’t stupid. I knew my worth.’
McCalliog’s parents were given a semi-detached home in Leeds and his father, James, provided with a job as a car mechanic. The son was taken to a printers with Peter Lorimer, a member of the same international schoolboy team, who had also joined Leeds.
‘We had to have jobs as part of the rules then,’ he adds. ‘We were introduced to the boss, shook his hand and never saw him again.’
McCalliog’s time at Leeds was similarly brief. Shortly after joining, he went back home and told his parents: ‘I feel rotten here.’
He was a player who did not stick around when he was unhappy as a career encompassing Chelsea, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves, Manchester United, Southampton, Lincoln City, Chicago Fire and Lyn in Oslo might suggest.
He quickly signed for Docherty after leaving Leeds, though Sean Fallon, Jock Stein’s assistant at Celtic, was also on his trail. Predictably, his parents were given a house in London. They followed him closely throughout his career.
‘I loved the Gorbals but, with all due respect, we moved up,’ he says. ‘We were well set up. I was strong. That came from my parents. My dad and mum were always there. They didn’t push me but they supported me.’
However, it was his time on the banks of the Clyde that formed him, even inspired him.
‘I used to play football with my pals as a boy at Glasgow Green. It was the usual stuff,’ he adds. ‘But on the way home there was a bowling club and we would sneak on there. We would play on that beautiful surface until we were chased off. We imagined we were playing at Wembley.
‘We would kid on we were top players and I was always Denis Law. That was my big dream. I wanted to play for Scotland.’
At 20, he did. Alongside Law. ‘I first met him on the Wednesday as I was playing for Sheffield against Manchester United,’ says McCalliog. ‘We trained together on the Friday and played for Scotland on the Saturday.’
England were beaten 3-2. The scorers were Law, Bobby Lennox and McCalliog, who adds: ‘On the Sunday, I was on a train back to Sheffield, slapping my face, wondering if what I had remembered was actually true.’
Denis Law was my hero... then I played alongside him in that 1967 win
IT had been the best memory of McCalliog’s career. ‘I mean, you go back to Glasgow Green and those dreams... and then it happens,’ he adds.
It was, though, not an isolated highlight with FA Cup and European finals also on his CV. However, he recalls the glory of
Wembley 1967 vividly, more than half a century on. ‘I wasn’t nervous,’ he insists. ‘I just looked around me in the tunnel and saw who I was playing alongside.’
Training had been a revelation. ‘There had only really been one session,’ he says. ‘It was a muddy, uneven pitch, probably given to us on purpose. But you could see the quality in the team.’
The side that beat the 1966 World champions read (2-3-5): Ronnie Simpson (Celtic); Tommy Gemmell (Celtic), Eddie McCreadie (Chelsea); John Greig (Rangers, captain), Ronnie McKinnon (Rangers), Jim Baxter (Sunderland); Willie Wallace (Celtic), Billy Bremner (Leeds), McCalliog (Sheffield Wednesday), Denis Law (Manchester United) and Bobby Lennox (Celtic).
‘I was impressed,’ he says of his team-mates. ‘But I wasn’t overawed. I had spent my life going through trial matches where you were told immediately after the game if you had progressed or not. That was tough and you saw guys crying when they were rejected. I knew I had to perform as a boy, I knew I had to perform at Wembley.’
He did, scoring what turned out to be the winner with a finish past Gordon Banks.
‘I could have played the previo u s season for Scotland,’ he says .‘ John Pr entice( then Scotland manager) wanted to call me up for a friendly against Brazil but my boss at Sheffield Wednesday, Alan Brown, said I couldn’t go because I had too tough a season. I missed out on playing against Pele at Hampden. ‘I did, though, play against him when he was at New York Cosmos and I was at Chicago Fire. He went to war with me after I complained about his challenge on our goalkeeper. He was chasing me around the pitch, trying to stick one on my chin. I survived that.’ The reluctance to release him for the 1966 international was prompted by Sheffield Wednesday’s defeat to Everton in the FA Cup final, McCalliog scoring in the 3-2 loss. ‘Everton were the overwhelming favourites,’ he says. ‘The man behind them was John Moores, of the Littlewood pools company, so they were known as the Bank of England club.’ There was better fortune for McCalliog in the 1976 final between Southampton and Manchester United. The Scot laid on the only goal of the game to deny his old boss, Docherty. ‘The Doc said it was offside but I told him it didn’t say offside on my winner’s medal,’ he says with a laugh. ‘There was a plan to that goal. I had played for United only 18 months before, so I knew they liked to push out quickly. ‘When Lawrie (McMenemy, Southampton manager) asked me about them, I said we should have midfield runners primed to beat the offside trap. That’s what happened. Mick Channon played the ball to me and when United pushed out I heard Bobby (Stokes) shout for it as he ran through. I lifted the ball and he volleyed it into the net.’ With Wolves, McCalliog reached the final of the 1972 UEFA Cup final where they met Tottenham Hotspur over two legs. In the absence of the injured Mike Bailey, McCalliog captained the side, though Wolves lost the first leg 2-1 at Molineux and could only draw 1-1 in the return at White Hart Lane.
McCalliog had limited consolation in that he scored in the home leg. ‘I remember it all right,’ he says. ‘I nutmegged Pat Jennings. We had a free-kick just outside the box and I asked the ref if we could take it quickly. He said yes and Danny Hegan slid it down the side for me. I hit it hard and it went through Pat, just catching the inside of his left heel. But it went over the line.’
The memory is that precise and it is those sort of details that can spark a response at a Football Memories group. McCalliog visits them regularly to tell his story. ‘We use cards, memorabilia and photographs and the response is wonderful,’ he says. ‘It can bring people back to memories and recollections for an hour even though they lapse back into their illness.’
It is something Jim McCalliog does with boundless energy and profound gratitude. He adds: ‘It’s living history, I suppose. I was lucky to be part of it.’ l A Uefa Euro 2020 European Legends exhibition has been installed in the Scottish Football Museum. Sixty players from the 1960-90 era were chosen by Football Memories groups and a further 60 players were chosen by the young people of Team United to represent the 1990 –2020 era, The Uefa Euro 2020 Glasgow website now offers users the chance to pick a dream team. https://euro2020. scottishfa.co.uk/european-legends