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Maley, Willie
| Managers | Player Pics | Manager Pics | Celtic Foundations |
Personal
Fullname: William Patrick Maley aka: Willie Maley
Born:25 April 1868
Died: 2 April 1958
Died: 2 April 1958
Birthplace: Newry, Ireland
Signed (player): May 1888
Position: Half-back
Debut: Celtic 5-2 Rangers XI (the Swifts), Friendly, 28 May 1888
Player-Secretary: 15 May 1894
Reinstated amateur: 13 Aug 1895
Secretary-Manager: 3 Apr 1897
Retired: 1 Feb 1940
Tenor as manager: 43 years, (3 Apr 1897-1 Feb 1940)
Biog
William "Willie" Patrick Maley (born Newry, Ireland, 25 April 1868–April 2, 1958, Glasgow, Scotland) was the first manager of Celtic Football Club and one of the most successful managers in Scottish football history. He led Celtic to 30 major trophies in 43 years as manager.
Although Maley was born in Newry Barracks, where his father was a soldier in the British Army, his family moved to Scotland when he was young. As a young man, Maley was much more involved in athletics than in football, although he had played a few games for Cathcart Hazelbank Juniors in 1886 and had played with Third Lanark A.C. from later that year.
In 1888, he was signed by the fledgling Celtic and became one of the club's first players as a midfielder. When John Glass and Brother Walfrid made the visit to the Maley family home in Cathcart in Dec 1887, famously Tom Maley (Willie's brother) wasn’t home that evening (out impressing a young lady) but the Celtic party ensured their trip wasn’t wasted by recruiting Willie Maley – a move which of course had massive repercussions on the development and success of the club for decades to come. Tom was their original target, but by chance or fate we landed with the indomitable Willie Maley.
As a naturalized Scot, he also played for the Scottish national team. In 1896, he made a single appearance for Manchester City in a Second Division match against Loughborough.
In 1897, the board of Celtic directors appointed Willie Maley, at just 29 years of age, as Secretary-Manager - the first manager - of Celtic. He won the League Championship for the club in his first full season as manager.
Maley never worked with his players in training, he watched games from the directors' box and never indulged in team talks or spoke to his players at half-time or post-match. Maley would not even announce the team: players learned if they were in or out through reading the line-up in the newspaper.
Celtic had been a buying club in their opening decade, spending heavily to bring professionals to the club. Maley decided to scrap that and rely almost entirely on recruiting youngsters fresh from junior football.
He created a young team who won six league titles in a row between 1905 and 1910 and won the first Scottish League and Scottish Cup doubles. It was the finest team in world football, and the six-in-a-row record remained unbroken until the 1970s. The stars of that side included right-back Alec McNair ("the Icicle"); inside-right Jimmy McMenemy ("Napoleon"); and the centre-forward Jimmy Quinn.
In 1904, when he and his brother Tom guided Celtic & Man City to respective glory in the Scottish Cup & FA Cup respectively, it was the first time (and probably the only time) brothers have had that success at the same time in management.
When they grew old, Maley built a second team, including Patsy Gallacher (and the ageless McMenemy), which won four titles in succession between 1914 and 1917 and set what is still the UK record for an unbeaten run in professional football: 62 games (49 won, 13 drawn), from 13 November 1915 until 21 April 1917.
That side won two more titles, in 1919 and 1922. Celtic continued to gather trophies throughout the 1920s and in the mid-1930s Maley built his third great team, featuring Jimmy Delaney and Jimmy McGrory. This side won the league title in 1936 and 1938 and the cup in 1937. By then, Maley was approaching 70.
In truth, Maley was not the acting manager in this late successful period in the late 1930s. Jimmy McMenemy was brought in as the assistant manager and in practise became the de facto first team manager. A sharp contrast to the straight-laced Maley, McMenemy was relaxed and approachable. Maley was said to have been unhappy with some of the tactical progress put into play by McMenemy but came around to it after the success it brought (a sign that Maley was stuck in the past). However, after Joe Dodds was brought in to assist McMenemy, it was a sure sign to Maley to hang up his coat and badge. The half-centenary season of 1937-38 should have been the best end for Maley but he stubbornly carried on. For a period he seemed to be more caught up writing his book on Celtic than on managing the first team.
The Maley years was to end in a less than happy fashion. With Celtic at the bottom of the table, after a meeting with the board of directors in February 1940, Maley 'retired'.
Sadly, there was a very bitter parting of the ways over the tax on a 2500 guineas honorarium. It was meant as a golden handshake but Maley never took the hint and the board hardened their stance by refusing to pay the tax on it.
Maley did not set foot back into CP for 13 years, extraordinary for a man who lived and breathed Celtic for the previous FIFTY TWO years. Rangers took advantage of the discord and actually invited Maley to be a guest at a Rangers v Celtic game at Ibrox! He accepted the invitation but he was supporting Celtic as much as he ever did.
Willie Maley did make up with the board in 1953 after the death of ex-Celt Patsy Gallagher when chairman Bob Kelly got in touch and a Willie Maley Testimonial Fund match was played between Celtic and a Bohemians select at Celtic Park in aid of the Grampian sanatorium in Kingussie.
Now aged 85, he was enthusiastically greeted back.
He was a frequent visitor to Celtic Park thereafter until his death on 2nd April 1958 in a nursing home at 32 Mansion House Road, Glasgow at 8.30am aged 89. He died of arteriosclerosis and senility.
Maley was the longest serving manager at Celtic. In his 43 years as manager, he won 16 league titles, 14 Scottish Cups, 14 Glasgow Cups and 19 Glasgow Charity Cups. It wasn't the mass of trophies that was most important about Maley. It was his ethos. Willie Maley's mantra was clear: "It's not the creed nor his nationality that counts. It's the man himself". He engendered the moral framework around the club and how we were to work. There is no denying that we have swayed but that has been to our cost and we have always returned. We have always been a club that emphasises our support and culture, and Willie Maley has played a huge part in this. Any man who denies his importance, just needs to look to the Huns and the odious ethos that has underpinned their club since Struth imposed his disreputable values.
Willie Maley's name is still proudly chanted in every Celtic gathering; his name titles one of the club's most sung songs, "Willie Maley" by David Cameron, and it is one of the most popular Celtic songs amongst the support.
His person, his character and his ethos underpin even to this day what our club is all about, and we will forever be in his debt for what he brought to the club. We will always remember him.
*Note: In some games during his playing career Maley was listed on the team-sheet as 'Montgomery'. This alias - his mother's maiden name - was probably adopted to avoid his employers, an accountancy firm, from finding out he was continuing to play as a professional footballer! Such deception was not uncommon in the Victorian era.
Signed (player): May 1888
Position: Half-back
Debut: Celtic 5-2 Rangers XI (the Swifts), Friendly, 28 May 1888
Player-Secretary: 15 May 1894
Reinstated amateur: 13 Aug 1895
Secretary-Manager: 3 Apr 1897
Retired: 1 Feb 1940
Tenor as manager: 43 years, (3 Apr 1897-1 Feb 1940)
| "It's not the creed nor his nationality that counts. It's the man himself." Willie Maley |
Biog
William "Willie" Patrick Maley (born Newry, Ireland, 25 April 1868–April 2, 1958, Glasgow, Scotland) was the first manager of Celtic Football Club and one of the most successful managers in Scottish football history. He led Celtic to 30 major trophies in 43 years as manager. Although Maley was born in Newry Barracks, where his father was a soldier in the British Army, his family moved to Scotland when he was young. As a young man, Maley was much more involved in athletics than in football, although he had played a few games for Cathcart Hazelbank Juniors in 1886 and had played with Third Lanark A.C. from later that year.
In 1888, he was signed by the fledgling Celtic and became one of the club's first players as a midfielder. When John Glass and Brother Walfrid made the visit to the Maley family home in Cathcart in Dec 1887, famously Tom Maley (Willie's brother) wasn’t home that evening (out impressing a young lady) but the Celtic party ensured their trip wasn’t wasted by recruiting Willie Maley – a move which of course had massive repercussions on the development and success of the club for decades to come. Tom was their original target, but by chance or fate we landed with the indomitable Willie Maley.
As a naturalized Scot, he also played for the Scottish national team. In 1896, he made a single appearance for Manchester City in a Second Division match against Loughborough.
In 1897, the board of Celtic directors appointed Willie Maley, at just 29 years of age, as Secretary-Manager - the first manager - of Celtic. He won the League Championship for the club in his first full season as manager.
Maley never worked with his players in training, he watched games from the directors' box and never indulged in team talks or spoke to his players at half-time or post-match. Maley would not even announce the team: players learned if they were in or out through reading the line-up in the newspaper.
Celtic had been a buying club in their opening decade, spending heavily to bring professionals to the club. Maley decided to scrap that and rely almost entirely on recruiting youngsters fresh from junior football.
He created a young team who won six league titles in a row between 1905 and 1910 and won the first Scottish League and Scottish Cup doubles. It was the finest team in world football, and the six-in-a-row record remained unbroken until the 1970s. The stars of that side included right-back Alec McNair ("the Icicle"); inside-right Jimmy McMenemy ("Napoleon"); and the centre-forward Jimmy Quinn.
In 1904, when he and his brother Tom guided Celtic & Man City to respective glory in the Scottish Cup & FA Cup respectively, it was the first time (and probably the only time) brothers have had that success at the same time in management.
When they grew old, Maley built a second team, including Patsy Gallacher (and the ageless McMenemy), which won four titles in succession between 1914 and 1917 and set what is still the UK record for an unbeaten run in professional football: 62 games (49 won, 13 drawn), from 13 November 1915 until 21 April 1917.
That side won two more titles, in 1919 and 1922. Celtic continued to gather trophies throughout the 1920s and in the mid-1930s Maley built his third great team, featuring Jimmy Delaney and Jimmy McGrory. This side won the league title in 1936 and 1938 and the cup in 1937. By then, Maley was approaching 70.
In truth, Maley was not the acting manager in this late successful period in the late 1930s. Jimmy McMenemy was brought in as the assistant manager and in practise became the de facto first team manager. A sharp contrast to the straight-laced Maley, McMenemy was relaxed and approachable. Maley was said to have been unhappy with some of the tactical progress put into play by McMenemy but came around to it after the success it brought (a sign that Maley was stuck in the past). However, after Joe Dodds was brought in to assist McMenemy, it was a sure sign to Maley to hang up his coat and badge. The half-centenary season of 1937-38 should have been the best end for Maley but he stubbornly carried on. For a period he seemed to be more caught up writing his book on Celtic than on managing the first team.
The Maley years was to end in a less than happy fashion. With Celtic at the bottom of the table, after a meeting with the board of directors in February 1940, Maley 'retired'.
Sadly, there was a very bitter parting of the ways over the tax on a 2500 guineas honorarium. It was meant as a golden handshake but Maley never took the hint and the board hardened their stance by refusing to pay the tax on it.
Maley did not set foot back into CP for 13 years, extraordinary for a man who lived and breathed Celtic for the previous FIFTY TWO years. Rangers took advantage of the discord and actually invited Maley to be a guest at a Rangers v Celtic game at Ibrox! He accepted the invitation but he was supporting Celtic as much as he ever did.
Willie Maley did make up with the board in 1953 after the death of ex-Celt Patsy Gallagher when chairman Bob Kelly got in touch and a Willie Maley Testimonial Fund match was played between Celtic and a Bohemians select at Celtic Park in aid of the Grampian sanatorium in Kingussie.
Now aged 85, he was enthusiastically greeted back.
He was a frequent visitor to Celtic Park thereafter until his death on 2nd April 1958 in a nursing home at 32 Mansion House Road, Glasgow at 8.30am aged 89. He died of arteriosclerosis and senility.
Maley was the longest serving manager at Celtic. In his 43 years as manager, he won 16 league titles, 14 Scottish Cups, 14 Glasgow Cups and 19 Glasgow Charity Cups. It wasn't the mass of trophies that was most important about Maley. It was his ethos. Willie Maley's mantra was clear: "It's not the creed nor his nationality that counts. It's the man himself". He engendered the moral framework around the club and how we were to work. There is no denying that we have swayed but that has been to our cost and we have always returned. We have always been a club that emphasises our support and culture, and Willie Maley has played a huge part in this. Any man who denies his importance, just needs to look to the Huns and the odious ethos that has underpinned their club since Struth imposed his disreputable values.
Willie Maley's name is still proudly chanted in every Celtic gathering; his name titles one of the club's most sung songs, "Willie Maley" by David Cameron, and it is one of the most popular Celtic songs amongst the support.
His person, his character and his ethos underpin even to this day what our club is all about, and we will forever be in his debt for what he brought to the club. We will always remember him.
- As a slight aside, Willie Maley's will left a degree of doubt as to where his estate was meant to go. A will dating from before his illness left his estate to a group of trustees. His son Charles and cousin, Agnes Montgomery of Dublin, presented a Christmas card that had been written by Willie whilst in the nursing home, dated 28th December, 1957. At a Court of Sessions hearing in Edinburgh on 24th February 1959, the judge, Lord Walker, agreed with Charles and the Christmas card, leaving all his estate to his son Charles, was accepted as a valid will. The trustees vouched that since entering the nursing home in October 1957 his mental state was such that he was not aware of what he was doing. His son maintained that up to a few days before his death he was in full control of his mental faculties and the will on the Christmas card was therefore valid. The judge and court agreed.
*Note: In some games during his playing career Maley was listed on the team-sheet as 'Montgomery'. This alias - his mother's maiden name - was probably adopted to avoid his employers, an accountancy firm, from finding out he was continuing to play as a professional footballer! Such deception was not uncommon in the Victorian era.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1888-97 | 75 | 21 | - | - | 96 |
| Goals | 2 | 0 | - | - | 2 |
Honours with Celtic as a player
[Indicate any known awards (player of the year, etc)] Honours as Celtic Manager
Scottish League Championship (16) - 1897-98, 1904-05, 1905-06, 1906-07, 1907-08,
- 1908-09, 1909-10, 1913-14, 1914-15, 1915-16,
- 1916-17, 1918-19, 1921-22, 1925-26, 1935-36,
- 1937-38,
Glasgow Cups (14)
Glasgow International Exhibition Cup Navy and Army War Fund Shield
Empire Exhibition Cup Glasgow Charity Cups (19)
[....]
Quotes
"The club has been my life and I feel without it my existence would be empty indeed."Willie Maley
"It's not the creed nor his nationality that counts. It's the man himself."
Willie Maley
"A man must be a Celt on and off the field, otherwise he is of no value to this club."
Willie Maley
"Much has been made in certain quarters about our religion, but for forty-eight years we have played a mixed team, and some of the greatest Celts we have had did not agree with us in our religious beliefs, although we have never at any time hidden what these are. Men of the type of McNair, Hay, Lyon, Buchan, Cringan, the Thomspons, or Paterson soon found out that broadmindedness which is the real stamp of the good Christian existed to its fullest at Celtic Park, where a man was judged by his football alone."
Willie Maley from "The Story of The Celtic" (1939)
“Willie Maley was a great man but a person I used to regard with awe. Most of the time he was ensconced in his office and was not directly involved with our training. Now and again he would walk out the tunnel and when the players saw the familiar figure with the black crombie coat and stetson type hat you never saw such activity on the track.
It was a situation similar to the headmaster and pupil type of relationship, yet it was a style of management that brought results. Jimmy McStay was different in character. A quiet man he was there in difficult circumstances, similarly Jimmy McGrory was also very much a gentleman and although it’s often been repeated both seemed too nice to be really successful managers.”
Matt Lynch (Celtic Player)
'To me, Willie Maley was Celtic.'
Willie Buchan
"I am the last survivor of the little band that set out heroically to launch the Celtic ship."
Manager Willie Maley during his speech in 1938 at the Celtic 50 year Jubilee dinner at the Grosvenor Hotel in Glasgow. He was also presented with 2,500 guineas – 50 for every year he had served Celtic
Pictures
Video
Songs
Books
Links
Articles
- The Greatest Manager - Sunday Herald Article (2003)
- Glasgow Press & Celtic, Bigotry & Representation (Lettter) (March 1906)
- Willie Maley's Grave by Maley' Spirit (2010)
- Newspaper Obituaries(1958)
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Entry
Maley, William [Willie] (1868–1958),football manager and businessman, was born at the barracks, Newry, co. Down, on 25 April 1868, the third of six sons of Thomas Maley, a sergeant instructor with the North British fusiliers, and his wife, Mary, née Montgomery. He spent most of his childhood near Cathcart, Renfrewshire, but left school in 1881, aged thirteen, and entered an office in Glasgow with the aim of becoming a chartered accountant.
In 1888 Maley began his long association with Glasgow Celtic Football Club. The club had been formed earlier that year to provide a social focus for the large number of Irish immigrants flocking to the city and to raise money from the proceeds of matches to relieve poverty among the Catholic Irish community in the east end of Glasgow. The club began recruiting players, and Maley's elder brother Tom caught their eye, but Willie happened to be at home when the club's representative called and he was invited to join. A wing-half, he proved good enough to be a club regular for five years, and was selected to represent Scotland against both Ireland and England in 1893, but he played poorly in the latter fixture and was never chosen for his country again. By 1896, when Celtic was in the process of conversion to a limited company, he had decided to confine himself to football administration, and in 1897 he became the club's secretary–manager, a post he was to fill for the next forty-four years.
Maley was arguably the first football manager in the modern understanding of the term, and guided Celtic to become the leading Scottish club in the early twentieth century, winning the league championship in six consecutive seasons from 1905 to 1910. Some of his influence was captured by a newspaper comment: ‘He catches the players young and breathes into them the old traditional Celtic fire of which he himself appears to be the very living fountain and source’ (Glasgow Observer, 14 March 1914).
Like his predecessor J. H. McLaughlin, the first Celtic secretary, he was a stout exponent of professionalism. ‘Shamateurism’, he argued, enabled players to ‘debauch themselves without being called to account’ whereas open professionalism ensured that clubs could be masters of their players. He also took a wider view of the game's development, encouraging its spread beyond Britain by taking Celtic on exhibition trips to Europe, and especially the Austro-Hungarian empire, where the club played a number of fixtures before 1914.
After the First World War, Celtic lost something of their earlier dominance with the emergence of an ambitious Rangers side under Maley's friend and rival William Struth. Rangers became the dominant league side, but Celtic won the Scottish cup six times in the inter-war years and were popular visitors to the United States. In a period of intense religious sectarianism between the two Glasgow clubs, Maley was always resistant to the notion that Celtic should employ only Catholic players. Apart from his personal repugnance to the policy of sectarianism, he probably realized the disadvantage of confining his recruitment to the smaller community: ecumenism meant that he could sign a protestant and deprive Rangers of a player.
At least five of the 1938 Celtic side which won the Scottish cup and league championship were nominal protestants. In that year Maley's fifty years with Celtic were marked by the presentation of a purse containing 200 guineas, and in 1939 he wrote a lively but partisan history of the club,The Story of Celtic. In February 1940, however, when the club not unreasonably felt that the time had come for a change in management, Maley took it badly and the parting was bitter. He avoided Celtic Park for a decade, and a reconciliation was effected only shortly before his death.
Maley's overriding characteristic was efficiency, which he combined with a brusqueness of manner which could be, and perhaps was designed to be, upsetting. He also possessed considerable financial acumen: he acquired a sports outfitter's shop at the age of twenty-six, and subsequently owned a thriving restaurant in the centre of Glasgow. He was also the prime mover in attracting the world cycling championships to Scotland and was president of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association. He was also president of the Scottish Football League from 1921 until 1924, when club managers were debarred from the position. Willie Maley died in Glasgow on 2 April 1958. A requiem mass was said at St Peter's Church, Partick.
Robert A. Crampsey
In 1888 Maley began his long association with Glasgow Celtic Football Club. The club had been formed earlier that year to provide a social focus for the large number of Irish immigrants flocking to the city and to raise money from the proceeds of matches to relieve poverty among the Catholic Irish community in the east end of Glasgow. The club began recruiting players, and Maley's elder brother Tom caught their eye, but Willie happened to be at home when the club's representative called and he was invited to join. A wing-half, he proved good enough to be a club regular for five years, and was selected to represent Scotland against both Ireland and England in 1893, but he played poorly in the latter fixture and was never chosen for his country again. By 1896, when Celtic was in the process of conversion to a limited company, he had decided to confine himself to football administration, and in 1897 he became the club's secretary–manager, a post he was to fill for the next forty-four years.
Maley was arguably the first football manager in the modern understanding of the term, and guided Celtic to become the leading Scottish club in the early twentieth century, winning the league championship in six consecutive seasons from 1905 to 1910. Some of his influence was captured by a newspaper comment: ‘He catches the players young and breathes into them the old traditional Celtic fire of which he himself appears to be the very living fountain and source’ (Glasgow Observer, 14 March 1914).
Like his predecessor J. H. McLaughlin, the first Celtic secretary, he was a stout exponent of professionalism. ‘Shamateurism’, he argued, enabled players to ‘debauch themselves without being called to account’ whereas open professionalism ensured that clubs could be masters of their players. He also took a wider view of the game's development, encouraging its spread beyond Britain by taking Celtic on exhibition trips to Europe, and especially the Austro-Hungarian empire, where the club played a number of fixtures before 1914.
After the First World War, Celtic lost something of their earlier dominance with the emergence of an ambitious Rangers side under Maley's friend and rival William Struth. Rangers became the dominant league side, but Celtic won the Scottish cup six times in the inter-war years and were popular visitors to the United States. In a period of intense religious sectarianism between the two Glasgow clubs, Maley was always resistant to the notion that Celtic should employ only Catholic players. Apart from his personal repugnance to the policy of sectarianism, he probably realized the disadvantage of confining his recruitment to the smaller community: ecumenism meant that he could sign a protestant and deprive Rangers of a player.
At least five of the 1938 Celtic side which won the Scottish cup and league championship were nominal protestants. In that year Maley's fifty years with Celtic were marked by the presentation of a purse containing 200 guineas, and in 1939 he wrote a lively but partisan history of the club,The Story of Celtic. In February 1940, however, when the club not unreasonably felt that the time had come for a change in management, Maley took it badly and the parting was bitter. He avoided Celtic Park for a decade, and a reconciliation was effected only shortly before his death.
Maley's overriding characteristic was efficiency, which he combined with a brusqueness of manner which could be, and perhaps was designed to be, upsetting. He also possessed considerable financial acumen: he acquired a sports outfitter's shop at the age of twenty-six, and subsequently owned a thriving restaurant in the centre of Glasgow. He was also the prime mover in attracting the world cycling championships to Scotland and was president of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association. He was also president of the Scottish Football League from 1921 until 1924, when club managers were debarred from the position. Willie Maley died in Glasgow on 2 April 1958. A requiem mass was said at St Peter's Church, Partick.
Robert A. Crampsey
Sources
T. Campbell and P. Woods,The glory and the dream: the history of Celtic F.C., 1887–1986(1986) · B. Murray,The old firm(1984) · R. A. Crampsey,The Scottish Football League: the first 100 years(1990) ·(1958)Likenesses: photograph, repro. in A. Gibson and W. Pickford,Association Football and the men who made it, 3 [1906], facing p. 192Wealth at death: £11,404 6s. 10d.: confirmation, 29 May 1958.Robert A. Crampsey, ‘Maley, William [Willie](1868–1958)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/57834, accessed28 June 2011]William Maley (1868–1958): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57834
Willie Maley & Athletics
secretary - manager from 1897 - 1940. His a football career is well documented but we quote
here fro his chapter in "Fifty Years of Athletics" published by the SAAA in 1933.
"Tell how I got mixed up in athletics? A short story. We lads in Cathcart village used up all
our spare tie in athletics. My strong suits were football, quoiting and running. One of the
chiefs in my office further advanced me. He was a big noise in the Clydesdale Harriers -
Andrew Dick. My all round abilities convinced him that I was a suitable subject for his club
which had fast been gaining fame for the number of its activities. I
found myself among the starters in a Junior cross country race. I enjoyed the novelty and was
rather pleased in being placed. Despite the fact that I touched wood and issued the water! I
was soon able to walk normally.
To the track was the next command. On the Abercorn Ground, Paisley, I appeared with other
sprinters and carried off the prize. Pot-hunting I always abhorred, so I confined myself to the
odd prizes here and there. I kept on doing that sort of thing until one breezy afternoon I varied
things by winning the 100 yards championship (SAAU). As I had been pushed into it, so I
pushed my brother To, and right well he responded. He made his debut at the Queen's Park
Sports and collared the Open 100. That is how we celebrated the Jubilee year. Celtic, the new
football club, absorbed me and my time ever since."
Not entirely - even after becoming Celtic manager he promoted many Sports Meetings from
the Westmarch Ground (then the St Mirren FC ground) to Celtic Park in Glasgow. As a runner
he had been an excellent sprinter over 100, 220 and 440 yards. He won the SAAU 100 yards
title in June 1896 at Hampden Park in 11 seconds dead having effectively retired from running
to concentrate on football. A natural athlete a contemporary described him thus: "Did you see
Maley? He ran like a deer, dodged like a squirrel and shot like a catapult."
Willie Maley's one and only League game for City - Loughborough Town (Home) 24.2.1896.
City won 5-1 at Hyde Road.
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