Jimmy Quinn

:See also Jimmy Quinn (Northern Irish footballer).

1904 Scottish Cup Final

The foundations of his enduring fame were laid in the Scottish Cup Final of 1904 when Celtic faced the side who, even then, were their greatest rivals, and have remained so ever since ? Rangers. At half-time, things did not look good: Rangers led by 2-0. In the second half, however, Celtic came back to win 3-2, Quinn scoring all the goals. (It is an amusing sideline to note that ten days later, on 26 April 1904, Jimmy McGrory was born) It is uncertain if this was the first Scottish Cup Final hat-trick. Some sources credit all three goals in Queen's Park's 3-1 defeat of Dumbarton in 1881 to Dr John Smith, though the official SFA site attributes the third to Ker. It was 68 years before the feat was repeated by John ?Dixie? Deans in Celtic?s 6-1 defeat of Hibs in 1972. However, Quinn?s single-handed reversal of a 2-0 deficit is unique in a Cup Final.

Related Topics:
Scottish Cup - Rangers - 26 April - 1904 - Hat-trick - Queen's Park - Dumbarton - SFA - John ?Dixie? Deans - Hibs

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Had he never played again, that Cup Final victory alone might have ensured his immortality, but Quinn?s career statistics show that he was no one-match wonder. He scored 216 competitive goals in 331 appearances ? 187 in the league (273 appearances) and 29 cup goals in 58 appearances, 7 or 8* of those goals in finals (1904, 08, 09, & 1911). He won six successive championship and five Scottish Cup medals with Celtic and was capped eleven times for Scotland, scoring seven times, including four out of five goals v Ireland in 1908. His strike rate of 0.65 ? almost two goals every three games ? is surpassed among Celtic goalscorers only by McGrory, Larsson and McMahon. Ninety years after he hung up his boots, he remains the club?s fifth highest goalscorer, the first of only five players to score two hundred goals or more for the club; as a scorer of league goals, his total of 187 is surpassed only by McGrory's.

Related Topics:
Scotland - Ireland

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Although he might often have played like a one-man team ? it was said no game was ever lost until Quinn had left the field ? he was one of a galaxy of stars in what can be fairly acclaimed the first superteam, since the same small group of players furnished the championship-winning side six years running, from 1904-10, a feat without precedent at the time, and unequalled for six decades, until Jock Stein?s Celtic matched it in 1971, on their way to nine championships in a row.

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