I know that he is a distant relative, Alan Morton was a cousin of my great-grandfather who lived until he was 101 years old. I remember he was a very small man. Alan died at age 78 years old and was only 5.4” tall the same height as myself.
He ws born on Skaterigg Farm in Glasgow - which is just where the new estate built around the new High School of Glasgow is just off Crow Road at the rugby grounds - the name being kept going by Skaterigg Drive - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Skaterigg+Dr,+Glasgow/@55.8856011,-4.3269421,218m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x48884592437aa66b:0xcab0bdf19dc7c0a9!8m2!3d55.8858433!4d-4.3275241!16s/g/1vzn53_r?entry=ttuI know that he is a distant relative, Alan Morton was a cousin of my great-grandfather who lived until he was 101 years old. I remember he was a very small man. Alan died at age 78 years old and was only 5.4” tall the same height as myself.
Brilliant story
One interesting thing from this, and it's a great post all round, is being able to gather how good a player was from what we have heard of them, or read about them, rather than players we have watched ourselves being in a top 11/12. I never saw Caldow, Henderson, Baxter, Wilson, Dave Smith etc, nor Gillick, Cox, Young, or Woodburn etc, but have no doubts that they were good, either from reading or hearing about them. It possiby makes it more interesting, as your reference to Alan Morton shows, to gather as much as possible for a poll like the one on the other thread, other than it just being limited to players we ourselves have watched.There was an English journalist/writer called Ivan Sharpe, who described Alan Morton as 'un-get-at-able.'
Now back in the day, the selectors would pronounce the team on the Friday. Now apparently, there could be a few thousand who would turn up at Park Circus to find out the Scottish eleven would be the following day.
Again, passed down from my granda to my da and down to me. One year on the Friday on the eve of the game, the regular English right back is reputed to have said,: 'If Morton is playing, I hope I'm not picked.'
Urban myth? Urban legend? I realy don't know?
But what is true, is that team selections were announced on the Friday back in the day and it was the English who gave hime 'The Wee Blue Devil' tag, so he really was a scourge to them.
Yes, apparently been repaired a few times.Didn’t someone put a hole in it!! Can vaguely remember when on the stadium tour being told this? Hopefully I’m not having a senior moment
Me as well. Surprised it was so recent, and surprised I didn’t know it, as I never missed a copy of the Rangers News.Never realised that the painting had only been there since the 70's
I thought it had been there forever.
One interesting thing from this, and it's a great post all round, is being able to gather how good a player was from what we have heard of them, or read about them, rather than players we have watched ourselves being in a top 11/12. I never saw Caldow, Henderson, Baxter, Wilson, Dave Smith etc, nor Gillick, Cox, Young, or Woodburn etc, but have no doubts that they were good, either from reading or hearing about them. It possiby makes it more interesting, as your reference to Alan Morton shows, to gather as much as possible for a poll like the one on the other thread, other than it just being limited to players we ourselves have watched.
My old Granda taught me that song, remember it to this day.I remember my old dad waxing lyrical about Morton and singing,
'Hello, hello is that a goal,
For poor old Celtics up the pole,
For Charlie Shaw, he never saw,
Where Alan Morton pit the baw.'
(with apologies to the original version)
I remember my old dad waxing lyrical about Morton and singing,
'Hello, hello is that a goal,
For poor old Celtics up the pole,
For Charlie Shaw, he never saw,
Where Alan Morton pit the baw.'
(with apologies to the original version)
Indeed it is.There seems to be lots of interpretations of this old classic.
Charlie Shaw, never saw
Where Alan Morton pit the baw
He looked around with some regret
To find the baw was in the net
My granda told me that one time back in the day, Alan Morton had an article, or made a statement in one of the newspapers of the day, that a professional footaller should never miss a penalty.
Lo and behold, the next penalty Rangers were awarded, (he said it was against you-know-who, presumably in a Glasgow or Charity cup tie) guess who stepped forward to take it and missed?
Possibly the mind was playing tricks. I couldn't tell you, but he was sharp as a tack till the end.
As anyone who has a copy of Robert McElroy's sublime work, 'The Spirit of Ibrox' will know, that phrase was coined by Alan Morton in 1947, amidst the infamous boardroom coup. 'What has happened to The Spirit of Ibrox?'
I've always said the word 'legend' is bandied about too often these days. In Alan Lauder Morton's case, I don't even think the word does him and his service to the club justice.
Of course we have to look to the future, but we should always honour our greats from the past.
This thread is food for the soul.
It's a shame your mother went with clicker instead.My Granda’s hero, and I’ve been told he lobbied for me to be called after the great man.