JAMES
BARBOUR McALPINE
The
highest scorer in the history of the Queen's Park, "Mutt"
McAlpine also held the record for the most appearances for
Queen's Park for over 75 years, and fully deserves his place in any
list of Queen's Park legends.
Born
in London on 19th October 1901, he made his debut for Queen's in
January 1920 against Third Lanark, and scored his first goal for
Queen's in his next appearance a fortnight later in a 3-0 win over
Aberdeen, described by the Daily Record as "Five minutes to go
when Alan Morton went off on one of his many delightful runs. He beat
Hannah, and when Hume came across to lend a hand, he slipped the ball
to McAlpine, who shot it like grease lightning past Anderson."
Probably
his finest match came in 1922 when Queen's, then spending a season in
the second division, were drawn against Celtic in the Glasgow Cup. The
Glasgow Cup was taken much more seriously in those days than it has
been in recent years, and all league games involving Glasgow teams
were cancelled to allow the cup ties to be played.
Full
strength teams were fielded by both sides, and it was the visiting
Celtic side that took the lead after half an hour through Patsy
Gallagher, however McAlpine made sure the scores were level at half
time after Celtic full back McNair hesitated, and "McAlpine was
in "on him like a bird" and the scores were level".
Five
minutes into the second half "Mutt" put Queen's into the
lead with a speculative shot from outside the penalty area, then the
lead was extended to two goals with a MacDonald strike for Queen's.
Celtic pulled one back through Patsy Gallagher before McAlpine struck
again to claim a hat trick and to secure the match, a further goal for
Celtic with two minutes left too little, too late.
The
result was described as "Queen's Park's crowning triumph",
with the Queen's legend grabbing the headlines as "Wonderful
McAlpine". Waverley, of the Daily Record, declared that the
"unfathomable McAlpine's unorthodoxy and surprise and deadly
shooting did more than anything to carry Queen's Park through",
and continued "What a joy day that was at Hampden. The stand
shouted themselves hoarse as J.B. McAlpine found his way round Alex
McNair: It rocked, or came as near to rocking as it ever did or ever
will, when the final whistle tootled a Queen's Park victory".
Interestingly,
one of the newspaper reports comments "Did you notice that there
was no hand-shaking when the Queen's Park goals were scored. Someone
tried to "shoogle" with McAlpine after he had whacked McNair
and Shaw in the first half, but the Hampden outside left wing forward
warned them off. The Queen's Park people are against these
manifestations of joy on the field."
McAlpine
was involved in another famous incident in 1922/23, when Queen's
travelled to Lochgelly United in the second last match of the season.
The Scotsman reported "Just after the restart, they were granted
a penalty kick which was the subject of a strong protest by Lochgelly,
and the Queen's seemed loath to take it. McAlpine looked as if he did
not mean to score, but Paterson let the weak shot deceive him".
McAlpine
was also involved in another game which is part of football folklore,
a 3-3 draw against Celtic in a league match at Hampden in the 1930/31
season. Queen's were leading 2-1 at half time, but Celtic scored twice
in the second half before the referee blew for full time.
As
the teams went off the pitch and into the changing rooms, it was
pointed out to the referee that he had played two minutes short, and
he recalled the teams to the field to play the remaining two minutes.
Queen's went on the attack and were awarded a penalty kick when Celtic
defender Morrison handled the ball, and it was J.B. who stepped up to
score and to rescue a point for Queen's.
While
best known for his goalscoring exploits, McAlpine was no slouch
between the sticks either, and with no substitutes he was the regular
back up goalkeeper. This was never seen to better effect than on a
visit to Easter Road in December 1920 when two goals from McAlpine
gave Queen’s a 2-0 half time lead. Shortly after the interval the
Queen’s goalkeeper, William Gould, was forced off the field after
being injured, and McAlpine took over to great effect, making several
good saves as the ten men held out to keep a clean sheet.
After
13 years service, McAlpine indicated that he wished to retire at the
end of the 1932/33 season, but when the Queen's squad was depleted
through injury at the tail end of the following season, "J.B."
was prevailed upon to return for two final Hampden appearances,
against St Johnstone and then against Falkirk for his final game.
Bob
Crampsey described the end of his last match thus in his centenary
book "The Game For The Games Sake": "The crowd skailed,
the net boys brought in the flags, the groundsman brought in the nets,
almost as if it were a normal Saturday, and not the day on which one
of Hampden's greatest had chosen to go."
His
record for Queen's was 473 league appearances with 163 goals, along
with 74 cup appearances with 29 goals, and, although his appearance
record was broken by Ross Caven in 2000, it is extremely unlikely that
his goal scoring record will ever be bettered by a Queen's Park
player.
After
retiring from the playing field, "Mutt" served on the
Queen's Park committee and attained the Presidency of the club from
1953 to 1955. He died in May 1975, aged 73. As
a sign of the esteem his name is still held in at Hampden today, when
the new pavilion was built at Lesser Hampden in 2013 it was named the
J.B. McAlpine Pavillion. |