Death of Tom Maley – One of Celtic’s favourite sons | OneFootball

Death of Tom Maley – one of Celtic’s favourite sons…

Three days later, a heatwave hit Scotland as Celts travelled to Perth to face St Johnstone, Willie Maley again going with the same team. On the pitch, the players also started on fire, with four goals scored in the first quarter of the match.

Jimmy Delaney continued his excellent week by netting in the fifth minute, Jimmy McGrory doubling that lead six minutes later, the great man taking advantage of some hesitancy in the home defence. St Johnstone had signed striker Charlie Lyle from Partick Thistle in the summer, and he celebrated his debut with a double to level the match midway through the first half. The fifth and decisive goal arrived just before the interval, and yet again the razor-sharp McGrory was the scorer, winning the match with his fourth strike in three games to lift Celtic into the top five in the table.

Dunfermline Athletic dropped their first point of the season in a 1-1 draw with Hearts at Tynecastle, a late penalty from Tommy Walker ending their perfect start. Spot kicks were also pivotal at Ibrox, where the League leaders were 3-0 down to Dundee before the award of a penalty kick-started a comeback which saw Rangers eventually edge a seven-goal thriller. Aberdeen continued their good form with a 3-1 win over Hibernian at Pittodrie to sit third, ahead of Motherwell who shared four goals with Queen’s Park at Hampden, a first point of the season for the Spiders who propped up the Division together with Kilmarnock.

That victory over St Johnstone came the day after Celtic lost another of its favourite sons. At 11.35pm on Friday, 23 August 1935, Tom Maley passed away at the home of his daughter. He had been suffering from enteric (typhoid) fever for the previous two weeks, the illness perhaps bringing on auricular fibrillation (irregular heartbeat), which was the secondary cause of death recorded in the certificate which was registered by his Bradford-based son Charles. Widower Tom’s profession was given as “Football Club Manager (retired).”

The Glasgow Herald carried the following tribute on the Monday, under the heading “Death of Mr Tom Maley, one of the founders of Celtic F.C.” A couple of corrections or addendums are noted in brackets.

“The death occurred on [Friday] at the residence of his daughter at 6 Ruthven Avenue, Williamwood, Glasgow, of Mr Tom Maley, one of the founders of Celtic Football Club, and brother of Mr William Maley and Mr Alec Maley.”

“Mr Tom Maley, who was [71] years of age, was as a young man engaged in the teaching profession. He was a competent Association footballer, and as an amateur played for Partick Thistle, Dundee Harp, Dundee Our Boys [a forerunner of Dundee FC], Hibernian, Third Lanark and Celtic.”

“He was a member of the original Celtic committee and was actively associated with the founding of the club. Mr Maley’s interest in football brought him into close contact with individual players and with clubs, and subsequently he gave up teaching to become manager of Manchester City, a position which he held when the club won the English Cup. He was later manager of Bradford Park Avenue and Southport FC, and some years ago retired from active participation in the game.”

Tom Maley

Tom Maley has a unique place in The Celtic Story, not least as the scorer of the club’s first hat-trick, achieved in our inaugural game against Rangers in May 1888. Six months earlier, Brother Walfrid, Pat Welsh and John Glass had called at the Maley home in Cathcart in an attempt to make Tom the new club’s first signing. Tom was out with his girlfriend, the Celtic party met instead by his younger brother Willie, leading to the invitation for Willie to “come along as well.” Celtic’s greatest-ever afterthought – known more as a fine runner than a footballer at that time – would indeed come along. He would then stay for the next 52 years!

Tom would enjoy an excellent career at Celtic Park in several capacities, scoring six goals as The Irishmen reached the Scottish Cup final at the first time of asking, before succumbing to one of his old clubs, Third Lanark.

Following his retiral from the playing side two years later, he continued to work on the club’s committee, accepting a place on the first Celtic Board in 1897.

Tom’s career in football management would begin in 1902, when he took over the reins of a Manchester City club recently relegated to the English Second Division. Across the city, things looked even bleaker for Newton Heath, who were issued with a winding up order, but a new owner would come in to pay the bills in April 1902 and ensure the club would continue, albeit he renamed it Manchester United.

Maley would secure immediate promotion for Manchester City, winning the 1902/03 Second Division title ahead of Small Heath, with whom they had been relegated the year before. They would also change their name two years later, to Birmingham, then add ‘City’ in 1943. As an aside, in third place just missing out on promotion was Woolwich Arsenal, who would later drop ‘Woolwich’ and relocate from their South London base across the Thames to Highbury.

Tom Maley painted on the first ever Celtic Brake Club banner (St Mary’s). The banner hung above the bar in Baird’s Bar on the Gallowgate until its closure in the 2010s

Tom’s Manchester City would exceed all expectations in their first season back in the big time, beating Bolton Wanderers at Crystal Palace in April 1904 to win the FA Cup, the club’s first major honour, thanks to a goal from legendary Welsh captain Billy Meredith. Defeat at Everton 48 hours later denied City the chance to become the first club that century to win the coveted League and Cup Double. That feat would have to wait the best part of six decades until Tottenham Hotspur achieved it in 1961. The Wednesday would win the title, and just to complete the sequence of name changes they would change the prefix to ‘Sheffield’ in 1929.

The following season’s title race also went to the wire, Manchester City requiring to beat Aston Villa on the final day to win the First Division. They lost 3-1 to finish third, two points behind champions Newcastle United, but more significant were the accusations of match-fixing levelled at Meredith. He was found guilty and banned for 12 months, the aggrieved Welshman then resorting to accusations of illegal payments being made by City to its own players. Despite that being common practice at the time, manager Tom Maley was made the scapegoat and was handed a lifetime ban from football, which was not rescinded until 1910.

Photograph taken in Detroit while on their visit to play Michigan all Stars who they beat 5-0 at the University of Detroit Stadium. While in the city they were given a tour of the famous Ford Motor Works.L – R: Willie Cook, Bobby Whitelaw, Hugh Smith, Joe McGhee, Willie Maley, Bertie Thomson, Johnny Thomson, Jimmy McGrory (with cup) Peter Scarff, Charlie Napier, Peter Wilson, Tom Maley, Denis Currie, Willie McGonagle

Tom became the manager of Second Division side Bradford Park Avenue in 1911, immediately changing their colours from red, amber and black to his beloved green and white. He would again enjoy success, taking his new team up to the First Division in the spring of 1914 and achieving the club’s highest-ever placing of ninth in the top-tier the following season, the last before League football was suspended for the duration of the First World War.

Sadly, that rise would not continue into the new decade, Park Avenue suffering successive relegations from April 1921 to end up in the Third Division (North). A second-place finish in 1922/23 was not enough for promotion and after ending the next season in fifth spot, Tom left the club, moving to his final post in football management with Southport in 1924.

Seven years later, he was invited to join Celtic’s summer tour of North America, and he would now be the fourth member of that party to die within four years, following John Thomson, James Kelly and Peter Scarff. Tom Maley’s death also meant that his younger brother Willie was now the sole surviving member of Celtic’s first-ever team, the eleven men who defeated Rangers 5-2 in May 1888.

An extract from Matt Corr’s forthcoming book on Celtic in the 1930’s, to be published by The Celtic Star – watch this space!

Hail, hail!

Matt Corr

Follow Matt on X/Twitter @Boola_vogue

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