ian1964 10,415 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 .........and share the 1914/15 league title. By Gary Ralston GARY says that the Premiership champions have an opportunity to lead the way on behalf of Scottish football this summer by requesting a fitting tribute to the Hearts players who made the ultimate sacrifice. HEARTS start the new season in the Championship and it would be an act of graceful benevolence from Celtic if they end it with a top-flight title. The Premiership champions have an opportunity to lead the way on behalf of Scottish football this summer by requesting a fitting tribute to players who made the ultimate sacrifice. It would be a touching act of remembrance if Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell approached the SPFL in the coming weeks and asked for the 1914-15 championship to be retrospectively shared. The new season kicks off on August 9, five days after we pause and reflect on events 100 years previously when World War One was declared. It is estimated total casualties from the conflict was 37 million, including three million alone from Britain and the Commonwealth. It was a slaughter of innocents from all nations that lays bare the great lie of sport’s tragedies, usually uttered when a millionaire fails to score with a free shot from 12 yards. The real tragedy for Scottish football was the deaths of James Speedie and James Boyd, aged 21, Henry Wattie and Duncan Currie, 23, Tom Gracie, 26, and Edgar Ellis and John Allan, just 30 years old. It was the compromised career of Paddy Crossan, gassed and wounded twice at the Somme, and Alfie Briggs, who returned from war and never played again, suffered from severe depression and died in 1950 with two machine gun bullets still embedded in his back. They were among the 16 who signed up from Hearts for McCrae’s Battalion soon after the outbreak of war, foregoing their careers to play for a bigger team and a greater goal. They were not alone, of course, as McCrae’s Battalion attracted players from Hibs, Falkirk, Dunfermline and Raith Rovers, all following Lord Kitchener’s fickle finger of fate to the killing fields of France. No football team in Scotland was unaffected, including Celtic, where players also signed up, and who, in 1918, won the Navy and Army War Fund Shield, played to raise money for the families of those who had fought in war. Seven former Celtic players died in World War One. And William Angus, who won the VC for outstanding bravery, was wounded 40 times and suffering the loss of an eye during a daring rescue of an injured pal on the edge of German trenches. But no team suffered more than Hearts during a period when the SFA were under pressure to postpone the season all together, with Airdrie chairman Thomas Forsyth declaring: “Playing football while our men are fighting is repugnant.” At the start of the 1914-15 season Hearts won eight league games on the trot and hopes were high they would win their third title and their first in 18 years. However, the strain of the war effort told in the end as exhaustion from their army commitments took hold to such an extent even trainer James Duckworth suffered a mental breakdown under the pressure. As a result of innoculations, non-availability and additional military training, their form inevitably crumbled. Hearts led the league for 35 out of 37 weeks but eventually succumbed and defeat to St Mirren and Morton allowed Celtic to overhaul them to win the championship by four points. Striker Tom Gracie topped the scoring charts with 29 goals but played the closing weeks of the campaign with leukaemia. His body broken, he died in a military hospital the following year. Jimmy Speedie was killed at Loos in September 1915 and Currie, Ellis and Wattie all fell at the Somme, that repugnant slow march to death ordered by their own generals. Hearts would not hit such grand heights in football for almost another half century, with the last of their four championships won in 1960 after earlier success in 1958. The season after they came so close to the championship they finished fifth and on one occasion could not even raise a team to travel to Morton. A shadow of the club they once were, in the 1916-17 season they finished 14th, used 46 players and were in such a state they finished a match at Ibrox with only 10 men because Fred Gibson had to leave early for work. Hearts fans have never forgotten the bravery of their men and every November they gather at Haymarket for a service at the memorial erected by Edinburgh’s city fathers to mark their sacrifice. In recent years, a cairn has been established at Contalmaison and a bronze plaque was also recently unveiled at Tynecastle, 100 years old this year, to recognise their heroism. Scottish football, led by Celtic, have the ideal opportunity to do the same. It would be a poignant gesture if they asked for the history books to be rewritten and that one campaign shared. Players come and go in Scottish football but this squad of 16 deserves always to be remembered. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/gary-ralston-celtic-should-honour-3773982 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott7 5,168 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 What a good idea. I'm sure that Celtic will readily agree. They are a club noted for their generous spirit are they not? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Cooper 0 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Is this ambulance chasing? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,415 Posted June 27, 2014 Author Share Posted June 27, 2014 I see the article is attracting some interesting comments! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueflag 378 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Gone , but certainly not forgotten Least we forget 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
barca72 440 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Never happen, Gary. They'll take but very seldom give. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rangersitis 0 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 It would have been a far better idea for the writer, especially given his previous connections, to have approached Celtic privately, and then, if there was agreement, he could have written his exclusive. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 I see the article is attracting some interesting comments! ................ Nathaniel J Hornblower 9:01 AM on 27/6/2014 I remember my first LSD trip too Gary - welcome to the club! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RANGERRAB 3,258 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Sporting Integrity must be maintained. I'm sure Liewell & Rhegan will ensure that it does 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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