Hugh Shaw (1 April 1896 – 16 August 1976) was a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

. He played as a half-back for Hibernian, Rangers, Heart of Midlothian, East Fife and Leith Athletic in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

, winning a Scottish league championship with Rangers in 1927. After retiring as a player he became a coach with Hibernian, assisting manager

Willie McCartney Willie McCartney (date of birth unknown — 24 January 1948) was a Scotland, Scottish association football, football referee and manager (association football), manager. He managed both of the Edinburgh derby rivals, Heart of Midlothian F.C ...

. Shaw became Hibs manager in 1948, and guided the team to league championships in 1948, 1951 and 1952. Shaw managed Hibs until 1961, and then had a brief spell as

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leag ...

manager.

Playing career

Shaw played during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

, making his debut for Hibernian during the 1918–19 season. He played as a left half-back in the Hibs side that reached the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

and

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

, losing to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and Airdrie respectively. Shaw left Hibs in 1926 to play for Rangers. He played in 36 league games in 1926–27 as Rangers won the

Scottish league championship The Scottish League Championship (currently the Tennents League Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the fi ...

, but then moved to Hearts. Shaw played in a Hearts team that threatened to challenge for the league championship in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

, but eventually finished fourth. He later played for East Fife, Leith Athletic and

Elgin City Elgin City Football Club (also known as City or The Black and Whites) is a professional senior football club based in Elgin, Moray. Elgin was founded in 1893 and originally played their football in the Highland Football League. The club was g ...

Coaching career

Shaw was hired as Hibs' trainer by

in 1936, after McCartney had been appointed

. Hibs had fallen on hard times in the early 1930s, having suffered relegation for the first time in

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

and then struggling to regain and retain Division One status. Through the late 1930s and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, McCartney built the great Hibs side that would largely dominate Scottish football in the late 1940s and early 1950s. With Hibs on top of the league midway through the 1947–48 season, however, McCartney collapsed during a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Mackay, pp156. Although

Matt Busby Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish association football, football player and manager, who managed Manchester United F.C., Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 197 ...

was linked with the job, Shaw was appointed as manager within the week, as Hibs faced a match against their main challengers, Rangers. Hibs won that match 1–0 with a goal in the last minute and went on to win the league championship. Shaw completed the Famous Five forward line by introducing

Bobby Johnstone Robert Johnstone (7 September 1929 – 22 August 2001) was a Scottish footballer, who played for Selkirk, Hibernian, Manchester City, Oldham Athletic and Witton Albion. Johnstone also represented Scotland and the Scottish League. Johnstone ...

to the team in 1948, with all five playing together for the first time on 21 April 1949. He guided the team to further league championships in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

, while also narrowly missing out in

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...

and

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

. The team also entered the first

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

competition in 1955–56, reaching the semi-final. The forward line was broken by the sale of Bobby Johnstone to

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in 1955, and the remaining players were starting to age.Mackay, pp178. Hibs continued to do well in

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

football, but many of those players failed to impress in the first team, with the brilliant exception of

Joe Baker Joseph Henry Baker (17 July 1940 – 6 October 2003) was an England international footballer. Born in Woolton in Liverpool, England, he spent virtually his entire childhood growing up in Motherwell, Scotland. He is notable for being the first ...

. Shaw took some of the blame for the failure to replace the great side, and he resigned in November 1961 following a bad start to the 1961–62 season.Mackay, pp190. He then had a brief spell as

manager. Shaw died in 1976.Hugh Shaw
Hibs Historical Trust. In 2003, the ''

Sunday Herald The ''Sunday Herald'' was a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published between 7 February 1999 and 2 September 2018. Originally a broadsheet, it was published in compact format from 20 November 2005. The paper was known for having combined a centre- ...

'' newspaper listed Shaw as 31st in their list of the 50 greatest Scottish football managers, noting his "sense and man-management skills".Scotland's 50 Greatest Football Managers : 50 to eleven
''

'', 8 June 2003.

Honours

As player :Rangers :*

: 1926–27 :Hibernian :*

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1922–23, 1923–24 As manager :Hibernian :*

: 1947–48, 1950–51, 1951–52 :**Runners-up: 1949–50, 1952–53 :*

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1957–58 :*

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

: runners-up 1950–51

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Hugh Scottish men's footballers 1896 births 1976 deaths Footballers from Clydebank Hibernian F.C. managers Hibernian F.C. non-playing staff Hibernian F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. managers Scottish football managers Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League managers Men's association football wing halves Rangers F.C. players East Fife F.C. players Leith Athletic F.C. players Elgin City F.C. players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Clydebank Juniors F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Highland Football League players Association football coaches