James Weir (23 August 1887 – 1959) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

and

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 ...

in Scotland and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in England. Having been brought to reigning

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 ...

title holders Celtic to replace the veteran

Willie Orr William Orr (20 June 1873 – 26 February 1946) was a Scottish football player and manager. Playing career Orr began his career at Airdrieonians before moving to Preston North End in 1894. It was at Celtic though where he made his name. He ...

, he helped the club to win three further championships in succession from 1907–08 to 1908–10, adding a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 46 ...

(he also played in the 1909 final in which the trophy was withdrawn after supporters rioted following a drawn replay at

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

) and wins in the

Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup The Glasgow Merchants' Charity Cup was a knockout football tournament open to teams from in and around Glasgow and later on in the tournament's history, teams from outwith Glasgow. Invitations were made and sent out by the Glasgow Charity Cup ...

(1907–08) and the

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rules ...

(1909–10). However, Joe Dodds then became the first-choice left back. After moving to Middlesbrough in 1910, Weir joined up with a former colleague at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is also ...

, Donald McLeod, and was a regular for ''Boro'' in his first three seasons then had a more limited role in two subsequent campaigns leading up to the suspension of regular competitions with the escalation of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, including the contribution of eight matches in the

1913–14 Football League The 1913– 14 season was the 26th season of The Football League. Final league tables The tables below are reproduced here in the exact form that they can be found aThe Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundationwebsite and in ''Rothmans Book of Fo ...

which brought the club's highest-ever finishing position of third. He later ran a pub in nearby

Redcar Redcar is a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is located east of Middlesbrough. The Teesside built-up area's Redcar subdivision had a population of ...

.Jamie Weir
The Celt Mag on Tumblr, 11 July 2020

References

1887 births 1959 deaths Scottish men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Celtic F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Footballers from East Ayrshire Ayr F.C. players People from Muirkirk {{Scotland-footy-defender-1880s-stub