John Flannegan Gardiner (23 December 1911 – 10 October 1965), sometimes known as Jackie Gardiner, 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 represented

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

Career

Gardiner played amateur football for Queen's Park, joining in 1930 from John Street School in Bridgeton. He embarked on a tour of Norway with the club in 1933. During his time with Queen's Park, he represented the Scottish amateur national team in games against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He retired from playing due to a cruciate ligament injury. During the 1936 Olympic Games, he represented

twice, his debut came in a 2–0 victory over China and his final game against Poland in a 5–4 loss. During the game against Poland he was booed by the crowd for body charging several players and knocking over Polish left winger

Hubert Gad Hubert Gad, also known as Hubert God (15 August 1914 – 3 July 1939), was a Polish football player, a very skilled and aggressive forward, who for a while was the top scorer of Poland. Born in Świętochłowice, Gad represented both Śląsk Św ...

at a time when Great Britain were losing 5–1. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was general manager of the

Kelvin Hall The Kelvin Hall, located on Argyle Street in Glasgow, Scotland, is one of the largest exhibition centres in Britain and now a mixed-use arts and sports venue that opened as an exhibition venue in 1927. It has also been used as a concert hall, ...

exhibition centre in Glasgow. He died in 1965 from lung cancer. His son is

Barry Gardiner Barry Strachan Gardiner (born 10 March 1957) is a British politician who served as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade from 2016 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he ...

, a politician, while grandson Jacob Gardiner-Smith is also a footballer. Gardiner returned to Queen's Park after his playing career and taught a young

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time ...

, Ferguson had complained that an opponent had bitten him during the game and Gardiner told Ferguson to "bite him back". Gardiner became president of the club in the 1960s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardiner, John 1911 births 1965 deaths Scottish men's footballers Queen's Park F.C. players Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Great Britain Footballers from Glasgow Scotland men's amateur international footballers Men's association football wing halves People from Bridgeton, Glasgow Scottish Football League players