James Quinn (8 July 1878 – 21 November 1945) 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 lea ...

who played for

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 Foot ...

for 15 years, becoming one of the club's leading goalscorers of all time. He also represented

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Career

Club

A native of the village of Croy, North Lanarkshire and signed for Celtic aged 22 by

Willie Maley William Patrick Maley (25 April 1868 – 2 April 1958) was an Irish-born Scottish international football player and manager. He was the first manager of Celtic Football Club, and one of the most successful managers in Scottish football histo ...

from junior club Smithston Albion in 1900, Quinn took several seasons to make his mark, playing at outside-left then inside-left before being moved to

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. Like so many players of the time and since, he was a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

. A man who was strong and powerful in stature but shy and unassuming in character, the foundations of Quinn's enduring fame were laid with a hat-trick in the 1902 British League Cup final against

Old Firm The Old Firm is a collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply embedded i ...

rivals

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

, and cemented in the 1904 Scottish Cup Final against the same opposition. At half-time Rangers led by two goals to nil. In the second half, however, Celtic came back to win 3–2, Quinn scoring all the goals. This was the second

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in a

Scottish Cup Final The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Scottish Cup, is a knockout cup competition in Scottish football. Organised by the Scottish Football Association, it is the third oldest existing football competition in the wo ...

; it was 68 years before the feat was repeated by

Dixie Deans John Kelly "Dixie" Deans (born 30 July 1946) is a Scottish retired footballer. He played as a centre forward in the 1960s and 1970s, primarily for Motherwell and Celtic, and was a prolific goal-scorer. Deans played in two international match ...

in Celtic's 6–1 defeat of Hibs in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

. That cup final hat-trick was the first a Celtic player scored against Rangers in a major competition, and Quinn also scored the second, in a 3–0 league victory on

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

1912. He was the only player from either side to have twice scored a hat-trick in an

match until

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former association football, footballer who has since worked as a Manager (association football), manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Jo ...

emulated him in the 1980s. Quinn won six successive

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

and five

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Bennett, McMenemy, Quinn, Somers and

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. He scored 218 goals in 331 appearances in the two major competitions – 188 in the League (273 appearances including a playoff in 1905) and 30 in the Scottish Cup from 58 appearances, eight of them in finals (1904, 1908, 1909, and 1911), plus dozens more in various minor tournaments. His strike rate of 0.65 – almost two goals every three games – is surpassed among Celtic goalscorers only by

Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward. He later managed Kilmarnock and Celtic. McGrory is also the all-time leading goalscorer in top-flight Bri ...

Henrik Larsson Edward Henrik Larsson (; born 20 September 1971) is a Swedish professional association football, football coach and former player who played many times for the Sweden men's national football team, Swedish national team. A Striker (association f ...

and Sandy McMahon. As a scorer of league goals, his total of 187 is behind McGrory alone. Quinn was the first Celtic player to score 200 goals for the club, and only four others have done so—McGrory,

Bobby Lennox Robert Lennox, MBE (born 30 August 1943) is a Scottish former footballer who played for Celtic and was a member of their 1967 European Cup-winning team, known as the Lisbon Lions. He earned ten international caps for Scotland. In 2002, Celtic ...

(273), Larsson (242), and

Stevie Chalmers Thomas Stephen Chalmers (26 December 1935 – 29 April 2019) was a Scottish footballer who played as a centre-forward and spent the majority of his career with Celtic. He is the club's fifth-highest goalscorer with 236 goals and is cons ...

(228). Ninety years after his retirement, he remains the club's fifth highest goalscorer. He received a benefit match in 1926, in which Celtic played against a Scottish League team, ending in a 3–3 draw. His grandson of the same name also played for Celtic.

International

Quinn scored seven goals in 11 appearances for

including four out of five goals against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in 1908, and eight in as many games for the

Scottish League XI The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...

Honours

Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct 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 k ...

(6):

1904–05 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' D ...

, 1905–06, 1906–07, 1907–08, 1908–09, 1909–10 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1903–04, 1906–07, 1907–08, 1910–11, 1911–12 **Finalist: 1908–09 * British League Cup: 1901–02 *

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 rule ...

: 1904–05, 1905–06, 1906–07, 1907–08, 1909–10

Notes

References

;Sources *''Factfile - Celtic'' ed Chris Mason, pub Parragon 1998 *David Potter, ''The Mighty Quinn: Jimmy Quinn, Celtic's First Goal Scoring Hero'' (Tempus, 2005)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, Jimmy 1878 births 1945 deaths Scottish men's footballers Footballers from North Lanarkshire Scottish people of Irish descent Scottish Junior Football Association players Men's association football forwards Celtic F.C. players Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Scottish miners Scottish league football top scorers People from Croy