The story of the Wee Blue Devil's portrait that hangs on the Marble Staircase

Champ Khamis said:
I know that he is a distant relative, Alan Morton was a cousin of my great-grandfather who lived until he was 101 years old. I remember he was a very small man. Alan died at age 78 years old and was only 5.4” tall the same height as myself.❤️
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He ws born on Skaterigg Farm in Glasgow - which is just where the new estate built around the new High School of Glasgow is just off Crow Road at the rugby grounds - the name being kept going by Skaterigg Drive - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Skaterigg+Dr,+Glasgow/@55.8856011,-4.3269421,218m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x48884592437aa66b:0xcab0bdf19dc7c0a9!8m2!3d55.8858433!4d-4.3275241!16s/g/1vzn53_r?entry=ttu
 
There was an English journalist/writer called Ivan Sharpe, who described Alan Morton as 'un-get-at-able.'

Now back in the day, the selectors would pronounce the team on the Friday. Now apparently, there could be a few thousand who would turn up at Park Circus to find out the Scottish eleven would be the following day.

Again, passed down from my granda to my da and down to me. One year on the Friday on the eve of the game, the regular English right back is reputed to have said,: 'If Morton is playing, I hope I'm not picked.'

Urban myth? Urban legend? I realy don't know?

But what is true, is that team selections were announced on the Friday back in the day and it was the English who gave hime 'The Wee Blue Devil' tag, so he really was a scourge to them.
 
The article reports that before the painting was bought by Mr Morton that it was exhibited at the kelvingrove art galleries and also in Paris. Just shows you what a quality portrait it is . I’ve been fortunate to see the painting when standing on the staircase during a stadium tour. It’s fantastic.
 
wee bud's pit boots said:
There was an English journalist/writer called Ivan Sharpe, who described Alan Morton as 'un-get-at-able.'

Now back in the day, the selectors would pronounce the team on the Friday. Now apparently, there could be a few thousand who would turn up at Park Circus to find out the Scottish eleven would be the following day.

Again, passed down from my granda to my da and down to me. One year on the Friday on the eve of the game, the regular English right back is reputed to have said,: 'If Morton is playing, I hope I'm not picked.'

Urban myth? Urban legend? I realy don't know?

But what is true, is that team selections were announced on the Friday back in the day and it was the English who gave hime 'The Wee Blue Devil' tag, so he really was a scourge to them.
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One interesting thing from this, and it's a great post all round, is being able to gather how good a player was from what we have heard of them, or read about them, rather than players we have watched ourselves being in a top 11/12. I never saw Caldow, Henderson, Baxter, Wilson, Dave Smith etc, nor Gillick, Cox, Young, or Woodburn etc, but have no doubts that they were good, either from reading or hearing about them. It possiby makes it more interesting, as your reference to Alan Morton shows, to gather as much as possible for a poll like the one on the other thread, other than it just being limited to players we ourselves have watched.
 
Great post Mark. Love seeing that painting on the tours. Took my son for his HS graduation a few years back and great to show him some of our history from way back.
 
Didn’t someone put a hole in it!! Can vaguely remember when on the stadium tour being told this? Hopefully I’m not having a senior moment :)
 
JMCK said:
One interesting thing from this, and it's a great post all round, is being able to gather how good a player was from what we have heard of them, or read about them, rather than players we have watched ourselves being in a top 11/12. I never saw Caldow, Henderson, Baxter, Wilson, Dave Smith etc, nor Gillick, Cox, Young, or Woodburn etc, but have no doubts that they were good, either from reading or hearing about them. It possiby makes it more interesting, as your reference to Alan Morton shows, to gather as much as possible for a poll like the one on the other thread, other than it just being limited to players we ourselves have watched.
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I honestly believe sometimes as football fans, we can be generarational in looking at players and teams.

For instance, my old man and my granda had a 'theological' debate since the early 60s. I can just imagine them after a game back then in The Mermaid, or The Cactus or even Danny McKay's down in Brigton, and my old told me he said to my granda

'You've never seen a better Rangers player than Jim Baxter' - Not a question, a statement.

My granda - I saw eleven Jim Baxters

My da - Eleven Jim Baxters? Name them?

My granda - Alan Morton and Davie Meiklejohn.

My da - (now with the bit between his teeth) - You said you saw eleven Jim Baxters, you've named two, who are the other nine.

No reply.

But as my old man always said to me, how can you argue against the greatness of players that were retired before you were born?

Getting back to the immortal, Alan Morton. He played eleven times against England, which is a record equalled I'm sure by Bobby Walker of the Hearts. However, Alan Morton, then of Queens Park, played against England in two 'Victory' internationals in 1919, I doubt anyone will ever beat this.

Obviously with the way football is now and no Home International series, it just won't be happening.
 
I remember my old dad waxing lyrical about Morton and singing,

'Hello, hello is that a goal,
For poor old Celtics up the pole,
For Charlie Shaw, he never saw,
Where Alan Morton pit the baw.'

(with apologies to the original version)
 
muz73 said:
I remember my old dad waxing lyrical about Morton and singing,

'Hello, hello is that a goal,
For poor old Celtics up the pole,
For Charlie Shaw, he never saw,
Where Alan Morton pit the baw.'

(with apologies to the original version)
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My old Granda taught me that song, remember it to this day.

On another note I was outside Ibrox with my Da (sometime late 60s) and a big car drew up at the main door and a wee old man with a walking stick came out.
"There's Alan Morton" said my old man.
Of course it didn't really mean much to me at about 7 years old.
 
I sat in a hotel bar a while ago and could overhear a couple of English men talking about football. The younger lad asked the old boy who must have been in his 80s, who was the best player he'd ever seen. Jim Baxter without hesitation.
 
Sometimes I think about how life was for my granda and guys like him around a century ago.
Finish his Saturday morning shift in Harland and Wolff, cross Govan Road to Orkney Street to get freshened up, then a five minute walk up Broomloan Road to watch Alan Morton and the other greats of the time.
When he died in 1975 we found a couple of pictures he had clipped from newspapers - one of the Wembley Wizards, and one of Alan Morton.
 
muz73 said:
I remember my old dad waxing lyrical about Morton and singing,

'Hello, hello is that a goal,
For poor old Celtics up the pole,
For Charlie Shaw, he never saw,
Where Alan Morton pit the baw.'

(with apologies to the original version)
Click to expand...

There seems to be lots of interpretations of this old classic.

Charlie Shaw, never saw
Where Alan Morton pit the baw
He looked around with some regret
To find the baw was in the net

My granda told me that one time back in the day, Alan Morton had an article, or made a statement in one of the newspapers of the day, that a professional footaller should never miss a penalty.

Lo and behold, the next penalty Rangers were awarded, (he said it was against you-know-who, presumably in a Glasgow or Charity cup tie) guess who stepped forward to take it and missed?

Possibly the mind was playing tricks. I couldn't tell you, but he was sharp as a tack till the end.

As anyone who has a copy of Robert McElroy's sublime work, 'The Spirit of Ibrox' will know, that phrase was coined by Alan Morton in 1947, amidst the infamous boardroom coup. 'What has happened to The Spirit of Ibrox?'

I've always said the word 'legend' is bandied about too often these days. In Alan Lauder Morton's case, I don't even think the word does him and his service to the club justice.

Of course we have to look to the future, but we should always honour our greats from the past.

This thread is food for the soul.
 
wee bud's pit boots said:
There seems to be lots of interpretations of this old classic.

Charlie Shaw, never saw
Where Alan Morton pit the baw
He looked around with some regret
To find the baw was in the net

My granda told me that one time back in the day, Alan Morton had an article, or made a statement in one of the newspapers of the day, that a professional footaller should never miss a penalty.

Lo and behold, the next penalty Rangers were awarded, (he said it was against you-know-who, presumably in a Glasgow or Charity cup tie) guess who stepped forward to take it and missed?

Possibly the mind was playing tricks. I couldn't tell you, but he was sharp as a tack till the end.

As anyone who has a copy of Robert McElroy's sublime work, 'The Spirit of Ibrox' will know, that phrase was coined by Alan Morton in 1947, amidst the infamous boardroom coup. 'What has happened to The Spirit of Ibrox?'

I've always said the word 'legend' is bandied about too often these days. In Alan Lauder Morton's case, I don't even think the word does him and his service to the club justice.

Of course we have to look to the future, but we should always honour our greats from the past.

This thread is food for the soul.
Click to expand...
Indeed it is.
 
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