Alan Morton - The Wee Blue Devil - and Torry Gillick - 40 years on

15 December 2011 12:58
The Gub marks the 40th anniversary of the passing of two club legends.

There is a case could be made that 1971 was the worst year, the 'Annus Horriblis' in the entire history of Rangers Football Club.We won't go into the tragic events at the start of the year or the way it seemed to hang like a cloud on the park, basically all year long, especially against Timbo.However, if the club and support thought they would see the year out in a relatively low-key fashion then the fates had one last wee surprise in store for us. December 15th, 1971, saw not one but two of Rangers favourite sons of the past taken away from us. I refer of course to Alan Morton and Tory Gillick.It is worthwhile having a wee look back on their worth to the club.Alan MortonIn Alan Morton (Bill Struth's first signing in the summer of 1920) Rangers had bought someone who was already the real deal.

By that, I mean he was already a Scottish internationalist before coming to Ibrox. AL Morton, then of Queens Park had played in the two victory internationals against England in 1919, plus Wales and Ireland.It would be fair to say Morton in the light blue jersey was an immediate success and Rangers blazed through the league in that first Struth (Morton) season of 1920/21 in record breaking style.The league was won in a canter; only one game was lost all season, although the cups would be something of a lost cause. No matter, they would come aplenty in the seasons to follow.

However, if Alan Morton was a wow in the light blue, he took his 5ft 4in stature to soaring heights in the dark blue of Scotland. He played eleven times against the auld enemy, which is a record he shares with Bobby Walker of Hearts, but Morton's two 'victory' international appearances give him the edge. He missed the match against England in 1926 and that became known as 'the year Morton did not play.'However, it was not just the quantity of his appearances against England that mattered, rather it was the quality. For instance Alex Jackson's hat trick for the 'Wembley Wizards in 1928 all came from Morton's precision crosses.

From all reports, and certainly words handed down from my granda, England tried all sorts of ploys and full backs to combat Alan Morton in his pomp. Big ones, wee ones, footballing ones, thugs, you name it, Alan Morton was a match for them all.He was 'un-get-at-able. An English fan was heard to quip he was 'a wee blue devil' and the phrase stuck. Again legend has it that on the Friday before the match the regular English right back of the day was supposed to have said 'If Morton is playing I hope I'm not picked.'Urban myth? Possibly, but it does tie in with how things worked back then.

The teams would be announced on the Friday before the match. In fact, there used to be large crowds would turn up at Park Gardens to hear what the team selection was.Alan Morton was the son of a coalmaster and although he was naturally right footed, he continually practiced trying to chip a ball through a hole in a door in his dad's garden (some say it was a coal bucket) with his weaker left foot till he was as proficient with that as his right. There surely has to be a lesson in there somewhere for any youngsters coming through the ranks at Ibrox today.He was just 5ft 4 in tall and tipped the scales at just over 9 stones. But by all accounts it was his extraordinary balance and ability to control a ball stone dead that enabled him to slip by opponent after opponent.He was also famous for his lob that seemed to hang in the air Yet I'm sure I read one time that a camera crew were allowed into Ibrox at a training session to watchMorton and his lob.

Apparently he couldn't cross to save himself that day.So the immortal one was not infallible. A wee funny again handed down from my granda was that Morton was in the papers one day saying a professional footballer should never miss a penalty. The following week we were at CP on Glasgow Cup business; Rangers were awarded a penalty, guess who took it and guess who missed it? Alan Morton to Steven Whittaker in nought to two seconds.Alan Morton started seven games for Rangers at the start of season 1932/33 and then retired. He was made a Director of the club with immediate effect.His record stands in bold relief.

Nine championship badges, two Scottish cup and a host of Glasgow and Charity cup medals. He played 31 times for Scotland when there were basically only three matches a season to be competed in. This was a record that stood until it was broken by another Rangers legend, George Young well after WW2.Depending on where you read it, Alan Morton played 498 times for Rangers scoring 119 goals. Not a bad scoring ratio for a winger, I'm sure you will all agree. In all his time at Ibrox he never played a reserve match for Rangers. His portrait that hangs up the Marble staircase says it all really. As does the following;'Alan Morton scorned anything that was slightly ungentlemanly on the field and he was so fr above the others of his era in skill and field manners and in bearing off the field that when the Scottish Football Association held their Diamond Jubilee Dinner in 1933 he was the only player to be invited as a guest.'We can safely say without any fear of contradiction that Alan Lauder Morton sits very much at the top table in our own Ibrox Valhalla.

Torrance (Torry) GilickBy all accounts Torry Gillick was a wonderful football playing old fashioned 'inside man' but he has a claim to fame that makes him unique at Ibrox. He was the only player brought back to Ibrox by Bill Struth a second time after leaving the club in the first place. Torry was transferred to Everton for £8,000, which was then a club record for the toffeemen.Torry actually played against Rangers in the 1938 Empire Exhibition tournament but came back to Scotland before the start of the war. During it he guested for Rangers and Airdrie. He was signed by Rangers in 1933 as an eighteen year old and won a Scottish Cup badge in 1935.

Which gives him another unique claim to fame as he was the only Rangers player to win Scottish Cup badges either side of WW2.He was officially brought back by Struth in 1945 when he wrote himself into Ibrox folklore during the friendly against Moscow Dynamo when he got the referee to stop play as he had noticed those pesky Russians were playing with twelve men!By all accounts he was something of a maverick and was indulged by Struth; but not all the time. Torry would slip into Ibrox late for training at times, see the boss wasn't looking and join in with the laps around the pitch as if he had been there from the start.When training was finished, there would invariably be only one outcome. As the players made their way to get showered the auld yin would give Torry a shout and invite him to stay behind to make up his lost time.

If the Russians couldn't get one over on Torry then there wasn't much Torry would get over on Bill Struth!Then there was the time TG was down in England representing the Scottish League against the English League, games that attracted huge crowds back in the day. So anyway at breakfast, whilst his colleagues were scrimping away on a bowl of cereal or such like Torry ordered the full Monty to the astonishment of the others and proceeded to charge the bill to the Scottish league.Weeks later when the bill came in, it was sent to Ibrox for Rangers to pay the bill for one of their charges. Struth was having none of it.

He sent it back with a wee note to the effect 'A Rangers player is used to the best of everything and if you can't provide our players with the same, then don't pick them to represent Scotland again. That was the end of the matter.TG of course was part of that legendary post war Rangers team that tripped off the tongue; Brown, Young, Shaw. McColl, Woodburn and Cox. Waddell, Gillick, Thornton, Duncanson and Caskie. The truth is that team, very much like the Rangers team of the Baxter era very rarely played together.I remember going up to Tannadice in early 84 for the League Cup semi final 1st leg. You know the one were we couldn't see Davie Mitchell's late equaliser for the fog.

Anyway on that mini bus was my granda and auld Tam Bain. The drink was flowing and I got round to asking them about their favourite players and I asked specifically about right wing pairings. (McPhail and Morton were the foregone conclusion on the left)By that I mean, I asked who in their opinion was the best they had seen on the right wing for Rangers? Was it Archibald and Cunningham, Waddell and Gillick or Henderson and McMillan?Without a moment's hesitation they both said (almost in unison) Waddell and Gillick.

Which is fair enough, but it was the withering look as if I was daft for asking the question in the fist place I recall.Torry Gillick won league championship badges either side of the war in his time at Ibrox (also 5 during wartime) plus a league badge at Everton. As I said earlier, he won Scottish Cup badges either side of the war at Ibrox and two League Cup winners medals with him opening the scoring in final wins against Aberdeen (47) and Raith Rovers (49). Nineteen seventy one started off horribly, the middle was no great shakes either and with the death of two Rangers greats in December, then it didn't end too clever either. Nineteen seventy-two would see a smile back on our faces but that is for another day.I hope the younger readers have enjoyed this wee look back at the Rangers careers of Messrs Morton and Gillick, players who helped make us what we are.THE GOVANHILL GUB

Source: FOOTYMAD