The Thistle Archive

We're very pleased to report that recent research on Jackie Husband led to confirmation of what we'd long suspected; former player and then-trainer Adam McLean was our caretaker manager in 1959, in the interim period between David Meiklejohn and Willie Thornton. All duly applied throughout the Archive today... Adam McLean (caretaker manager) →

They're in place, the scrapbook tab entries are just kinda chucked in there at the moment, unqualified, will maybe need to do something about that. Nice, clear pics you're getting, should work well for every device. Re more content, we could certainly put up entries for individual players as things stand. How many would there be do you think? Jackie Husband →

Denis, if you wouldn't mind, could you snap the first page too? We could then put up that whole piece in our 'Scrapbook' tab, would be a great addition.

Some great wee insights in that entry, might be nice to slip in a new sentence or two to our story! We have that photo in our Jackie Husband gallery (the 'Gallery' tab is the fifth one along, click on the photo to see it in hi-res, )... Jackie Husband →

Proper digging! Right half David Darling made just one first-team appearance, but we're very pleased to meet them all just the same. We've found him in "Up the Hill and Back" by Brian Reilly in 2007. Treble winner in '45. What happened to him after 1946 we wonder? David Darling →

Imagine the frustration at knowing the guy you're chasing (Hope Robertson) is in this Woolwich Arsenal line-up of 1889, but no names are listed. Followed by the absolute joy of stumbling across a chance reveal on e-bay a few months later. This was the tale of our researcher Joe Kelly; these are the small victories which keep us all going! Today, for the first time, we can now introduce you properly to... Hope Robertson →

Allan Brown wasn't a prominent Jag, but it's nice to see him for the first time all the same. Whilst at Clyde he was featured on this Pinnace Football Card from 1922, always a nice and clear image on those. Allan Brown →

Our Bob Duncan played in the 1895 Scottish Cup final and we're very pleased to be seeing him for the first time. This amazing souvenir was included with (Aberdeen club) Bon-Accord's Football Supplement, dated 18 May 1895, some 4 weeks after the final. Photo and back story added to Bob's profile at the Archive: Bob Duncan →

Well Cotter Jag, what can we say, other than thank you very much for digging this one up. To have heard about this film is one thing, but to get a glimpse of a few snippets from it is something else. Your next challenge is to find the snips for future-Jags-manager Wille Thornton! Have put this supporting text on our YouTube channel: Fascinating snippets featuring George Young, Jackie Husband and Willie Waddell, masters of their respective arts. Young played once for Thistle in a December '57 benefit match and Husband was, of course, a Thistle stalwart par excellence! The excerpt comes from “The Glory and the Goals - 100 Years of the Scottish Football League” an SFL centenary video production from 1990. A set of instructional films were produced in October 1948, showcasing the finer arts of the Scottish game. In the excerpt above we're seeing snips from Lesson Groups A & E as per below: Lesson Group A: Kicking the Ball. Penalty Kick (G. Young, Rangers and Scotland); and the Sweep or Cross (W. Waddell, Rangers and Scotland). Lesson Group B: Trapping the Ball. The Trap—dead (W. Thornton); the Trap—under control within one yard (W. Thornton); and the Trap—on the turn (W. Thornton). Lesson Group C: Heading the Ball. The Nod (W. Thornton); the Side Flick (W. Thornton). Lesson Group D: Footwork—Swerving. The Single Dummy or Body Swerve; the Double Dummy or Body Swerve (W. Thornton and W. Woodburn). Lesson Group E: The Throw-In. The Long Throw-In, close-up; the Long Throw-In, long shot (J. Husband, Partick Thistle and Scotland). You've inspired an upgrade for Jackie's page at the Archive which now has a 'Video' tab, featuring this as well as three other Jackie-related videos, check it out... Jackie Husband →

Two bampots re-united... “as I was leaving the field, John Lambie took a swing at me. But we all made up later. It was that respect thing” Drew Busby R.I.P. →

Junior cracks Strathclyde were League & Cup double winners in 1896-97. From this shot we're able to get our first decent picture of our 5-season goalie, Tom Wilkie. Delighted also to have uncovered his birth and death details. Tom Wilkie →

Is it the extraordinary propulsion in relation to the notoriously weighty ba' of the day?

It really was, although those 90 minutes were a tough workout for many Thistle hearts that day.

Club historian Robert Reid knows a thing or two about Partick Thistle legends, so when he describes Jackie Husband as a Thistle stalwart par excellence one must sit up and take notice. For whole new generations of Partick Thistle fans, “The Jackie Husband” has been part of the bi-weekly parlance for a good few decades now. The East stand named in his honour is an impressive engineering structure of concrete and steel, most certainly fit to house the Firhill faithful at Saturday worship. But what of thee Jackie Husband? What of the man, the legend? Donald Turner had his eyes on Yoker Athletic's 20-year-old half-back at the start of our last pre-war season, and finally made his move towards the end of 1938. Little did he, or Jackie, know that this would be the start of a working relationship between a man and a club that would span almost 54 years, broken only by a two-year stint as manager of Queen of the South. 368 appearances and 12 goals doesn't even begin to tell the story of Jackie's involvement with Thistle; player, captain, trainer, coach, physiotherapist, scout, kitman, handyman, bus driver, pitch sander, not to mention being a general mentor to one and all, especially in his later years. On the 77th anniversary of Jackie becoming the first Partick Thistle captain to lift a national trophy at Hampden Park, it's our great pleasure to look back at the life and times of the gentleman who was the very definition of “a great servant to the club”. Thee Jackie Husband →

Aidan proudly remains in Thistle's all-time top 5 competitive scorers chart for those prodigious talents who found the net aged just 17 or less...

^ Two red top games can be seen from the 1972 trip to Sweden, as filmed and digitized by CCJag of this very parish! Firstly, the Sirius (July Cup) match → then the Brynäs (friendly) →

Fun fact for you D; our record margin of victory over Livingston (we include all 3 incarnations in the same H2H) is 5 and it was achieved 3 times, once against each of them! Check the H2H here → then select the record scores tab to check it out. Re the game it was definitely a Sunday as you can from the same link above, and if you click on the match result you'll see our wee potted report for the game in question. I see the League fixtures are out, always an exciting day in the calendar. Looking forward to meeting 'The Broch' for the first time, and first-footing Queen's Park @ Lesser Hampden sounds good (in theory). All 42 match hub skeletons are now in place, as well as the season overview page →

It is, pity it didn't do what it was told on the home page!

Here you go mate, a 5th July special, runs to the 6th! http://www.thethistlearchive.net/5th-july-special

What date, i'll do you a special? Former programme editors Niall Kennedy and Tom Hosie wrote mini pen pics for our players from 1982 to the end of the 90s which featured in a millennium special back in the day. They've allowed us to reproduce them on the Archive for everyone to enjoy again, which was very decent of them. These give some much-needed flavour to our rather robotic introduction bios. 267 player profiles have been duly improved today, full list on the home page → p.s. If anyone wants to write a pen pic for any of their favourite players not already covered then get in touch →

The good news is that the annual update for our On This Day feature has been completed, with reports on all the 2021-22 matches, the day rankings re-tabulated, and all the newly found births and deaths duly loaded. The bad news is that it's stubbornly refusing to embed into our home page (via a cross-site i-frame kind-of-thing). As can be seen on the home page today →, it can still be viewed by opening a new window, albeit that's not ideal. If anyone with I.T. or programming know-how could offer some assistance please we'd be very pleased to receive it, please get in touch →

We're on a great run of unveiling never-seen-before (by us) Jagsmen lately. It's a combination of catch-up post-database-crash, some inspired digging by ourselves and some great contributions from modern-day descendants. Five more have been added since we last posted here, taking us up to the great milestone of 1,300 Jagsmen with a face to their name. Yep, after some 10 years of digging, scanning, cropping and whatnot, we're seeing our 1,300th Partick Thistle player (John Hastie) image today, and what a cracking shot it is; all the way from his great granddaughter, Ros, in Australia. It's a huge gathering, and possibly even the largest tally of first team player images of any club side in the world. Special mentions for Stuart Deans for breaking the ground with this task many moons ago, and to Joe Kelly for all his great digging in recent times. We'll keep at it, you just never know what could still be lurking out there! Incidentally, just like Doolan vs. County, we've passed the milestone immediately (behind the scenes) and we'll have news of this shortly when they've been applied. Full details (and keep your eye on) our home page news... → p.s. Could you help with our missing player images?

I get what you're saying Jagger, I feel the same myself about Facebook. I suppose the post above is just meant to act as a prompt to get folks to read the news on the home page →. All 25 are listed there for anyone to explore. The new gallery tabs have captions which are pretty much saying the same thing as the tweets. I'd hope that anyone interested in Thistle history has our home page bookmarked and checks in often to see what's happening. That is thee place for sharing our work. Why Twitter for that thread? I'm just trying to spread the Jaggy gospel as far and wide as possible (albeit there's only so much one man can do). That main tweet has over 4,000 views and 30 likes. As a result of it, the Celtic Wiki are digging for more missing players, as is a Newcastle historian. The Arbroath Archive got in touch with another two previously unseen Jagsmen. A fair few of the 25 submissions came from Twitter people too.

Thanks very much for your excellent suggestion Jagger, yes it has been discussed. We have the material and the platform, just not so sure about the will and the energy. It is a free platform by Thistle fans for Thistle fans, so if anyone wants to go for it, get in touch. For such a mammoth undertaking it'd probably be wise to touch base with the club for their approval before any effort was wasted. From time to time we experiment with future plans e.g. Alan Hansen → for players potential. Re your specific query, we previously used the Celtic '71 game → as an experiment with a Match Programme tab, check it out. The programme has both a video and a clickable image gallery on that example. Some more bits n bobs of Archive News... We finally found a decent report on the game at the City Ground in March '66. HT scores now 100% complete for 1965-66 →! It's these little things, ye know? We've found a new match lurking in the Perthshire Advertiser; the Jags were at Muirton Park in April 1952 →. Interesting side note: Jimmy McGowan faced up to his younger brother, Ally, for the one and only time in their professional careers! Discovering new matches is always exciting - none more so than the one we found the other week hiding in plain sight in the Glasgow Herald - Partick Thistle 1 Rangers 0 →, a testimonial match for Frank Branscombe. We make that FIFTY FOUR Partick Thistle wins over Rangers, an excellent tally, even if it is out of fashion! As a result of the aforementioned discovery, JOHN COLQUHOUN belatedly takes his place in our Goalies' Clean-Sheet Debutants Club →, and becomes the first Jag to do so against Rangers. John's one of 177 goalies that we've had, and our end-of-season update table → (fully sortable) compares them at all at-a-glance. Jamie 'ratio' Sneddon is up to joint 13th in overall clean-sheets, with a great opportunity to rise next season.