SELKIRK’S FIRST FOOTBALLING INTERNATIONALIST (And another French connection!)
Alexander "Sandy" McMahon
(16 October 1870 – 25 January 1916)
Sandy was born in 1870 at Whithillbrae in the Parish of Kirkhope , a farmstead just 5 miles or so up the Ettrick valley from Selkirk and received his education at Selkirk High School.
McMahon started his career with local amateurs Selkirk Woodburn, one of the many football clubs which were established in the town around the time of the formation of Selkirk F.C.
Sandy joined Northern League founding members, Darlington St Augustine’s during a period when many churches ran football clubs as an appropriate channel for the youth of the parish.
Later McMahon moved to Edinburgh where he played with Leith Harp a senior club which played at Leith links and like Selkirk were formed in 1880 then Hibernian before a first venture to the professional game in England with Burnley. It is probable that Sandy took part in the first season of the Football League in England when 'the Turfites' were one of the 12 founders of the competition. He returned to Hibs in February 1889 but found the club floundering due to the mass recruitment of their mainly Catholic players by Celtic. In 1891 McMahon eventually followed the path of other former Hibernian favourites, such as Willie Groves to Celtic where he was offered double the wages he earned at Hibs. He played for the Glasgow team until 1903, making at least 217 appearances and scoring 171 goals. Equally adept at centre forward or inside left, he won three Scottish Cup medals, in 1892, 1899 and 1900, and four Scottish League medals, in 1893, 1894, 1896 and 1898. His first major moment of glory came in the 1892 Scottish Cup Final replay, when he scored two goals in the 5-1 victory over Queen's Park. He also scored in the 1899 cup final when Celtic beat Rangers 2-0, and in the 1900 final when they defeated Queen's Park 4-3. In 1892, following his cup final display, McMahon returned to professional football in England with Nottingham Forest after what was reported as having literally ‘a bag of sovereigns’ wafted under his nose but, after concerted efforts from the Celtic committee he returned to Glasgow without having played for the East Midlands side.
The advent of professionalism in Scotland the following year stemmed the southward drift and ensured players such as McMahon could earn sufficient remuneration for their talents by staying in their native country. McMahon played six times for Scotland between 1892 and 1902, and scored four goals in the 11-0 rout of Ireland in 1901, Scotland’s record victory in international to date. He also represented the Scottish League XI on eight occasions.
Sandy was though highly enough of by Celtic to be awarded a benefit match against ‘Old Firm’ rivals Rangers on Monday 28th of August 1899 attracting 12,000 spectators. Unfortunately Sandy was not able to play due to a knock he had taken during the previous week while playing against Kilmarnock. For the record, the match ended in a 2-2 draw and ‘the Duke’ left Parkhead £400 richer or £36,000 in today’s terms!
He is said to have been a well-read man, and could play the piano which is something that lent him respect from many quarters. His manager during his first spell at Celtic, Willie Maley described him as "the best header of a ball I have ever seen... he could almost hold a high cross with his head... direct it with the greatest of ease... a terror to defences at corner kicks" He was the first great Celtic player to define an era, in much the same way the players like McGrory, ‘Jinky Johnstone’ and Larsson were later to emulate. He was also much in demand at social events due to his musical abilities. Despite being one of the best players ever to play for Celtic, he never donned the famous green and white hoops having only ever worn the vertical green and white stripes which were the norm up until the end of his final 1902-03 season. Sandy is the all-time top scoring Celt in Old Firm games with 15 in League games or when Scottish Cup and League Cup Celtic v Rangers games are included 19 goals. He also ranks no 8 in the all-time Celtic league goal scorers with 130 goals and remains at no. 8 when League cup and Scottish cup goals are included with 177 goals.
Despite his phenomenal scoring record, (he was top scorer in eight of his eleven full seasons) his career was blighted by knee and ankle injuries, and had it not been for those injuries, and the arrival of the next great Celtic goal-scorer Jimmy Quinn, he might have added to his success at Parkhead.
McMahon eventually left Celtic in 1903, joining Partick Thistle as their highest profile signing to date, and the experienced new arrival was seen as a major boost to the young Jags squad.
Great excitement surrounded the great man’s Thistle debut, against high-flying Third Lanark and Sandy contributed the first goal in a creditable draw.
The following week in a game against Hearts however McMahon’s non-appearance was only part of an afternoon of disappointments provided by Thistle, reported the Daily Record. No explanation was forthcoming, and he played the next two games – described as skilful but slow. However, over the next few weeks, despite being selected, match reports reported further McMahon non-appearances, and eventually the Thistle committee stopped selecting him, settling on Sam Kennedy as their preferred centre forward. The mystery of his non-appearances was unexplained by the newspapers but it can be assumed that the injury problems that cut his Celtic career short were preventing him from turning out for Thistle. Sandy remained with Thistle, and made occasional appearances, until the end of the season, when he retired from playing football for good.
He earned several sobriquets during his playing days, such as the "prince of dribblers" and "The Duke". The later was derived from the French President Patrice de Mac-Mahon, duc de Magenta, the descendant of an Irish soldier who had severed under Napoleon. Writer John Cairney recounts that when the duc de Magenta died, Glasgow news-vendors cried "McMahon died! McMahon died!" in order to sell more papers. Many Glaswegians purchased the paper under the assumption that the story referred to the popular Celtic player, rather than the far-removed foreign politician. After retiring from football, Sandy owned the ‘Duke Bar’, (now known as ‘The Gallowgate’), 209 Great Eastern Road, Glasgow. Sandy eventually succumbed to cancer on January 25th 1916 at the aged only 45. The story goes that when Willie Maley went to see him in Glasgow Royal Infirmary a few days before his death, Sandy rolled back the bedcovers, showed Maley his spindly legs and said that he hoped they had done their bit for Celtic's history. He then asked the weeping Maley to lower the colours on his coffin at his funeral. The request was carried out at Dalbeth Cemetery, Section 15 - Lair No. 1864 just a mile along the London Road from Parkhead scene of many of his footballing successes. In April 2011 his unmarked final resting place was provided with a small marker by the Celtic Graves Society.