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 Hall
of Famer, Bart McGhee and his father Jimmy are unique in the
soccer world in that they are the only father and son, to have
played for two different countries in international competition.
Bart played in all three games for the United States in
the World Cup of 1930, while Jimmy, a very famous player in his
native Scotland, played for Scotland against Wales in Glasgow on
April 10, 1886.
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Personal Information |
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Class of 1986 |
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Born:
April 30, 1899 - Edinburgh, Scotland |
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Died:
January 26, 1979 - Philadelphia, PA |
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Position: Outside Left |
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Int'l
Caps: 3 |
Int'l
Goals: 1 |
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Jimmy McGhee was born in Lugar, Ayrshire and
began his career with Cronberry F.C. in 1878, moved on to Lugar
Boswell Thistle in 1880 and then hit the big time with the
famous Edinburgh club Hibernian in 1883. He remained with
Hibs until 1889 captaining the team to victory over Dumbarton in
the Scottish F.A. Cup Final of 1887. Then, in April of
1889, he was sent on loan to another Edinburgh club, St. Bernards, and later that same year to
Celtic. On December 20, 1890 he officially became a Celtic
player but only appeared in 10 games for the Glasgow club before
being loaned to Dykebar, and then Abercorn in February of 1892.
Much later on April 11, 1908 he was appointed
secretary/manager of Hibernian's Edinburgh rivals Hearts, at
that time, a club in trouble. From the very beginning the
appointment of a staunch Catholic to manage a Protestant club
was unpopular and then later his strict disciplinarian methods
were disliked too. Finally a clash with famous Hearts
players Bobby Walker and Tommy Collins, whom he suspended, led
to his resignation on December 6, 1909. In September 1910
he left Scotland for the United States
where he made his home in Philadelphia.
Son Bart, and his older brother Jimmy were
born in Scotland before their father left for the U.S. Bart,
sometimes known as Bertie, was born in Edinburgh on April 30,
1899. Along with his mother, and his brother, he arrived
in New York aboard the liner Caledonia in 1912.
Bart first attracted attention as a player in
1918 when he began playing for the New York Shipbuilding team,
one of a number of teams located along the shores of the
Delaware River in Philadelphia. Later he and his brother
played for Wolfenden Shore, another team located along the
river, and then in 1920 for Philadelphia Hibernians.
But it was not until the professional American
Soccer League came into being that Bart McGhee's career really
took off. He was a member of the New York Football Club
team in the 1922-23 and 1923-24 seasons, scoring 11 goals in 21
games in 1922-23 and 12 goals in 27 games in 1923-24. He
returned to Philadelphia to play for Fleischer Yarn in 1924-25
but was back in New York for the 1925-26 and 1926-27 seasons
playing for the Indiana Flooring Company.
When Charles Stoneham, the owner of the New
York Giants baseball club, bought Indiana Flooring in the summer
of 1927 and renamed the team New York Nationals, McGhee remained
with the club. He went on to win a U.S. Open Cup winners
medal in the spring of 1928 when the Nationals beat Chicago
Bricklayers 3-0 at Soldier Field in Chicago, after the teams had
tied 1-1 at the Polo Grounds in New York. In January of
1929 he was a member of the
Nationals squad that beat New Bedford Whalers to win the Lewis
Cup in a three game series, and remained with the Nationals
during the 14 months when the ASL was suspended by the United
States Football Association, today's U.S. Soccer.
The summer of 1930 saw the original New York
Giants, owned by Maurice Vandeweghe sold, and Charles Stoneham
then obtained the Giants name. So at the start of the 1930
Fall season the Nationals became the Giants and McGhee was a
member of the squad when it won the ASL championship early in
1932, in a memorable series with New Bedford Whalers.
But McGhee's greatest triumph was as a member
of the U.S. World Cup team of 1930, scoring the first goal ever
scored by an American in World Cup competition in the opening
game against Belgium. There have ben claims that this was
the first goal ever scored in the World Cup, however, the
records show that in a game played that same afternoon Lucien
Laurant of France scored against Mexico after 19 minutes and
Marcel Langiller after 40 minutes, while McGhee's goal came
after 41 minutes.
Reports say that McGhee had a beautiful tenor
voice and was in great demand during the 1930 tour in South
America to entertain. There are also reports in some
publications that he later played in England for Hull City.
However, he son Ed, who lives in Riverton, New Jersey, told me
that, apart from his trip to South America, Bart never left the
U.S.
During his ASL career Bart McGhee played in
350 league games and scored 127 goals, almost all of them from
the left wing position. He was inducted into the National
Soccer Hall of Fame posthumously in 1986.
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