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| James McGorm |
 James McGorm was born on Thursday, 5th November, 1908, in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire. The 6' 0 (12st 0lbs) forward signed for Donald Turner's Thistle on Wednesday, 4th September, 1929, having most recently been with Arbroath. Aged 21, he made his only appearance on Saturday, 25th January, 1930, in a 2-1 defeat away to Hamilton Academical in the SFL First Division. There were no goals for James in his one-off appearance for Thistle. His club-list included Raith Rovers, Arbroath, Partick Thistle, Clydebank Juniors and Wolverhampton Wanderers. James died on Monday, 9th March, 1959, in Dennistoun, Glasgow, aged 50. |
 The son of Hugh McGorm (carter) and Isabella McGorm (née Marquis). James, originally an inside forward, got his first taste of senior football with Raith Rovers, featuring in ten of their top flight games in 1928-29. A short stint at Arbroath followed, before he headed back 'home' to the Glasgow area, landing at Firhill in the early Autumn of 1929. James was a regular for the Partick Thistle reserves in his sole season at the club, and scored in back-to-back games in November 1929, a 2-3 loss at Firhill to Queens Park being followed by a 5-1 win at Fir Park, both games in the Scottish Alliance. To find a place in the excellent Partick Thistle of 1929-30 was no easy task though - the club would finish 6th best side in Scotland and were destined for the Scottish Cup final, lost narrowly to Rangers only after a replay. With injuries forcing the issue, James got his one and only crack at the first team in late January 1930. 4,000 were at Douglas Park for what was proved to be an entertaining league encounter. Thistle were the better side early on, but they went behind (30) then slack defending let in Ness to level from a Torbet cross (33). It was 2-1 (50) then O'Hare went off injured. Reduced to 10 men, Thistle fought on and a hotly disputed off-side decision robbed them of a draw. Post-Firhill, James re-invented himself as a half-back and fell back to the juniors grade. He was playing with his hometown team in Clydebank when one last opportunity arose at the big time with Wolves, and he signed for the West Midlands oufit in the close season of 1935. He had no luck though, and an injury meant that he never got going down south. Sadly, heart disease was reponsible for James's premature demise at Glasgow Royal Infirmary in the springtime of 1959, aged only 50. |
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