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‘Master of the shimmy’ Torry Gillick remembered in new biography

The autobiography of a pioneering winger revered in Glasgow and on Merseyside is reviewed by Eric Brown...


BY ERIC BROWN

Torry Gillick is a name that will mean little to today’s supporters of Everton and Rangers yet he is so revered at Goodison Park and Ibrox that he has been inducted into the Hall of Fame at both clubs.

Gillick entertained crowds before and after the Second World War with ball skills and panache rarely witnessed at the time. The ball-playing winger was one of the first to cut in off the touchline and try his luck with a shot, in an outrageous move that has become common today.

This manoeuvre brought him many goals but also much criticism from traditionalist fans who insisted a winger’s job was to beat a fullback on the outside and supply crosses for a big centre-forward.

He contributed both goals and crosses towards Everton’s 1938-39 Football League title with Tommy Lawton often the beneficiary.

Torry, as he is universally known, prospered at Rangers soon after they paid Petershill £75 for him and the player a £20 signing-on fee plus wages of £3 a week. This deal is often quoted by Rangers historians as one the best ever completed by the club.

He landed his first Rangers medal, still aged just 17, by helping them win the Glasgow Cup final against Clyde and that was quickly followed by a Scottish Cup medal in the final against Hamilton Academicals.

His magical performances on both wings and at centre forward had made Torry a firm Rangers favourite so it shocked fans when the club accepted an £8,000 offer from Everton.

There the same qualities that bewildered Scottish defenders unlocked English club defences. A couple of seasons later his trickery helped Everton scoop their first league title in seven years and earned him five Scottish caps.

When asked about Torry, many colleagues mentioned that he often seemed disinterested during games and simply wandered along the touchline without taking active part. Then, they said, he would suddenly explode into action, beating three or four opponents before scoring with a cross-shot or supplying an accurate cross.

Things seemed to happen to Torry Gillick. One day he was tuning his car engine when sparks flew from it and ignited the wooden frame of the garage where he was working. Within seconds the fire took hold and the roof began to collapse.

Wife Molly heard the commotion, rushed from the house and probably saved Torry’s life by dragging him to safety and rolling him on the ground to extinguish the flames. He suffered burns to his hands, arms and face. He spent the next seven nights in Walton Hospital, later undergoing a series of skin grafts before being able to resume playing.

Then there were the ship mishaps. Torry was twice aboard ships which collided with others at sea but fortunately on each occasion his vessel was the larger and rescued sailors from the smaller vessels which sank.

During the war, Torry returned to Scotland and guested for several Scottish clubs, rejoining Rangers temporarily for the 1940-41 season. Eventually, Rangers manager Bill Struth signed Torry permanently for the second time and he added more medals to his collection before a brief spell at Partick Thistle towards the end of his playing career.

Torry ran a profitable scrap business and turned his interest in greyhound racing into a successful sideline by becoming an owner.

A fall in a haulage yard in late 1971 caused temporary bruising to his head. He continued to complain of headaches and collapsed in his bathroom suffering a brain aneurysm. He could not be saved. Torry Gillick, master of the shimmy and the cross, died aged just 55.

On 17 December 1971, the entire Rangers first team squad, management staff and board attended Torry’s funeral and he was buried at the same Old Monklands cemetery as his parents and daughter Isobel.

‘Torry – The Life and Career of Torry Gillick: A Football Great’, by David Herd and Ian Stewart is published by Pitch Publishing, priced £25.

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