JIMMY MCILROY 

Date and Place of Birth 25th October 1931 - Lambeg, nr Belfast   Transfers to and from Burnley from Glentoran - March 1950 (£8,000) to Stoke City - February 1963 (£25,000)   First and Last Burnley Games Sunderland (a) - 21st October 1950   Liverpool (a) - 20th February 1963   Other Clubs Glentoran ---------------------------------------- Stoke City, Oldham Athletic

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

All our post-war players have their own pages on Clarets Mad, some with profiles and some without. During the 2009/10 season, the 50th anniversary of our title win, I did my utmost to ensure that profiles were written for all those players who featured in that brilliant team of 1960.

I almost succeeded, with just one notable exception, that of Jimmy McIlroy. Quite how he was left out I don't know but I suppose the phrase 'leave the best till last' is for once very appropriate.

Today is also a very appropriate day to publish his profile (25th October 2011) because it is Jimmy's 80th birthday so he can now add being an octogenarian to all his other titles.

Those titles really begin with him being arguably Burnley's finest ever player. There can't be many, if any, around now who saw Bob Kelly to even dare dispute that fact. Jimmy McIlroy, or just Jimmy Mac to most Burnley fans who saw him play, is now President James McIlroy MBE Freeman of the Borough of Burnley.

It's a fancy title for a modest man but every part of it is so well deserved. He received the freedom of the borough in late 2008. He can walk sheep down St. James' Street now, something no one else is permitted to do, but as Willie Irvine told us at a Clarets Mad dinner: "He's such a lazy bugger that if he wanted to he'd probably get me to do it for him."

That, by the way, was the same dinner when Jimmy asked me a couple of days before who was speaking. When I said Irvine he replied: "Oh no, I can't tell a bloody word he says." The banter between the two Northern Ireland internationals continued on the night.

I recall Jimmy saying in a television interview on the occasion of him receiving that award from the town that it had taken him all these years to realise the whole town is behind him. Yes it is Jimmy Mac, always has been and always will be, and with very good reason.

This year saw him receive an MBE in the New Year's Honours List, which he received at Turf Moor ahead of the opening game of the season, and only the week before last he became President of Burnley Football Club, an ambassadorial role that is so richly deserved and for which he is a perfect fit.

The story, as far as we are concerned, began in March 1950 when manager Frank Hill parted with £8,000 to sign him from Irish League club Glentoran. The 18-year-old quickly settled into life at Turf Moor and by October, just days before his 19th birthday, he made his first team debut at Sunderland after the sale of Harry Potts to Everton.

The reviews from those who had been watching the reserve team suggested that once this lad was in the first team it would be impossible to dislodge him, and so it proved. From that day until his shock transfer to Stoke in February 1963 he was just about the first name on the team sheet.

No player has bettered his 439 post-war league appearances for Burnley, a figure he shares with John Angus. Only Ray Pointer has bettered his 116 league goals, and that is some return for a player who today would be considered a midfield player even though he did take the penalties.

He won 55 caps for Northern Ireland and played for them in the World Cup Finals in 1958 in Sweden. Of those, 51 were won whilst with Burnley, a club record.

Jimmy Mac wasn't just about records; he was about how good a player he was. He really was the star. The fans said it, and the players said it. Some years ago I was talking to Brian Miller about him and he just simply said: "The best player I've ever seen in a claret and blue shirt."

When Clarets Chronicles was launched, a queue formed to get his autograph in the book. The wait time was between 10 and 15 minutes and in that queue stood Jimmy Robson, a good mate, and former team mate of his. He said it was right to join the queue. "I'm a fan too," he said as the genial Irishman smiled.

He was a member of an outstanding Burnley side but his contribution to that side can never be underestimated. All teams have their best players and Jimmy was ours. When I researched the 1959/60 season for Clarets Mad you could sense that it was always an anti-climax if McIlroy was out injured and invariably the team performance wouldn't quite reach the high standards it had set itself.

He'll tell you it was about the team, about the team that lifted the title, played in the European Cup, only the third English club to do so, and reached the FA Cup Final at Wembley. He'll tell you that he's embarrassed when he's singled out although  I think he does enjoy it.

That Wembley season, 1961/62, we came close to winning the double, but a collapse in the last ten games, when we won just once, cost us a second title. Jimmy McIlroy missed five of those games through injury and was carrying the injury in the other five. Had he been fit then we could have been celebrating an incredible double.

Such was his stature at Burnley that the dark days of early 1963 are still vividly remembered. Many said they wouldn't go on Turf Moor again when he was sold, and many stuck to that threat. One relative of mine only ever returned once, and that was to see him in action in the John Angus testimonial.

My dad told me, then an 11-year-old, that he had been placed on the transfer list. It's always said people will remember where they were and what they were doing when they got news of the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Burnley fans will always recall the same when they heard that Jimmy McIlroy had been placed on the transfer list. He really is Burnley FC's Kennedy moment.

His popularity has never ever waned and today you can still see Burnley fans pointing and looking at him with sheer admiration when he's out and about.

It almost feels as if we own him, that he belongs to Burnley, so I got a shock in 2008 when we played Glentoran. I was talking to two old men from Belfast ahead of kick off who were overwhelmed when they heard that their former hero was inside the Oval, the Glentoran ground. One man just stood and cried as he said: "My hero has come home."

I certainly feel privileged to be old enough to have seen him play for Burnley and even more privileged to have met him on a number of occasions. He's still up there as a hero though and I had a difficult moment when I was invited to his home when helping to promote his books in 2009.

I rang the door bell and then stood, shaking like a leaf, wondering what on earth I'd done to deserve being at his door. The welcome was as warm as I expected. I was made so welcome and treated to an hour and a half or so of his stories on such as Peter McKay, Tom Finney, Jimmy Robson and Billy Dougall who, he said, taught him more about football than anyone else.

Many of you will not have seen him play and you'll always wonder just how good he was, so I'll use a comment from Radio Lancashire in 1999 when it was confirmed that the stand at the Bee Hole End at Turf Moor would be renamed the Jimmy McIlroy Stand.

Gary Hickson was talking to Richard Dinnis and asked him how good McIlroy was.  "Think of the best midfielder in the Premiership," Dinnis said, "McIlroy was better."

We can be very proud that Jimmy McIlroy chose to play for Burnley and we can be very thankful that he did, and on his 80th birthday we can all send our best wishes to our own Mr President.

Links

Jimmy Mac to get Freedom of Borough (28/11/08)

Jimmy Mac to get a testimonial (16/12/08)

Jimmy McIlroy MBE (31/12/10)

Jimmy McIlroy MBE - President of Burnley FC (17/10/11)