Lot Essay
James 'Napoleon' McMenemy was born in Rutherglen, Glasgow on 23rd August 1880 and played for his local side Young Celtic Juveniles in 1898 before joining Cambuslang Bluebell Juveniles the following year. After trials with, amongst other clubs, Dundee and Everton, he joined Celtic on 6th June 1902 and between then and 1920 made in excess of 500 League and Cup appearances for them scoring in excess of 160 goals. After winning 6 Scottish Cup and 11 League Championship medals with Celtic he was given a free transfer in June of 1920 and joined Partick Thistle. The fairytale story continued when he appeared for Thistle in the Scottish Cup final in 1921 and helped the Jags to their win over Rangers. He was loaned by Thistle to Stenhousemuir in 1922 and became Thistle's player/coah the same year. He retired the following year but became coach at Thistle again in July 1932, a post he retained for two years. He rejoined Celtic in the same capacity in 1934 and left the club in May 1940. McMenemy died on 23rd June 1965.