The club is delighted to announce a special award at this year’s National Cross- Country Championships. For many years the first man to finish the senior men’s race have been awarded the Jimmy Flockhart award and the Willie Laing Memorial Medal. No equivalent has been available for the ladies.
The club has decided to honour Bill Scally ,a short summary of Bill’s contribution to the club is below, written by the highly respected journalist Doug Gillion of the Glasgow Herald. Written words cannot do justice to Bills contribution to the club for over 60 years but Doug has encapsulated it well.
The first senior lady to finish the National Cross-Country Championships will receive the Bill Scally Memorial Medal and Award
BILL SCALLY, doyen of Shettleston Harriers, was an outstanding servant of athletics in Scotland and part of a remarkable sporting dynasty.
Four generations of his family have been synonymous with the Glasgow east end club for more than 90 years. Bill was the youngest of the three sons of Allan Scally of Broomhouse, a notably successful professional athlete whose accolades included a world professional title, at Powderhall. His winnings helped fund soup kitchens and alleviate distress during The Depression and the 1926 Miners’ strike. He was enlisted as a coach by the club, but the prevailing oppressive amateur rules meant he could never become a Shettleston member.
Yet Bill recalled the procession of runners coming to his parent’s home for advice, and food. His father helped restore the club’s fortunes, even recruiting youngsters whom he spotted running on the verge of the A8. He helped deliver many national champions, and ordinary club runner in whom he would embed traditional values. He coached Cathy Jackson one of the first ladies to win a national medal for Shettleston Ladies in the 1930’s and coached the Shettleston ladies to win the first national cross -country titles in 1930.
Tributes to the father were many, notable among them from 1954 Empire Games marathon winner Joe McGhee, a clubmate who pointedly ridiculed amateur officialdom in describing Scally as: “the finest amateur I ever knew”.
Alan Scally made a huge impression on his sons and generations of athletes, and his name is honoured in an annual relay race which Bill helped inaugurate, and which bears his father’s name.
Appropriately, he followed in his footsteps as both athlete and coach. As a youngster Bill was an excellent footballer and took part in many sports. Athletics in the 1950s effectively began at 16. For 40 years, until the 1990s, he competed for Shettleston, winning many national medals. His career changed course many times: butcher, Ascot van-man, and latterly, as an accountant with Wylie & Bisset in Glasgow.
He was part of the Shettleston squad of the 1970’s who won everything available in the UK. In 1968 The Glasgow Herald noted his breakthrough in the McAndrew Relays, as: “an athlete of some stature, and not the moderate performer we have known.”
That year he transformed a 200-yard deficit into a 300-yard lead on the fourth stage of the blue ribband of Scottish road racing, the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, helping Shettleston to their first victory in seven years. The team included future Commonwealth champion Lachie Stewart, and Dick Wedlock who also ran the 10,000m at the 1970 Commonwealth Games
in Edinburgh.
But perhaps Bill’s finest individual achievements came as a veteran. He simply got faster with age. In 1988 and 1992 he won silver over 25k at the World Veteran Championships, and European masters half marathon gold in 1995. His marathon time of 2hr 24min 05sec, in the 1984 London Marathon, was remarkable for a 43-year-old. Only two Scots have run faster this year, and he would be 14th in Britain.
Bill helped organise national championships, convened open-graded meetings, and officiated at every level. He was a founder of the Glasgow Athletic Association, serving for many years as treasurer. He proved an excellent administrator and coach in a club blessed with people willing to give their time freely, and held every possible position during more than 50 years’. He was a driving force during their centenary year, in 2004, chairing committees and fund-raising efforts. He was proud of honorary life membership of both Shettleston and Scottish athletics. Due to failing health, his wife, Jo, collected the latter on his behalf at a star-studded gala in Glasgow’s Marriott Hotel.
His biggest contribution to his club, however, was coaching. Many have cause to be grateful for his time and advice, and they would echo the remark marathon champion McGhee made about his father half a century earlier. Yet Bill was so self-effacing he was probably oblivious to his impact. Current Ladies Cross Country Captain Avril Mason first cut her teeth in athletics with Bill’s group.
His midweek sessions at Glasgow Green attracted international athletes from many clubs over nearly 30 years, until illness stopped him. Yet even from his sickbed he would phone and email advice. His coaching contribution was recognised by Scottish athletics in 1997 by the award of the Betty Clapperton Trophy.