Jimmy Walker

Michigan Yankee at Western Park ?

Jimmy Walker signed for Renfrew in March of 1944 and stayed 8 months, signing for Hearts on 13 November the same year.

Born in Detroit (Michigan , USA) on Sunday 30 August 1925, he must have moved to Renfrew as a youngster as he played for Moorpark School and Renfrew Boys Brigade as well as an Amateur team, Stevens Amateur Works XI, before signing for Renfrew. Wartime reports on matches are scarce so we don't have much detail at present on his time at Renfrew. However, he went on to have a lengthy senior career in Scotland as well as receiving a Scotland cap.

On signing for Hearts, where he was to stay until towards the end of the 1946/47 season, he made 12 appearances (in all competitions) that first season before playing no less than 35 times the following season (when he was also picked to represent Scotland) and then 11 times in his final season, making it a total of 58 games for Hearts in two and a half seasons.

Signing for Partick Thistle in the summer of 1947, he was to spend almost the rest of his career with the Firhill club. His debut, when he was still only 21 years old, was on 19th April 1947, albeit in an away match to forget as Falkirk won 6-1.  However, he was to score the first of many goals for Thistle just seven days later, in a 3-3 draw at Motherwell.  A regular scorer , The Thistle history website states he scored 122 goals in 244  matches, including four in a 5-4 league win at home to Hibs in December 1952.   

His final appearance for Thistle was in a friendly match against Tottenham Hotspur in September 1956. He then signed for another Glasgow club, Third Lanark, and with a more than respectable return of 13 goals in just 20 league appearances in his single season, including two hat-tricks.  

His only appearance for Scotland was against Belgium in January 1946, which ended in a 2-2 draw. Jimmy Delaney of Celtic scored both goals (one a penalty) but the match itself is reported as being played on a pitch covered in snow and with ice on top.  To cap it off, it seems few of the nearly 49000 people saw the whole game due to a thick fog !

He died on 25 September 2000, in Milwaukee Wisconsin, USA, the land where he was born.