Obituary - Johnny Little, Rangers and Scotland internationalist

Died: January 18, 2017

JOHNNY Little, who has died at the age of 86, was a Scottish football internationalist who played for Queen’s Park, Rangers and Greenock Morton.

Robert John Little was born in Calgary, Alberta in the summer of 1930, but moved with his family to Scotland at an early age, to Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae where his parents opened a fruit and vegetable shop.

Educated at Queen’s Park Secondary School on the south side of Glasgow, his aptitude to sport in general and football in particular was recognised when he became a Scotland schoolboy internationalist, having earlier played rugby union at school.

Signing for Queen’s Park in the summer of 1948, he quickly made his debut on August 25 of that year in a supplementary cup-tie at Hampden against Kilmarnock, lost 1-2 and a league debut quickly followed three days later at the same venue against Stirling Albion in a B Division fixture again lost by the odd goal in five.

Capable of playing in either full-back position, John Little quickly established himself in the Mount Florida side and would go on to make 77 appearances for the amateur club, including 55 league whilst adding three Scottish amateur international appearances to his earlier schoolboy honours.

Whilst at Hampden he could count amongst his team-mates Ronnie Simpson and Derek Grierson, who would be a future colleague at Ibrox as well as long-standing Queen’s Park servants David Letham and Bert Cromar.

The full-back followed the well-worn path from Hampden to Ibrox when he turned professional in July 1951, his debut for Rangers coming in a one-off tournament, the St Mungo Cup, staged as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain. That cup-tie against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on July 14 attracted 35,000 spectators who would witness a 2-1 win for the Dons – but that score-line was reversed one month later at Ibrox in Little’s home debut before a 60,000 crowd.

Johnny Little gradually established himself in the Light Blue defence, succeeding the legendary club servant and captain Jock ‘Tiger’ Shaw.

A sturdily-built defender, pacy and stylish but also strong in the tackle, Little played in an era when backs were backs and defenders were defenders. His speed, energy and exuberance were a key component of the Ibrox successes during much of the 1950s, and in addition to gaining further representative honours with two appearances for the Scottish league he made his solitary full international appearance for Scotland against Sweden at Hampden in a friendly that attracted a remarkable 83,800 spectators with the Swedes emerging victorious 2-1.

Excellent in the art of the sliding tackle, one game at Ibrox played in heavy snow and slush in the days before undersoil heating saw the full-back successfully execute one such manoeuvre that was described by one onlooker as similar to the Queen Elizabeth “ploughing through a stormy sea”.

Johnny Little was a consistent and respected performer for Rangers for 11 years, a good club servant who played a total of 327 games in Light Blue, scoring just the one goal on March 6 1954 in a 1-1 draw with Hamilton Accies at Douglas Park. He won two League Championship and two Scottish Cup Winners’ Medals in 1953 and 1960 against Aberdeen and Kilmarnock respectively. The 1953 final went to a replay following a 1-1 draw meaning that the full-back played in three finals in total – all watched by six-figure attendances. Where one wonders have they all gone?

An ever-present in all nine games of Rangers’ run to the semi finals of the 1959-60 European Champions’ Cup. That season Little played in no fewer than 50 competitive games in all competitions but his time at Ibrox was drawing to a close with the full-back partnership of Bobby Shearer and Eric Caldow more favoured by manager Scot Symon – his final appearance in light blue being a league cup-tie at Cathkin Park on 17 August 1960 against the much-lamented Third Lanark, lost 1-2.

He finally left Rangers in the summer of 1962, signing for Morton for whom he would play 14 league games before retiring.

Away from the world of football John Little was a much respected PE teacher at Crookston Castle Secondary on the south-side of Glasgow, at St Columba’s in Greenock and at the Sacred Heart Secondary in Paisley.

In later years he lived with his wife Anne in Largs and spent many holidays in their caravan at Ballantrae, Ayrshire, in the heart of Burns country.

He was inducted into the Rangers Football Club Hall of Fame in 2014.

Robert John Little is survived by his wife Anne, son Kenny, daughter Vivienne and three grand-children.

ROBERT MCELROY