Tuesday 5th December, 2017 at 10:00am
Jackie Husband
Debut: 28/03/1939 v Hibernian
Appearances: 371
Goals: 12
When Donald Turner ran the rule over a youngster from Yoker Athletic in the early portion of the 1938/39 campaign, nobody could have imagined the impact both on and off the pitch that 20 year old Jackie Husband would have on the club throughout his adult life.
Signed as a young half-back with great potential, Jackie had to spend his first few months at Firhill in the reserves as he patiently waited for his opportunity in the first team. It arrived towards the conclusion of his maiden season and his first start for the club could hardly have went any better with a 4-0 victory against Hibernian. It has been a trait during the history of Partick Thistle Football Club that we have been the great unpredictables and a 7-0 defeat away to St Johnstone seven days later introduced Jackie to the topsy turvy nature of life as a Jag.
World War Two was looming as Thistle began preparations for the 1939/40 campaign and after just five league games, war had broken out. With members of all footballing squads in Scotland being conscripted to join the war effort, Jackie was granted an exemption due to his farmland work. As a consequence, he continued to rack up the appearances for Partick Thistle, playing with a host of guest players who were deployed to Glasgow during World War Two.
Jackie was a leader in the side and captained the team on numerous occasions, most notably in the Summer Cup Final of 1945 and remained loyal to the club. Whenever one contract expired, Jackie would very quickly sign a new one underlining his happiness at Firhill.
When he retired from playing Jackie remained around the club, apart from a very brief spell where he managed Queen of the South, doing a variety of jobs and proving indispensable for no fewer than 17 Partick Thistle managers.
Having remained with the club when the fortunes weren’t strong during the 1980s, it was bittersweet that a man who had given so much to the Partick Thistle cause, both on and off the pitch, pass away just days before the team clinched promotion back to the Premier Division in May 1992. When the East Stand was built in 1994, there was no more fitting tribute than to name it after the man who gave so much of his life to Partick Thistle Football Club.
