Hendry Joe Image 2 Belfast Distillery 1922

Description

Greenock, Renfrewshire born left half Joe Hendry began his football career with Garvel Juveniles and played for Maryhill in 1906-07 before signing for hometown Scottish League club Morton in December 1907, where he soon established a strong reputation, scoring twice in 73 appearances during three seasons at Cappielow until signing for Glasgow Rangers in April 1910, where Hendry made his debut for The Gers in a 1-0 home win over Clyde at the end of that month.

Early in his Rangers career he won his major representative honour when selected to play for The Scottish League in a defeat to The Southern League at The Den, Millwall in October 1910. Over the next seven years Hendry scored 7 goals in 153 matches for Rangers, playing for them for the final time in April 1917, as his career at Ibrox was interrupted by the First World War, and during his time with The Blues he won three Scottish League Championship titles in succession in the 1910-11, 1911-12 and 1912-13 seasons, adding winner’s medals from The Glasgow Cup in the first two of those campaigns.

He was then loaned to Dumbarton in 1918, scoring twice in 23 appearances during their 1918-19 campaign, after which he signed for Third Lanark in 1919, where he scored once in 20 appearances during his single season at Caithkin, moving to St Johnstone in 1920 where he played his final two seasons in Scottish football. His final club was Belfast Distillery whom he joined in the summer of 1922 and with whom he won an Irish Cup medal, and was he chosen to play for The Irish League against The Scottish League, but had to withdraw due to injury before his retirement in 1923. After retirement, Hendry began a service to provide commentaries for blind fans which was probably the first such service in the country.

His obituary stated: “Football was his abiding love. He was never happier than when watching Morton at Cappielow or relating the kick-by-kick story of the games to his great admirers, the Morton blind fans, a happy coterie who owed Joe a great deal for what he did for them in various directions.” In 2019, his 1911 League Championship medal sold for £2,400 at auction.