Pele wished he was Brazilian. Bobby Charlton said he would go and watch him play anywhere because you could guarantee you would be entertained. He was Slim Jim Baxter, and he was about to make his debut for Sunderland.
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Ferenc Puskás asked, “Where has this lad been hiding?” when he played with him in the Rest of the World v England centenary game in 1963. Billy McNeill said, “He could pick a lock with that left foot of his.” Sadly for Pelé, Jim Baxter was Scots, and he was adored by Scotland fans for his gallus, strutting performances for his country.
Somehow, Sunderland had managed to sign this maverick superstar in May 1965. The £72,500 fee was a record for a Scottish player to an English First Division club and was also Sunderland’s record fee at that time.
A renowned player on the world stage, Slim Jim Baxter cut some dash in real life, as he embraced the swinging sixties with a good-looking woman on his arm, stepping out of his Jaguar, dressed like a film star. He also had a ground-breaking Sunday Mirror column that earned him a good sum and was one of the most-read weekly articles in Scotland.
On the surface, it looked like we had signed one of the world’s flair players. To offer some parallels to more recent times, a fellow fan who was around at the time once said to me it was the equivalent to signing Messi, Ronaldo, or Neymar. Though, I feel a comparison with Paul Gascoigne is probably more accurate, and not just because of their outrageous talent!
For some Sunderland fans at the time, it was a signing akin to their adored flair player Len Shackleton, and we could not wait to see him strut his stuff in our colours, possibly the final piece of creativity and pizzazz to the hard-working, competitive team going into the 1965/66 campaign.
The Sunderland fans had good reason to be excited. Slim Jim, as he was sometimes known, had been the catalyst of a marvellous five-year spell with Rangers following his transfer from Raith Rovers in 1960 for £18,000. The five-year period had seen Rangers become the dominant force in Scottish football.
In his first season, 1960/61, he had orchestrated victory in the League Cup and to the league title. He also inspired the team to the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final (beating Wolves in the semi-final), where they lost to Fiorentina in a two-legged final.
Ralph Brand was Rangers’ top goalscorer that season with forty-four goals; he would follow this up the following season with forty goals, many of which were created and fashioned by the left foot of Slim Jim. Brand would become a lifelong friend and join Baxter at Sunderland in August 1967.
In 1961/62, Rangers won the domestic cup double; the following season, they were once again league champions and Scottish Cup holders. In 1963/64, the treble was won, and Baxter was in his pomp, christened “the King” by his adoring Ibrox faithful.
In 1960, Jimmy was given his international debut by future Sunderland manager Ian McColl and would go on to win thirty-four caps, playing in very strong Scotland squads that included Denis Law, Dave Mackay, Billy McNeill, John Greig, Willie Henderson, Billy Bremner, Jimmy Johnstone, and Paddy Crerand. Baxter won ten of these caps as a Sunderland player.
In 1967, with the cracks well and truly showing at Roker Park, Slim Jim delivered a number of very good international performances, including the famous ‘keepy-uppy against the world champions’ game at Wembley, where he teased and taunted England in a 3 - 2 victory, that really should have been by a greater margin had Baxter stopped showboating, according to Denis Law.
Baxter himself was unrepentant about this but did not regard it as his best game for Scotland against the ‘auld enemy’. His view (and this is shared by many football commentators, supporters, and players who competed in this game) was that his performance in the 1963 Wembley international was his best in a Scotland shirt. The Scots had been reduced to ten men when Eric Caldow’s leg was broken by Bobby Smith. Baxter proceeded to rally and inspire his team-mates in a performance that had Bobby Moore shaking his head in amazement, as he went on to score two goals and win the game for Scotland.
Writing in the Daily Mirror after this game, sports journalist Pete Wilson reported, “Frankly, this game was so one-sided the English supporters should have got their money back. It was staggering to see the bemused expressions grow on the faces of England’s much-lauded stars as they watched Jim Baxter execute a progressive twist marathon, smoothing down divots with his velvet feet before sliding into the area marked danger.”
In an illuminating moment just prior to this game, that captures Slim Jim’s attitude to football, he is looking out over Wembley and tells a journalist at his side, “This is the London Palladium, and if I don’t turn it on here today, you can kick my arse after the game.”
New Sunderland manager Ian McColl had come to Sunderland following five years as Scotland team manager. His long and distinguished playing career at Rangers (much of this as captain) had come to an end the season before Baxter was signed for the ‘Gers’, but he had kept close ties and tracked the progress of Baxter on (and off) the pitch.
McColl had experienced first-hand as Scotland manager the absolute highs and lows of trying to manage the enigma that was Slim Jim. At Sunderland, he would reap the whirlwind of the maverick left-half with un-paralleled skills but a capacity for self-destruction that would ultimately curtail his career and eventually his life far too early.
Jim Baxter hailed from the working-class Fife coalfields, and, having left school to become an apprentice cabinet maker, fairly quickly got himself a job at local Fordell Colliery, where the wages were an uptick on his apprentice pay! In many respects, Sunderland as a town should have had a familiar feel to him.
He had almost stopped playing organised football after leaving school, preferring the fun, knockabout games on a Sunday morning before a couple of pints and a game of pontoon or brag at the local club. He did not enjoy the discipline, training, or rigid defensive formation that most teams employed with his favoured position of left-half. His predilection to attack and spread the play and himself all over the park, deserting his defensive responsibilities, was not easily tolerated by the local amateur team in the area.
He was persuaded to try again by a boyhood friend, who happened upon him in the back room of the institute gambling. Initially, Baxter had refused the offer, preferring to stay and have a few pints and gamble at the cards, but, shortly afterwards, having lost all his money, he agreed to get his boots and give it a try. I often wonder what might have happened if he had won instead of lost all his money; would the world have ever seen one of the greatest players of the era?
From Hill of Beath Boys Club, he goes (for £50) to Crossgates Primrose, a strong Fife ‘junior club’ with a reputation as a feeder club to league teams. In 1957, he was scouted by Raith Rovers, who paid Crossgates £200 for the playmaker. Slim is playing part-time for £3.00 per game whilst still holding his job at the colliery. One of the senior players he meets at Stark’s Park is Willie McNaught, a Scottish international half-back and captain of the club, as well as being their record appearance holder. Despite being a hard player, McNaught does have a positive influence on Baxter, who lends himself to the guidance and advice on offer. In his three years at Raith, the bigger the game, the more Baxter performs, and in one game in particular against Rangers, he catches the eye of the legendary Ibrox boss Scot Symon, who, on the eve of Rangers’ cup final against Kilmarnock in 1960, takes time out to sign Baxter and usher in a new era for ‘the Gers’.
What most ordinary Sunderland fans were unaware of was that Jim Baxter had exhausted a lot of goodwill and ‘burnt his boats’ at Ibrox. His vices of drinking and gambling had become increasingly troublesome for Scot Symon. His active friendship and socialising with Billy McNeill and a number of the Celtic young players was greatly frowned upon by the Rangers board, and his carousing and partying around the nightclubs and casinos of Glasgow was writing as many headlines in Glasgow as his performances on the pitch.
Jim Baxter runs around the Celtic defence in sunderland colours for the first time when Sunderland played Celtic in a pre season warm up 10/08/1965 (Photo by Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
Many who played with him and admired his talent subscribe to the view that he wanted to lead his own life in his own way; he had made a pact with the devil long before his transfer to Sunderland and had that self-destructive streak and addictive personality that plagued many Scots.
Alex Ferguson was someone who played against him and admired his undoubted talent. He told Ken Gallacher (author of a fascinating, hard-hitting biography, ‘Slim Jim Baxter’), “He decided he was going to enjoy himself and live life to the full, and on the field, he was going to play the game he wanted to, the way it should be played. You see, he loved them both, life and football.”
Billy McNeill told Gallacher, “Jimmy was an arrogant so-and-so with a lot to be arrogant about. He had supreme belief in his on-field ability; it mattered not who else was on the pitch, he would be the best of them.”
By the time he signed for Sunderland, he had been hawked around all the top teams in England. Matt Busby did not want him in his dressing room corrupting his “babes”; Bill Nicholson had been initially tempted, with Alan Gilzean and the legendary Dave Mackay in his squad and big fans of Slim Jim, but had decided there was too much baggage; it was the same story at Arsenal and the two Merseyside teams.
When the Sunderland board made their approach, they were still enamoured with a majestic performance Baxter had delivered in a Scottish League v English League fixture at Roker Park in March 1964. He had been the stand-out player in a fixture packed with stars in both teams.
If Baxter could not get the move to one of the top English clubs that many of his friends and colleagues thought would have suited him more, then he would at least get a good financial deal. His move to Roker Park doubled his weekly wage to a substantial £80-a-week, with a whopping signing-on fee of £11,000.
That nobody from Rangers attempted to dissuade him from leaving was both astounding, given the success on the pitch in the previous five years, but also an indication of how difficult things had become at Ibrox. These difficulties would soon re-emerge at Sunderland!
The newly married Baxter seems to have thrown himself into his new move in the summer of 1965; he appears to have convinced Ian McColl that, at twenty-five-years-old, he was ready to settle down and apply himself to his football and married life.
By all accounts, he got stuck in to pre-season training, though, in the first pre-season friendly, he suffered a rare defeat to Celtic at Roker Park. 10,000 Celts joined the Roker crowd to witness their team win 5 - 0. Baxter fared better in the next pre-season game a week later, when Sparta Rotterdam were beaten at Roker Park.
Sunderland’s left-half Jim Baxter in 1967. 14/4/01: Baxter, who was regarded as an outstandingly gifted individual and a player who enjoyed taunting opponents, dies aged 61 after a three-month battle with cancer. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images)
His full league debut would be at Elland Road against Don Revie’s Leeds United, who had finished runners-up to Manchester United in their first season back in the First Division in 1964/65. There was already enough bad blood between Sunderland and Leeds to make this a spicy enough fixture; Slim Jim’s participation would only add to the drama.
A massive crowd packed into Elland Road and saw a tight, hard-fought game unfold. The game swung on a dismissal, with George Mulhall getting his marching orders on the hour. Sunderland held out until the eighty-eighth minute, when the ‘Birtley Bruiser’ Norman Hunter scored to win the match for Leeds. Despite the honourable defeat and the rearguard action, Sunderland had played well, and Slim Jim had served some notice of what he could bring, with some nice touches and flashes of skill. An older friend who witnessed this game told me that Baxter had appeared unruffled and unhurried throughout the intense contest. It was a debut that promised better things to come.
McColl had played Baxter further up the park at inside-left for his debut but bowed to pressure from Slim Jim to move him back to his preferred position at left-half for the midweek game at West Ham. Against a strong Hammers outfit, which included Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, Bobby Moore, Harry Redknapp, Johnny Byrne, and John Sissons, Baxter and Sunderland played well again and came away with a well-earned draw, courtesy of a George Herd goal.
Baxter stayed at left-half for his home debut against Sheffield United. Over 42,000 turned up, and the majority were not disappointed. Baxter orchestrated a 4 - 2 victory, scoring two of the goals himself. His second goal, just before half-time, was a thing of absolute footballing beauty. His prompting and passing, his ability to create space for others and to evade the physical challenges that regularly came his way in this game, augured well, and when West Ham were beaten at Roker Park in front of a 48,000-plus crowd, in another inspired Baxter performance, Ian McColl must have thought the self-destructive days were maybe gone, and the good times were going to roll!
It had been a good start; Sunderland were fifth in the table, and Slim Jim seemed to be firing on all cylinders. One person who was not happy was full-back Len Ashurst. He had become very used to having the very reliable Jim McNab at left-half in front of him. McNab was a full-back’s dream: great tackler, good in the air, great positional sense, and very good recovery and engine, which would see him run all game. Slim Jim was none of this and, true to form, was only too keen to desert his defensive duties to meander where his instinct took him. The wheels came off the good start at Filbert Street in a heavy 4 - 1 defeat; this was followed by a 3 - 1 defeat at Villa Park. Sunderland won only one game away from Roker Park all season, and this included a number of heavy defeats. Though, only the top three won more home games than Sunderland.
Jim Baxter, Sunderland (Photo by Peter Robinson/EMPICS via Getty Images)
Even the arrival of the very good Neil Martin in October had relatively little impact on the pattern of losing on the road and usually winning at Roker Park. Following his good start, Baxter put in noteworthy performances against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road and the home victories against Villa and Blackburn, where he was the general on the pitch. A home game against Manchester United in mid-December saw a 3 - 2 defeat, but Baxter had a hand in both Neil Martin’s goals for Sunderland, and United’s flying winger Jim Ryan said that Slim Jim had taken United apart, despite the defeat.
The derby game at Roker Park in early January saw a Baxter-inspired 2 - 0 victory in front of 54,000-plus fans; he just loved the big stage, and, given this, he invariably performed.
I witnessed my first game at Roker Park in March of this season against Blackpool and came away bedazzled as a young lad with the poise and ease at which Baxter played his game, directing and conducting the play, sending the ball wherever he willed it to go. I was in awe of what I had witnessed and remained so for many years after he had left us!
Baxter played thirty-five games in all competitions in 1965/66 and scored seven goals. Whilst there had been some very good games and some brilliant flashes, there had also been a number of anonymous performances. As the season wore on, behind the scenes, all was not well. Sunderland finished a disappointing nineteenth in the table.
Charlie Hurley, in particular, had real issues with the drink culture and poor discipline that Baxter appeared to have triggered in the dressing room and came to despise Baxter for his destructive impact on what had been a tight team unit. In one confrontation with Slim Jim, he told him, “I hate you, for as much as you are a good footballer.” Slim Jim, choosing to ignore the seriousness of Hurley’s outburst, allegedly replied, “How good do you think I am?”
Hurley, never short of a response, is said to have replied, “Well, I know how much I hate you.”
Manager Ian McColl does not come out of this situation very well. He appears to have been ineffectual in dealing with the conflict in the dressing room and, to a large extent, pandered to Baxter’s excesses and the inevitable outcome of too much carousing, gambling, and drink, and not enough training and living well!
The 1966/67 season was no better. Slim Jim played thirty-nine games in all competitions, scoring five goals. He had some very good moments of breath-taking skill and noticeably started some high-profile games in fine form but faded as the games wore on. He was prominent in two 3 - 0 defeats of Newcastle and a three-game FA Cup marathon against Leeds. Paddy Crerand’s memory of a game at Old Trafford in this season was typical of the direction things were going in. He said of Baxter, “He was the best player on the pitch by a country mile; he was setting up chance after chance for his team; he was simply unplayable in that first half.” Slim Jim could not keep it up for ninety minutes, as his off-field excesses were catching up with him. Sunderland lost this game to five second-half goals without reply.
Jim Baxter, Sunderland (Photo by Barratts/PA Images via Getty Images)
A seventeenth-placed finish was not really an improvement on the previous season, more courtesy of the really poor form of the teams below us in the table. The Sunderland team, minus Hurley and Ashurst, jetted off for a six-week North American tour that has gone down in infamy for the alcohol-fuelled shenanigans of Slim Jim and his crew (who included his half-cousin and drinking partner George Kinnell, a centre-half bought by McColl ostensibly to replace Charlie Hurley) on this trip. Things were spiralling at an alarming rate for Jim Baxter.
Season 1967/68 saw six wins in twenty games, with Baxter even more inconsistent and unable to manage his vices off the pitch.
It had been clear to Ian McColl for some time that Baxter was not going to change, and, in an effort to save his own job, he tried to sell him, but nobody was interested; Baxter’s hell-raising and carousing had gone before him this time. McColl was beginning to despair of the situation when, almost out of the blue, Nottingham Forest agreed to buy him for an extremely good fee of £100,000. McColl could not believe his luck; by December 22nd, Slim Jim had played his last game for Sunderland.
In all, he played ninety-eight games for Sunderland, scoring twelve goals, from his debut in August 1965 to his final game in December 1967.
The course Baxter was set on made it difficult to imagine that his move to the City Ground would turn out any better. Slim pocketed a £10,000 signing-on fee and increased his wages to close to a hundred pounds a week. It did not turn out well. With his vices running riot, he was given a free transfer back to Rangers in May 1969. He only lasted one season; his star could no longer burn bright, even for a short spell, and, at the age of thirty-one, he retired from the game to run a pub in Glasgow.
Following two liver transplants, Jim Baxter was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away in April 2001, aged sixty-one. He is said to have managed his final illness with some dignity and courage. Ralph Brand and Chancellor Gordon Brown (a lifelong fan) spoke at his funeral.
Ken Gallacher had this to say regarding his death:
“Jim Baxter, that weaver of dreams, that icon of Scottish football, that legendary Wembley hero, had been brought low and had proved to be as human as the rest of us… except that is not how all of those that saw him play on a regular basis looked at things. For many of them, James Curran Baxter was someone very special, someone who had emerged from the dark and grim Fife coalfields, who would never really die as long as memories last and as long as those old grainy black-and-white videos of his Wembley games survive. Someone who held aloft the standard for the style of football that was fashioned in his country and that he believed in more than anything else in the world.”
Jim Baxter used to play for Sunderland; he was my first idol in a red-and-white shirt; he made me want to play the game in the gallus, care-free way he did. I am so glad I saw him play.