The Thistle Archive

Born in Detroit, USA in 1925, the family moved back to Kirkcaldy, Scotland, when Jimmy was just six years of age. His football education followed a traditional route and, in October 1944, he joined Hearts from Renfrew Juniors while aged 19. While at Tynecastle, he helped Hearts to lift the Southern League Cup (a wartime forerunner of the League Cup), in season 1945-46. A bright future at Tynecastle looked to be assured, Walker being described by a contemporary source of the time as being “destined to scale the heights of international soccer”. Indeed international honours did come his way when he played in the match against Belgium (alongside Jimmy McGowan) to celebrate the Allies victory in the Second World War. Playing in that game would be vital in Jimmy's later career. Walker's Hearts career though was to come to a fairly abrupt end. In March 1947 he was suspended by the Tynecastle club after failing to appear for a Scottish Cup-lie at Arbroath. A few short weeks later he was off to Firhill in a transfer that saw Bobby Parker move in the opposite direction.

Jimmy's Thistle debut came in the third last fixture of the 1946-47 season and was, to say the least, a somewhat inauspicious one. Thistle were sitting in fourth spot in the League at the time but still contrived to lose 1-6 to a Falkirk side that were just four spots off the bottom. The Evening Times' assessment of Thistle's new player though was fairly positive if a little less than unequivocal. “Walker, lately transferred from Hearts was making his debut as a Thistle player and appeared a little uncomfortable at first in the strange company. But he showed a versatility and nippiness which once he is more at home ought to fit in well with the Firhill scheme of things”. To say that things would get better for Walker at Firhill in subsequent seasons would be something of an understatement. Walker scored his first Thistle goal just a week after the hammering at the hands of Falkirk and the following season began the with a real bang, when he scored a hat-trick as Thistle just edged out Falkirk in a thrilling League Cup-tie by the incredible score of 6-5.

All in, Walker would score 123 goals for Partick Thistle in 'All Games', a total only bettered by four Thistle players either before or since; Willie Paul, Willie Sharp, George Smith and Kris Doolan being the only players to hit the back of the opposition net more times for Thistle. Many of those 123 goals were from his famous left-foot thunderbolts. There were also four hat-tricks or better, including a treble in a League Cup Quarter-Final against Kilmarnock in September 1953 and a haul of four against Hibs the previous December. Arguably the best of Walker's Thistle goals came against Motherwell at Fir Park in January 1950. Collecting the ball on the halfway line his pace took him clear of the Motherwell defence before drilling a shot into the back of the net.

Walker was very much a man for the big occasion and three times he was a cup final goalscorer for Thistle. In May 1949 he was on target as Thistle defeated Celtic 2-1 in the final of the Glasgow Charity Cup. Almost two years later he was on target against the same opposition, this time though he scored twice as Partick lifted the Glasgow Cup, beating Celtic 3-2 in a replay. Walker's third cup final goal though was scored in bitterly disappointing circumstances. In October 1953. Thistle and East Fife battled it out at Hampden Park in the League Cup Final. Thistle quickly found themselves trailing 0-2 but a Walker goal two minutes after half-time hauled Thistle right back into the game. When Johnny MacKenzie fired home an equaliser little more than 15 minutes remaining Thistle looked set to go on and lift the trophy. Johnny MacKenzie on the right and Jimmy Walker on the left tore East Fife to shreds but Thistle couldn't quite find a winning goal. With seconds remaining hearts were broken when Frank Christie sent one flying into the back of the Thistle net from fully 30 yards out.

Described once as “the king of the outside left profession”, Walker, the wartime international during his Hearts days aside, was denied the opportunity to play more international football. He had looked set to be selected to play for Scotland against Ireland in 1949 until attention was drawn to the fact that he had been born in the USA. Cruelly, he was also denied the chance to play for the USA in the 1950 World Cup Finals. The USA FA approached their Scottish counterparts asking for approval to play Walker in the World Cup. It seemed though that playing against Belgium debarred Walker from representing the USA on the world's biggest footballing stage. After playing just a handful of games in the previous two seasons Walker left Firhill in November 1956 to join Third Lanark.

Jimmy is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists →

1948 - SFL DIVISION A

1949 - GLASGOW CHARITY CUP

1951 - GLASGOW CUP

1951 - GLASGOW CHARITY CUP

1952 - GLASGOW CUP

1953 - LEAGUE CUP

1954 - SFL DIVISION A