Author: The Author

First of all we have some comments from for mer pro athlete Alastair Macfarlane, who, once reinstated, became Scottish marathon champion.

“I first became aware of the name John Freebairn in my very early teens through my interest in football. I knew that John played for Partick Thistle ad knew of his slightly unorthodox style of goalkeeping. It was only when I started competing at professional Highland Games in 1965 that I got to meet John and from then our paths seemed to meet on a pretty regular basis.

John was a terrifically talented and versatile field events competitor excelling particularly in the jumps. He was perhaps overshadowed by the likes of Bill Anderson and Arthur Rowe who swept all before them in the heavy events at that time but was always able to pick up place money. I remember him being more successful in the light field events and this is perhaps where his real talents lay. He would surely have made a top decathlete had he remained amateur. Although he probably never had a huge love of middle distance track events I can remember John often shouting encouragement to me during my races between his jumps or throws.

Eventually after our reinstatement to the amateur code and when I got involved in coaching, it was John who was my instructor when it came to throwing events on my coaching courses. And moving on a few years we found ourselves on the committee of the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club administering the needs of the Masters athletes in our sport where my memories of John are of someone who wasn’t content to sit quietly at committee meetings while others made decisions!!”

Alastair Shaw in Vietnam who read the profile and said the following in an email.

We have included the comments on John on the first four pages but it might help if they are all collected here in the one place.    Start with Hugh Murray – Hugh is a very good coach who worked with John for many years and ultimately took over from John as Scottish National Group Coach for Throws and speaks very highly of his mentor.   This appears on the page on John as a Coach.

“I first met John in 1984 when I took my first  tenuous and uncertain step on the coaching ladder to Assistant Club Coach.. The only speakers from that weekend I remember are John and Alec Naylor: they both impressed me..

The following year  I took the brave step forward to Club Coach Discus. The course work was delivered by Des Mardell the father of the then GB International Discus thrower Paul. It involved attending a weekend on coaching theory, a weekend on the event , a written exam and a practical assessment.

John took me for the practical assessment which involved  the production of a training plan for a session with the objectives of the session.   Both I and my demonstrators were quite nervous to be in such company, never having done anything like this before.   But John as ever put us at our ease. I must have done enough to satisfy him as I passed that element of the test and achieved my club coach award.   I met John on many occasions afterwards as I progressed through the Coach Education system he was always encouraging and thorough in his examinations offering sound words of advice when necessary.

I was keen to extend my practical knowledge of coaching and as the Scottish Event Group Leader for Throws John made that possible through direct involvement with my development and by arranging for me to accompany him to conferences and practical weekends all over the UK where we learned from some of the best coaches in the World. It was during this time that Max Jones who was then UK Lead Coach for Throws, and later went on to become GB Athletics Head of Performance, appointed John as his UK National Coach for Shot.   It was a well deserved appointment

During that time, I also had the opportunity to compete against John at County and District Championships.  Indeed John competed for many years  at the highest level as a Masters Athlete, then known as the Vets.   Not only was he a good thrower, he was also a good jumper and competed with distinction in the Combined Events.

With John now established as Throws Event leader in Scotland I was offered the National Coach Discus post with Jim Hunter, Shot, and Willie Robertson, Hammer, and Eddie Taylor, Javelin.   

John would organize National Squad Weekends throughout the Winter which we would staff.   But John’s weekends were rather special as  they were a Freebairn family event with wife Celia and his two daughters, Susan and Joanne, looking after the important part of the weekend which was food and refreshments.   The weekends were done on a limited budget which was partly increased by Celia’s sales of home baking  and the occasional raffle.

John personally coached his own daughter Suzie for Discus and she represented Scotland on several occasions.  But it is for his encouragement and advice to other coaches over the years that we should be grateful.

There are many people over the years who have assisted  and provided opportunities for me to develop as a coach and John Freebairn rates highly amongst them.”

Hugh Murray, fourth from Left

Then there is Stuart Hogg.   Stuart like John was a reluctant professional athlete who really wanted to be an amateur.   However he made a good career for himself and then became a Scottish National Coach and worked with many very good athletes of his own.   He has been fitness coach for most of the top teams in Scotland – Rangers, Aberdeen, Dundee United among them – and he competed at many of the same meetings as John.   His comments are as follows:

“I first met John after his football career was over (prematurely circumstances probably made that decision for him) he turned to take his physical activities to the Professional Highland Games, competing in the heavy events as well as jumps. You would often see him take his kilt on and off several times a day as he switched from throwing to jumping.

I found John to be a really nice, honest guy. A great competitor but at the same time quite laid back: he never appeared to get flustered, he appeared to take everything in his stride. While I do not know all of his feats, I do know that he was a regular winner on the Pro circuit (as a track athlete you did not pay heed in detail how the non- track athletes had done). However we did converse quite often as I had worked in football as well. We exchanged stories as I knew some of the people he had worked with. In these conversations it was a great credit to him that he was not one to disrespect any of the people we chatted about – a true gentleman.

I have no doubt in the present day he would have made a great Decathlete. He was a good jumper, thrower and hurdler and but for the amateur/professional divide of that day, he would have shown that given the opportunity which was denied him.
I consider it a pleasure to have known John, a man I am sure who has influenced many young aspiring athletes in his time coaching.” 

Stuart Hogg

Then there is the wee story about John at the Highland Games as told by Alastair MacNeil:

“Among those I got to know well was former Partick Thistle goalkeeper, John Freebairn.   I had seen him many times at Firhill when, as a student, I had gone to watch fellow Tirisdeach, Johnny MacKenzie, playing for Thistle. Incidentally, the latter is the only  fluent Gaelic speaker to have played for Scotland. John Freebairn often nearly caused Thistle fans to suffer heart attacks with his habit of coming well out of his goal area to make a  clearance.   On one occasion at Inverary a young newcomer appeared on the scene in the long jump. At one point during the event my teacher’s brain must have taken over and I pointed out something he could do to improve his performance. John came up to me and said quietly, “I don’t mind you coaching, but don’t do it during the actual competition”.

*

John died on 24th April, 2020, and among the tributes was this one by Jack Davidson on the SHGA website:

“John Freebairn who has died aged 82 was one of the best known figures on the Games circuit for twenty five years from early 1960’s to mid ‘80’s. During that time he enjoyed considerable success in both light and heavy events with marks of 6ft in high jump, 12’4” pole vault, 22ft plus long jump, 48 ft shot putt, 120 ft. hammer throw and 14 ft.weight over the bar reflecting his quality as an athlete. An excellent ambassador for the Games who also competed in Australia, Indonesia and throughout Europe John was popular and well respected, a true sportsman and man of integrity. Later he enjoyed success in Masters’ athletics and coaching. Prior to his Games career he was professional footballer as goalkeeper with Partick Thistle in the old first division.”

*

From Partick Thistle came this tribute:

Thursday 30th April, 2020 at 4:43pm

Those of us at Firhill of a somewhat older vintage received with great sadness news of the death of former goalkeeper John Freebairn. I am pleased to pay the following tribute to an unusual, almost unique custodian and a fine person.   John made his Thistle debut against Kilmarnock on 28th October 1958 at Firhill. In total he was our last line of defence on 115 occasions. He was unusual. How many players have we signed from Glasgow University? His style was unique. While goalkeepers today suffer criticism for not coming off their line quickly enough, John adopted the opposite philosophy. His province covered virtually two thirds of the penalty area, thus causing all sorts of panic among our fans, but he was popular and effective nevertheless.

Away from the world of football, John was a significant performer at Highland Games meetings, tossing the caber with immense power and efficiency – an accomplished all round athlete.   We have lost a goalkeeper like no other and we mourn the loss of a fine man.

Our thoughts at this sad time are with his family and friends and we offer to them our sincere condolences.

Robert Reid.

Honorary President

*

A happier memory of John from John Robertson as posted on on the Memiours of a Pro Athlete facebook page.

John Robertson Sad to lose another talented competitor and all round nice guy. I had many great competitions with John in the jumping events. He had great natural spring. An all round good athlete, John always wanted to help other competitors giving advice and looking for ways to improve. Mind I remember getting 43.5 different instructions before a jumping event. I think I got 22’ in the TRIPLE jump 🤣😂🤣. Often I would see him throw 3 different styles with his 3 throws in the Shot Putt! The Putt under the chin being a favourite. We competed together at Gotland (an island off the east coast of Sweden) in the Gutnik Games. Both of us high jumping wearing the kilt. Great memories.

*

On the same web site, Thomas Miller said:

Thomas Miller remember him from Coatbridge running track sure his daughter trained there,he brought the jay scott memorial trophy and a 50 pound prize to our home as tony won the the best field event athlete at luss but did not know a true gentleman loved sport and all highland games events never seen him compete but looked a strong man.

John had no real desire to become a professional athlete in the first place, he was a very good athlete but to the amateur administrators of the time, the rules were the rules and he could not compete as an amateur while playing professional football.   However when his professional career came to an end he decided to become a properly qualified coach and the only way to do that was to take the appropriate SAAA courses and examinations.   He became a veteran in athletics terms in January 1978, according to the SAAA list of coaches he had not a single coaching qualification in 1980 but in 1986 this letter dropped through his letter box.

“I first met John in 1984 when I took my first  tenuous and uncertain step on the coaching ladder to Assistant Club Coach.. The only speakers from that weekend I remember are John and Alec Naylor: they both impressed me..

The following year  I took the brave step forward to Club Coach Discus. The course work was delivered by Des Mardell the father of the then GB International Discus thrower Paul. It involved attending a weekend on coaching theory, a weekend on the event , a written exam and a practical assessment.

John took me for the practical assessment which involved  the production of a training plan for a session with the objectives of the session.   Both I and my demonstrators were quite nervous to be in such company, never having done anything like this before.   But John as ever put us at our ease. I must have done enough to satisfy him as I passed that element of the test and achieved my club coach award.   I met John on many occasions afterwards as I progressed through the Coach Education system he was always encouraging and thorough in his examinations offering sound words of advice when necessary.

I was keen to extend my practical knowledge of coaching and as the Scottish Event Group Leader for Throws John made that possible through direct involvement with my development and by arranging for me to accompany him to conferences and practical weekends all over the UK where we learned from some of the best coaches in the World. It was during this time that Max Jones who was then UK Lead Coach for Throws, and later went on to become GB Athletics Head of Performance, appointed John as his UK National Coach for Shot.   It was a well deserved appointment

During that time, I also had the opportunity to compete against John at County and District Championships.  Indeed John competed for many years  at the highest level as a Masters Athlete, then known as the Vets.   Not only was he a good thrower, he was also a good jumper and competed with distinction in the Combined Events.

With John now established as Throws Event leader in Scotland I was offered the National Coach Discus post with Jim Hunter, Shot, and Willie Robertson, Hammer, and Eddie Taylor, Javelin.   

John would organize National Squad Weekends throughout the Winter which we would staff.   But John’s weekends were rather special as  they were a Freebairn family event with wife Celia and his two daughters, Susan and Joanne, looking after the important part of the weekend which was food and refreshments.   The weekends were done on a limited budget which was partly increased by Celia’s sales of home baking  and the occasional raffle.

John personally coached his own daughter Suzie for Discus and she represented Scotland on several occasions.  But it is for his encouragement and advice to other coaches over the years that we should be grateful.

There are many people over the years who have assisted  and provided opportunities for me to develop as a coach and John Freebairn rates highly amongst them.”

A lot of what Hugh said there could be echoed by other coaches throughout the country.   John never pushed himself to the front of the photograph, however, and was never as well known as he should have been.

In June, 1990, Willie Robertson writing in “Scotland’s Runner” on the topic of the Highland Games wrote: “This year might mark a turning point in amateur Highland Games.   It is generally agreed that the recently formed Highland Games Commission is a step, if somewhat belated, in the right direction.   A coaching scheme has been initiated by the commission with Kenny McDonald and John Freebairn appointed as principal coaches.   Incredibly the SAAA had previously no policy on coaching these traditional events (shot excepted).”   That was another job for John to do as well as the SAAA one.    He was, of course, still training himself and in the next month’s issue of the magazine, we read “Former profesional athlete John Freebairn.   John who is of course the Group Coach for the throws won the caber at Bathgate.   He probably won his first caber event before most of the field were born.”    But the SAAA job developed and as it involved encouraging the athletes and helping them develop, John travelled to do it.   For example, in 1993 we read in a look ahead to the Highland Games that season.   The divide between the two codes had been pretty well removed by then.   

“John Freebairn, South Coach, believes Mark McDonald will be difficult to beat.   “Mark is in his best ever condition this year.   Andy Vince and I went to see him in September last year in a bit to help him with his conditioning, which is something he has continued throughout the winter.   He has been in excellent form this season and will be hard to beat if he keeps up his strength level.   Freebairn sees Kenny Wilson of Stranraer as another to impress if his technique continues to improve to match his strength.   And Alan Pettigrew and Laurie Nisbet could also figure strongly”

The work done at development days, coaching big squads, teaching new throwers is all seen and reported on.   The long drives to places like Dumfries to advise senior athletes of quality are never seen.   The fact that John knew his events and its athletes was shown a few short months later when Mark McDonald (pictured below) became the first professssional athlete to win a Scottish amateur athletics title when he won the heavy events at Cowal Highland Gathering in Dunoon.

Away from the national scene, John was active in his local community of Kilsyth. He always had been – he had lived in Kilsyth all his life and was for many years a Community Council member.  Many coaches stop working with children once they reach the heights of dealing with senior athletes, and one national coach said to me that his days of working with young athletes were over.   That was not John.   This was most easily seen in Kilsyth where he was a key founder of Colzium ASC (for ‘Athletic and Swimming Club’) and organiser of youth community games.   The Colzium club started in the 1980’s and covered all track and field events with athletes ranked individually and on occasion as relay teams (including 3 x 800m).    The club’s record in cross-country is also a good one for a club coming from such a small area.   In 1981-82 they won the Scottish Under 11 girls championship with a team which had the first three finsihers (McDade. McGuinness and Finnegan), and were second in the under 13 age group team race (G Patterson was eighth individual);  in 1982-83 they were third n the U11 national team race and in the under 13’s they were the winning team (Patterson 2nd, Finnegan 3rd and McDade 8th); in 1983-84 they were second team in the under 13 (Cassidy 6th, Finnegan 9th) and second in the under 15 race (Patterson 12th); in 1985-86 they were third in the under 11’s and third in the under 15’s (Finnegan 7th, Keenan 14th, Artis 16th); in 86-87 they were second in the under 11’s (McDowall 9th).   Bear in mind that these were the national championships – the girls won medals in the District championships too and that was at a time when the standard was high.   Unlike the men’s championships, the SWCCU allowed English teams to enter runners and medals went to such clubs as Morpeth, Carlisle, Blaydon and Derwent  Harriers.   The boys also did well but without the victories at national level that the girls managed.    It wasa  similar story on the rack with both boys and girls being highly ranked at SAAA level – mainly in endurance and field events – and the girls doing slightly better than the boys.  Many of the athletes went on to have successful athletic careers with bigger clubs such as Michelle McGuinness at Shettleston Harriers Ladies, Linzie Kerr at Glasgow AC and Mark Hamill at Cambuslang.   It was a good club but had a very small catchment area with Strathkelcin Ladies and Springburn Harriers to the West and Cumbernauld to the East being bigger and longer established athletics clubs.

 In addition to his work at national level, his involvement with Colzium, and his own training,  he later took on a job as schools development coach for Glasgow and North Lanarkshire where he taught the young athletes many throwing events including the . using a specially made small size caber of his own.    At a personal level I asked him to do three sessions with me at a Bearsden secondary school: no problem, he came and did a different implement every week and a staff member stayed behind to watch what he was doing and learn from it.   He did so much in athletics that people would be excused for thinking that he had an easy day-job which gave him lots of time: not a bit of it.   His full title was Mr John Freebairn, BSc, CEng, MICE, MIHT and he was responsible for the roads in the central part of Scotland.   If you want a job done, ask a busy man.   Remember that he was also a Community Councillor too for many years.

There were still, of course the international and representative fixtures where he had Scottish or British coaching responsibilities.   One of the top appointments of his career was to the UK Youth Olympic Games 1993  where he was the  combined event coach.   This was a big meeting with 3500 athletes from 170 countries competing.   The calibre of athlete involved can be seen from the fact that Christine Ohurogou and Tom Daley were both representing the British team.   

John is a superb talent – a talented athlete, a telented football player, a talented coach and a man of talents away from the athletics arena that others would be proud of on their own.   Athletics is lucky to have him among their numbers.

Receiving the  CG baton for Glasgow on 23rd June 2014 on day 12 Stepps

John’s career in professional athletics was not marked by a narrow specialism.   When I spoke to one of his contemporaries on the circuit he remembered John well.  Where many confine themselves to the heavy events and others do the jumps, sprints or endurance events, John could perform well in them all – maybe not in the endurance races though.   He could do a good long jump, he was a high jumper and hurdler, and in addition  he was good at the throws.   His last season as an amateur was summer 1958.  He remembers competing in the Sports of 1958 where he won the shot putt and was rewarded with a Parker-Knoll armchair which was better than Hugh Barrow’s transistor radio but much harder to fit into the family car.   He also took part in the high jump immediately and his opening jump was 5’11” which was not good enough for a place in the event.   He did however get a second in the pole vault.    These were the days of landing in flat sand in the ‘jumps for height’ but at Ibrox the sand was piled high .   John had seen the Walt Davis/Alan Paterson duel in 1952 and had been roped in by Fraser Riach to help retrieve the javelin in the floodlit meeting.   Unfortunately the 1958 Sports was his only competition because he turned professional at the end of 1958 to compete on the Highland Games circuit.   He became a professional at the end of summer 1958.

The transition from football is described – Davidson again:

That led Freebairn to the Highland Games, the only form of professional athletics then available. Over the next 25 years or so he went on to have a highly successful Games career, mastering the arts of the heavy events – caber tossing, Scots hammer throwing and putting the shot. He also shone in running, jumping and pole-vaulting. Being an all-rounder, Freebairn regularly chalked up more than ten events per day. He would flit from the throwing zone, removing his kilt as he did so, to the jumping area, then back again with kilt restored. Competition at the time was stiff, with Bill Anderson and Olympic shot putter Arthur Rowe standout “heavies” and the MacBeath brothers and John Robertson in the light events.

He enjoyed competing successfully in front of the royal family at Braemar, but also venues such as Pitlochry, Portree and Glenisla. During the Glasgow Fair fortnight, there were Games every day from Dunbeath in Caithness to Luss on Loch Lomond.   His highest winnings in one afternoon in the 60s were £40, equivalent to about £500 in today’s terms.

There was danger also. Once at Oban Games as he bent over, back facing the hammer throw, a flying 22lb hammer hit him flush on the rear end. Ewen Cameron, of Lochearnhead, the famous Games figure, insisted he have a ‘restorative’ dram – “the worst thing I could have done” – but, minutes later, he won the high jump.   They made them differently then.

Away from the domestic circuit, he competed in Games in Australia, Indonesia, France, Germany and Sweden. Latterly, he has competed in veterans’ athletics, winning a clutch of British titles as well as being involved in coaching at national level. He continues to compete and will do so as long as he is able.

He looks back on a sporting career that gave him a lot of satisfaction as well as some regrets. In particular, he regrets being denied the opportunity to represent Britain in the decathlon. It seems anomalous and unfair that, because he was also a talented footballer, access to the higher levels of amateur athletics should have been blocked. That said, he does think that if he had his time over again he would concentrate on football – “with the money they make nowadays!” he laughs.”

He was a very good competitor in all field events but more successful in the jumps – or the Light Athletic events as they are known on the professional circuit.   He had to be as the standard in the heavy events was so high with Bill Anderson towering over the others in terms of his performances.   There were English amateur internationalists who competed for a couple of years and were also of a high calibre – Arthur Rowe in the 60’s had some great duels with Bill Anderson and they drove each other on to some prodigious achievements, John Savidge of the Royal Navy and another Olympian, and the legendary Geoff Capes for example.    John won his prizes in these events too but most of his victories were in the other field events.  In the pro events, there were usually no landing areas for high jump or pole vault: the competitors were landing on grass..   And the vault was with an aluminium pole with a spike in the end.   Remember that when you see the heights reached by the winners in the Games.   He had competed in some highland games when a student (in 1958 he won the high jump at the Strathallan Gathering).   His versatility was clear right from the start of his pro career- at Braemar in 1962 he was third in the hurdles race, second in the long jump and won the high jump.   He won the SHGA Light Athletics championship in 1966 with victories in Pitlochry, Crieff, Aboyne and Auchterarder among others but we should look at his victories over a few seasons.  His talents can best be seen when we look at his Games career year by year.   Victories in the first couple of years were frequent but as noted, it was in 1966 that he won many more events and won the championship.   

John high jumping at Mull: Western Roll style and landing on grass.

1963

1964

1965

1966

LIGHT ATHLETICS CHAMPION

The ** marker indicates that the event was won by W McLellan who was John’s main rival at many games and he won the 1967 title with both he amd John tieing for the championship in 1968.   These are only the events that he won – there were times when a new athlete appeared on the scene and took first prize – eg at Aboyne, Ian Ward GB International pole vaulter and one of the men responsible for introducing the glass fibre pole to the country, won the event with a height of 12′ 0″.   The detailed results for other seasons will be recorded on a separate page.    It would be a mistake to suppose however that John was not a successful competitor in the throws events.   The standard was very high with the names of Rowe and Anderson dominating all the throws in the 1960’s    Have a look at this.

And if you look at the bottom of this extract from the SGA handbook (no date), then you note that he was also a fair-to-middling wrestler!

He seemed to like the Aberdeen circuit, which doesn’t appear on the last table apart from the trips to the Lonach Gathering travelling there year after year.   A few examples from the 1970’s –

• In June 1970 he was at Oldmeldrum Sports where he won the pole vault and took part in many other events.  Bill Anderson won the 8 heavy events as well as the overall points contest and the local paper remarked that his chief challenger for the title was John Freebairn, Kilsyth, who divided his time between the heavy events and the light athletics.
•  He was back at Oldmeldrum in 1975 where he won the high jump and was third in the light hammer.   The competition in the heavy events was serious: apart from Anderson, there were men like Grant Anderson, and in this particular meeting Doug Edmunds and Laurie Bryce both made their debut on the pro scene;
• In July 1975 he was at Halkirk where he won the running high leap;
• in 1977 he went to the Lonach Gathering in the North East and if we  read what the Aberdeen Press & Journal said on 25th August, after it noted that the Australians did well:   “With three firsts and a first equal John Freebairn dominated the heavy events and went on to win the  high leap and the vault.”   In all he won the Heavy Stone, Light Stone, 28 lb Weight, and he tied the Weight over the Bar; he then won the High jump and the pole vault.   The Lonach Gathering is the one where the pipers march to the event stopping at several big houses for a dram.   One of the big houses was Candacraig where Billy Connolly used to live and he delighted in the duty.   Still in the North East he was still winning prizes at the Games when he was second in the overall light athletics championship at Tomintoul in 1982
•  On 10th July 1978 he was at Dingwall where he won the Weight for Distance – and the Wellie Boot Throwing contest which was a Heat of the National Championship.
• At the end of August 1979, he was at Braemar where he again won the running high leap.

What do we see from the above: First off, note the distances covered to get to the events: some athletes tended to compete only in the Borders and Lakes, some kept themselves to Fife and the Central Belt and so on, but John was one of the few who travelled the length and breadth of the country.   The West Coast was represented by the Balloch, Luss, Oban, Mallaig and Caol Games, the North East by Braemar, Aberdeen and Aboyne, and the East Central Games were covered by Alva, Auchterarder, Pitlochry and Blackford.   Nowhere was off limits.   John was also a regular contender for year end honours – for instance, in 1966 he won the Light Athletic Field Events championship, in 1968 he tied for the same title with W McLellan.   In addition there were invariably Games where he was second or third in several events without actually winning one.    

It is also of interest to note that he won long jump and triple jump events on the circuit taking off from dodgy surfaces into sand.  Rules for these light field events are below. taken from the official Games Association handbook.   As a veteran athlete he was ranked year after year in event after event but seemed to shy away from both these events.   

What did his contemporaries among the profession athletes think of John?  A story of John at the Games comes from Alastair MacNeill’s reminiscences of the Games at the http://www.aniodhlann.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017.70.2.pdf website: 

“Among those I got to know well was former Partick Thistle goalkeeper, John Freebairn.   I had seen him many times at Firhill when, as a student, I had gone to watch fellow Tirisdeach, Johnny MacKenzie, playing for Thistle. Incidentally, the latter is the only fluent Gaelic speaker to have played for Scotland. John Freebairn often nearly caused Thistle fans to suffer heart attacks with his habit of coming well out of his goal area to make a  clearance.   On one occasion at Inverary a young newcomer appeared on the scene in the long jump. At one point during the event my teacher’s brain must have taken over and I pointed out something he could do to improve his performance. John came up to me and said quietly, “I don’t mind you coaching, but don’t do it during the actual competition”.

The following cutting is of the Strathmiglo Games in 1973 where John won several prizes.   

A first, a second and two thirds – the opposition was of a good class – the great Bill Anderson tied with John for the caber toss and Charlie Allan (throws) and Willie McLellan in the jumps were also top men.   A former National Coach for Scotland used to have a list of sports and athletic events which he put up and then asked which were endurance events.  Regardless of the individual events, John must have been an endurance athlete to compete as often as he did at these meetings.   The four events for which he won money were not the only events he competed in that day, and he had won hurdles races as well as all the jumping events on occasion – one competitor comments on another page about him putting on his kilt for the throws, then taking it off for the running and jumping events all afternoon.   Competing all afternoon, he was quite the endurance athlete too.

John’s own lists of his competitions can be seen    at this link .

John Freebairn (second from the left) with some Partick Thistle players in the late 1950’s

I first met John Freebairn in the late-80’s when I was Group Coach for 5000/10000 metres and he filled the same position for the Shot Putt.   He was a Senior Coach for Shot and Discus and a Club Coach for Javelin at that time and had been a professional athlete during his days as a competitive athlete.   He had also competed in University athletics and been a professional football player.    As Jack Davidson said in an article in the Scotsman,  “Versatility was his byword, perhaps to the extent of preventing him from fully fulfilling his sporting destiny. Still, performing with distinction at venues so iconic yet so contrasting as Wembley and Braemar would, for most, be more than notable markers along the road to acquiring a weighty set of sporting laurels.”    The article by Davidson is quite excellent and can be found at 

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/athletics/interview-john-freebairn-goalkeeper-and-athlete-1-3249118

John Freebairn started off in Kilsyth and has never really strayed from the area, he still lives there.  He came from a fairly active sporting family – his father had been a pupil at Dollar Academy where he won the school long jump at age 16 with a leap of 16 feet 6 inches; his aunt was also very athletic and won many sports events.   As a boy, he and pals in Kilsyth were into a variety of activities.   As for John himself, Jack Davidson’s article tells us that “Apart from kicking a ball, rudimentary pole vaulting using a clothes ‘stretcher’ (ie a clothes pole) over burns and fences was one pastime, while performing hop, step and jump across street junctions was another. Sprint practice along the local railway track using short steps over the sleepers, foreshadowing modern football training methods, was yet another”

He was always a fast runner and won the Primary School sports before going on to secondary school.   A pupil at Kilsyth Academy and a six foot high jumper, he won the Scottish Schools High Jump in his final year, and was also goalkeeper for the Scottish Schoolboys’ team.   Always a bit of an all-rounder, he could have won several events at the SSAA Championships but the rules forbade any pupil entering several events.   He had a job with Tay Salmon Fisheries that entailed rowing people up and down the loch and he put on a stone and a half of muscle ‘in no time at all’.    A member of the YMCA he won the YMCA high jump at the age of 17 with a clearance of 5′ 11″ at Ardeer on 28th May 1956.   The YMCA Championships were always a well supported meeting and at tat one the wonderful Scottish and GB hurdler DK Gracie from Larkhall won the 100 yards and Bert McKay of Motherwell won the 880 yards with Andy Brown winning the Mile.   

John’s wearing the yellow jersey! 

Football was always there though. The Scottish Schools team in which he played, lost to England at Wembley, losing 0-1 but only because “our forwards missed sitter after sitter”. Caps for the Scottish Youth team followed playing alongside Billy Stevenson, later of Rangers, Liverpool and Scotland, and Johnny Macleod, later of Hibs, Arsenal and Scotland.   Jack Davidson’s article continues:

Despite a number of clubs wanting to sign him, Freebairn was determined to go to university to study civil engineering. Keen to retain his amateur status because of athletics, he played some games as an amateur for Airdrie with players such as Doug Baillie and Ian Macmillan. In these days, any suggestion of an athlete being paid tainted him and spelled the end of his amateur career.”

When he went to Glasgow University he came under the wing of the great throws expert Fraser Riach.   John was a good and enthusiastic pupil and Fraser was a good coach and he improved tremendously – his distances went up to 60m with the javelin, 50m with the discus and 14.5 m with the shot.   Add in the skills that helped him win the Schools high jump and his natural speed, and you had a decathlete of no mean ability.   Then when the Glasgow University team went to a match at St Andrews and the pole vaulter couldn’t be there, he was asked to do the pole vault.   His only previous experience was using the clothes pole to get over the burns and dykes in Kisyth as a boy but he had a go – and cleared in excess of 11 feet.   In 1958 he was good enough to compete in the AAA Decathlon.  Before that he had won three events in the GUAC Championships which were well covered in the Glasgow Herald:

The events covered both jumps and field events.

But money had always been a bit of a problem – he had his first tracksuit when he was 16 and he was still using it ten years later.   Again, football came into the equation, and as Davidson says: 

Once his university course was under way in Glasgow, he combined keeping goal for the students with representing them at athletics. In 1958, he took part in the AAA’s decathlon championship, his debut in any kind of decathlon. In a field bolstered by overseas athletes, he finished a very creditable fifth. He gained three Scottish Amateur international football caps against England, Holland and Wales, and clubs were still pursuing him to sign professional forms, with Spurs and Arsenal among them.

A change in family circumstances at this point meant he needed financial help to continue his studies. Torn between economic need and preservation of his amateur status, Freebairn had a difficult decision to make. Despite Dunky Wright, the former marathon champion, trying to dissuade him, he accepted Partick Thistle’s offer of a part-time contract, enabling him to follow his studies at Glasgow. Thistle were then a prominent old First Division team and, under the guidance of David Meiklejohn, the ex-Rangers and Scotland captain, he soon established himself as a first-team regular on £14 a week plus bonuses.”

His time with Partick was successful and he faced all the top players in the country at the time – and at times they came off second best.   In September 1961 Jimmy Miller of Rangers broke his collar bone in a clash with John and in the following week Rangers were playing Monaco at Ibrox, then East Fife in the Scottish League Cup quarter final, and then Celtic at Ibrox.   But no matter how well he played against these men, his time at Firhill came to an end,  The official story was that he was released when the club signed George Niven , the Rangers and Scotland goalkeeper.

 Other football teams sought his services – among them was Portadown who wanted him as soon as he was released by the Thistle in May 1962: the Belfast Telegraph said that the 6′ 1″ Glasgow University student would be looking for employment in or near Glasgow so he might not be available next season.   Then it was rumoured that St Mirren wanted his services but we will not pursue the football career – whoever got him on their books, his amateur athletic days were well and truly over.

His record with the Thistle: Arriving at Firhill for the 1958/59 campaign, John took over in goal from Tommy Ledgerwood in a talented Thistle team managed that season by David Meiklejohn and, later, by Willie Thornton. He went on to make 115 appearances for the club, training under Jackie Husband and alongside team-mates including the likes of Joe McBride, Dave McParland and Tommy Ewing. A Glasgow Cup winning medal arrived in season 1960/61.

Part 2: John Freebairn, Professional Athletes  2A John’s Professional Competitive Record  Part 3: John Freebairn: Veteran Athlete 

 Part 4: John Freebairn International Coach         Part 5: John Freebairn: As Others See HIm