Jimmy Logie
In 1919 not far away from Edinburgh’s hustling Grass market a young future Arsenal attacker was born his name is Jimmy Logie.
Logie first kicked a ball at local Scottish Junior team Lochore Welfare before being signed by the footballing giants of the 1930s who had already won five league titles and two FA Cups that decade Arsenal in 1939.
After having only been in North London for less than three months after having travelled just over 400 miles from Scotland, World War Two broke out. Instantly Logie signed up to serve in the Royal Navy for the whole six years nearly, despite this he still turned out occasionally for his hometown team St Bernards, Dunfermline Athletic and Grimsby Town when allowed. In 1940 he made a one off appearance for Southampton in which he scored in.
Once his War duties came to an end he was handed permission to return to Arsenal before pulling on the red and white shirt for the first time in 1946 versus Wolves. With his relentless barrel of creativity a lot of people compared him to previous Arsenal Scottish star Alex James, who helped Arsenal during their 1930s glory days. For the next eight campaigns he was the Gunners permanent inside forward. During this period of time he featured in Arsenals 1947/48 First Division Title campaign, the 1950 FA Cup victory over Liverpool in which he assisted both strikes and secured a second title with the Gunners during the 1952/53 season. The season also saw Logie receive his one and only Scotland call-up in 1952 against Northern Ireland.
Towards his final days at The Gunners, Logie shared the captain’s armband with well renowned skipper Joe Mercer.
After making 328 Arsenal appearances notching up 76 strikes before departing for non-league club Gravesend and Northfleet, leading them to the 1957/58 Southern league title he remained with them till 1960.
Once fully retired Logie endured a life of poor financial luck after playing in a time when footballer’s wages were undermined by the minimum wage. Logie would go onto work in a newsagents based in Piccadilly Circus where by 1984 the former Arsenal striker died aged 64.
Liam Harding
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Have to raise my glass to players like Jimmy Logie, loves the beautiful game so much all he needed was a pen to sign.
After retirement Jimmy became well known in central London where he had a newspaper stand. Players didn’t earn enough to make proper financial retirement plans back then.