He’s performed in opposition to the Glasgow Celtic staff which might turn into the well-known Lisbon Lions.
And led his staff to a historic Scottish Qualifying Cup triumph in opposition to St Cuthbert Wanderers in 1969.
Though it’s half a century since Creetown’s Johnnie Hanlon hung up his boots he’s nonetheless mild on his toes.
Now retired, the 83-years-young former joiner, builder and footballer nonetheless has a twinkle in his eye.
“The numbers are the improper approach spherical – I’m actually 38,” he says as spouse Mary laughs and shakes her head.
Over a cup of espresso in his self-built bungalow overlooking the Moneypool Burn, Johnnie tells me he was born at Kirkcowan in 1939, the primary yr of the struggle.
I comment that Hanlon is an Irish title which seemingly misplaced its previous ‘O’ in Scotland, simply as so many Irish surnames did when the bearers arrived right here within the years following the Famine.
“My grandfather was additionally John Hanlon and I believe his household did come over from Eire,” Johnnie tells me.
“I imagine he possibly got here throughout to Scotland together with his father for farm work like hundreds of different Irish folks did on the time.
“He labored as a linesman on the railway and was blinded in a railway accident. He was standing near the road when a practice went previous and a brier caught on the aspect raked him throughout the face and badly broken each his eyes. It was earlier than nationalisation and he didn’t get a penny of compensation.
“He had a few sheds in his backyard at Kirkco’en and barrowed in timber from the woods then sawed and chopped it up for logs and kindling. He bought that to the varsity and native folks to make a pound.
“He did the Sunday papers as effectively and both delivered them or folks would simply come to his door. He simply had sufficient sight to see the place he was going however he couldn’t learn.”
After Kirkcowan Major Faculty Johnnie attended the Douglas Ewart in Newton Stewart.
And though he was within the prime class, 1A, college was out of the query for cash causes.
However soccer, I be taught, was his old flame and he had no qualms about beginning work in his mid-teens.
“I had nothing however soccer in my head,” Johnnie smiles.
“I performed for the Ewart at inside ahead in opposition to groups from Dumfries, Dalbeattie and Annan.
“I used to be not a tough participant and I didn't deal with tough.
“I performed my first recreation for Tarff Rovers once I was 15 – that was in 1954 at Ballgreen Park, Kirkcowan.
“I left faculty at 15 – all of us did.
“You could possibly not afford to go to school except you had been effectively off.
“My first job was in a grocer’s store in Kirkco’en (the native pronunciation of Kirkcowan).
“Like many wee locations then it was busy and had 14 companies.
“By the point I used to be 16 I used to be working as an apprentice joiner with T&D Murray within the village.
“It was a five-year apprenticeship – I made the tea the primary yr.
“However at 21 I used to be totally certified and was put in command of doing the joiner work on the brand new Penninghame Major Faculty in Newton Stewart.”
On a regular basis Johnnie was enjoying soccer – and at 18 his expertise introduced him to the eye of Everton.
“The South league was excessive normal – we had been enjoying in opposition to a whole lot of former Celtic and Rangers gamers who had been coming to the top of their careers,” he says.
“We had a recreation in opposition to Greystone Rovers in Dumfries and me and my mate Jock Rennie determined to drive there.
“We went to the improper pitch – there wasn’t a soul and we thought the sport had been delay. In these days you solely went on with the staff you had.
“And since we had been AWOL Tarff needed to begin the sport with 9 males and the trainers got here to search for us.
“They discovered us buying in Woolworth’s – they weren’t greatest happy.
“We rushed again and received on simply earlier than half time when it was 1-0 to Greystone Rovers.
“Not lengthy after Jock scored the equalizer after which I scored the winner with a volley from 15 yards.
“It was a giant win – and on the coaching assembly on the Monday after the sport we had been informed that a scout from Everton had been there.
“That’s how I used to be observed.”
Johnnie, it seems, truly received three letters from the Goodison Park membership – the primary two of which he refused.
“The third time I accepted and went for a trial,” he remembers.
“I made a decision to go as a result of I had a relation within the RAF who lived close to Liverpool.”
Johnnie fishes out the unique letter from a substantial file of memorabilia and exhibits it to me.
Dated April 1, 1958, the provide from a Mr Buchan states: “I'm glad to listen to that you'll be able to settle for our provide and word that it is possible for you to to journey down on Saturday subsequent, April fifth.
“I've organized so that you can stick with a Mrs Moreton, 27 Tatton Street, Liverpool and I'm certain you can be very snug along with her.”
For 18-year-old Johnnie, his trial for Everton in opposition to Blackpool ‘A’ at Lytham St Annes didn't produce the specified outcome.
“I used to be very inexperienced in these days and I used to be not mature sufficient,” he tells me.
“I used to be fairly slight as a participant and had not totally bodily developed.”
Tarff Rovers had been no imply staff in South soccer and Johnnie remembers how on January 28, 1961, the membership performed Hearts within the Scottish Cup first spherical at Tynecastle.
“We had been beat 9-0 however that didn’t matter,” he smiles.
“Tarff Rovers had been an beginner staff and Hearts had been very skilled.
“It was fairly an expertise – I used to be simply overawed and excited who we had been enjoying.
“That they had Scotland internationalists within the ahead line.
“However the cash the membership made, about £1,500 if I bear in mind, saved it going for years.”
The match programme, produced by Hearts, says of Johnnie: “Tarff have a number of fantastic gamers and one in all their stars is John Hanlon their inside proper who regardless of a little bit of knee hassle this season has been enjoying effectively.
“Hanlon has been watched by Everton, Stoke, Celtic and Kilmarnock however has rejected gives from all of them.
“He's a joiner to commerce and wouldn’t thoughts making soccer his profession – ideally in Edinburgh.”
That indirect reference to Johnnie’s footballing ambitions can solely imply one factor – that his footballing loyalties lay with the capital’s different large membership, Hibernian.
However Hibs by no means got here calling and Johnnie signed for Stranraer – who to his puzzlement performed him at
outdoors proper.
“After we performed Motherwell within the Scottish Cup they switched me to inside proper – my pure place,” he says.
“We had been drawing 1-1 at Stair Park, me being the scorer, however with ten minutes left their health informed they usually received two extra objectives.”
Johnnie palms me a newspaper reducing of the report on the sport, performed on February 16, 1962.
The writer estimates the gang at 6,000 – a far cry from the same old 300 to 400 at Stair Park as of late.
He writes: “When handing out bouquets my thanks go to John Hanlon who handled the entire affair as if it was a Cree Lodge Cup tie and emerged the perfect ahead on view.
“In his correct place (inside proper) – 13 weeks wasted – he was immense.
“John Hanlon’s aim will lengthy be remembered – he took it coolly and calmly and easily hammered the ball previous Wyllie.
“Happily my cameraman was on the qui vive and elsewhere the historic event is on movie for posterity.”
Johnnie’s subsequent transfer, he tells me, was to the sunny climes of Australia in 1965.
“There was an ex-Rangers participant known as Allan Elliott who had come to Stranraer to play. He was on the finish of his profession and was going out to handle Melbourne Hungaria.
“The staff was shaped by Hungarian exiles in Australia after the Russians invasion of Hungary in 1956.
“He needed me and Davie Logan, one other Stranraer participant, to return.
“Davie didn’t go however I agreed – and shortly after the membership gave me a contract and organized my flight.
“Melbourne was a beautiful place however I solely performed there for three-quarters of a season.
“In January 1966 I made a decision to return again to Scotland and joined Stranraer once more.”
Weeks later, on February 5, 1966, Stranraer got here up in opposition to the mighty Glasgow Celtic within the Scottish Cup first spherical – the primary time the 2 sides had ever met. Stranraer misplaced 4-0, however the recreation gave Johnnie a first-hand take a look at gamers who the next season would turn into the Lisbon Lions and champions of Europe.
“You couldn’t maintain a candle to Jimmy Johnstone,” he laughs.
“They had been a lot superior to us and that was proved once they went on the subsequent yr to win the European Cup.
“I performed at Stranraer for one more three years then signed for Derry Metropolis.
“They heard I used to be getting freed by Stranraer and had a man over from Eire watching me, who signed me.
“I'd go over on the ferry to Larne on the Thursday night, get the practice to Derry and keep there on the Friday night time earlier than the sport. If the match was in Belfast I'd go straight there from the boat. Derry Metropolis had been fairly a prime staff and I loved my time with them.
“There was by no means something introduced up about faith.”
Johnnie laughs as he remembers one recreation when a bunch of supporters started heckling him – in Wigtownshire accents.
“We had been enjoying an away recreation when this crowd began shouting at me,” he recounts.
“It turned out they had been over from Kirkco’en on vacation.
“That they had came upon the place I used to be enjoying – and I didn’t know they had been coming. They gave me canine’s abuse – I recognised the Kirkco’en lingo right away. They pulled my leg the entire recreation. I couldn’t imagine it – I believed how the hell did they discover me right here?
“After a yr with Derry I packed it in.
“I couldn’t be bothered with all of the travelling.
“I used to be beginning up my very own enterprise, John Hanlon Carpenter, Joiner and Contractor, and I rejoined Tarff.”
Johnnie works out he was 29 or 30 then – nonetheless ok, he says proudly, to steer Tarff to victory within the Scottish Qualifying Cup, the South’s most prestigious trophy.
And certainly, the information present that in 1969, Tarff Rovers beat St Cuthbert Wanderers 4-0 at Ballgreen – then misplaced the return leg 0-3 at Kirkcudbright to scramble a 4-3 win on mixture.
“We had been assured of profitable after giving them a doing at Kirkco’en,” Johnnie smiles.
“In the long run we had been fortunate to flee with the cup – however we did.”
With Mary preserving him proper, Johnnie tells me first met his spouse to be, Stranraer lady Mary Garrett, at a dance in Dunragit village corridor in 1960.
“I went as much as her and stated ‘excuse me, can I've this dance?’” he laughs.
“She was dancing with the person she got here with on the time. Nothing got here of it and we by no means noticed one another once more for one more six years. There was a dance at Portpatrick and George Smith and the Southern Airs, a band from Stranraer, had been enjoying.
“I noticed Mary throughout the dance ground – the ladies had been on one aspect and the boys on the opposite. This time I requested her if I may take her dwelling to Stranraer in my new automobile – a Hillman Imp made at Linwood.
“I’d purchased it after getting back from Australia that January. She stated sure – however solely as a result of she didn’t wish to return on the bus. I dropped her off and requested if I may see her once more.
“She stated ‘sure’ and that was the beginning of our romance. That was 1966 – the yr England gained the World Cup – and we married the next yr.
“We stayed in a council home in Kirkcowan for seven years then I constructed our personal home.”
Johnnie ran a profitable self-employed joinery and builders enterprise in Kirkcowan – which wanting again nonetheless offers him satisfaction.
“And at its greatest, John Hanlon Joinery and Constructing Contractor employed eight or 9 males, plus sub-contracted plumbers and electricians,” he says.
“Mary and I moved to Creetown precisely 20 years in the past, in summer time 2002.
“I constructed two homes right here – our one and subsequent door which I bought to Mary’s brother.
“Earlier than that I should have constructed 50 bungalows in Wigtownshire plus an workplace for the Forestry Fee in Gatehouse of Fleet.”
Johnnie and Mary have three kids, John, Mark and Nicola, and 5 grandsons.
“We’ll be 55 years married this yr,” he smiles. "Coming to Creetown wasn’t tough. I knew a whole lot of folks from my faculty days and soccer days.
“It’s a pleasant place to retire to.