George McNeill (born 19 February 1947) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

former world professional sprint champion and the only man to have won both of the most famous professional footraces in the world – the

New Year Sprint The New Year Sprint (formerly the Powderhall Sprint) is the name of a handicap sprint race for professional athletes that takes place each year in Scotland. The sprint is one of the original events of this type, tracing its history back to 1870 ...

(1970) in Scotland and the Australian equivalent – the

Stawell Gift The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short-distance running race. It is the main event in an annual carnival held on Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, S ...

(1981). McNeill had previously played professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

for

Hibernian Hibernian may refer to: * Of Hibernia, Latin name for Ireland; hence ** Irish (disambiguation) Hibernian, Hibernians or The Hibernian may refer to: Sports clubs * Hibernian F.C., a Scottish football club, founded 1875 * Hibernian W.F.C., a Sc ...

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the . The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greenock Morton in 1994 to celebr ...

and

Stirling Albion Stirling Albion Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Stirling. The club was founded in 1945 following the demise of King's Park after World War II. The club currently competes in as a member of the Scottish Profession ...

Football career

McNeill grew up in the Scottish mining town of

Tranent Tranent is a town in East Lothian (formerly Haddingtonshire), in the south-east of Scotland. Tranent lies 6 miles from the boundary of Edinburgh, and 9.1 miles from the city centre. It lies south of the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road that r ...

. He played

for the local team, Tranent Juniors, but also played

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

for the school fifteen. In 1963 he left school aged 16 and became an apprentice quantity surveyor. While in the fifth form at Ross High School, Tranent, he was recruited by

Hibernian FC Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the , the top division of Scottish football. The club was founded in 1875 by members of Edinburgh's Irish commun ...

as an apprentice

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

. McNeill appeared regularly in the Hibernian

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

in five years at the club, but played in only one senior game, a 3–0 win against

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

in December 1965. He transferred to

in 1968 after scoring a hat trick in a trial game. He also played for

during the 1968–69 season. In December 1968, McNeill was reading the ''

Edinburgh Evening News The ''Edinburgh Evening News'' is a daily newspaper and website based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded by John Wilson (1844–1909) and first published in 1873. It is printed daily, except on Sundays. It is owned by National World, whic ...

'' when he noticed his name in the entries for the 1969 New Year Sprint. He had been entered by an old school friend who thought McNeill might be a better sprinter than he was a footballer. Despite being run out in the cross tie, McNeill enjoyed this new found sport and soon retired from soccer to take up a sprinting career. Having played football professionally, McNeill was prevented from participating in amateur athletic events, but was able to enter professional running events.

Sprinting career

At the age of 21, George had his first start in a sprint race when he contested the heats of the 1969 New Year Sprint at the

Powderhall Powderhall is an area lying between Broughton Road and Warriston Road in the north of Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. Until recently it was best known for Powderhall Stadium, a greyhound racing track, which has now closed. The stadium also p ...

stadium. Running off 9.5 yards, McNeill made the cross ties (semi finals) however failed to advance to the final. He was so impressed by the performance of the eventual winner David Deas, that McNeill was eager to seek out Deas' coach, Jim Bradley. Bradley had already coached three New Year Sprint winners and McNeill was eager to become the fourth. McNeill went into the gym, pounding the speedball and performing several body-weight exercises to transform his body to the condition required to improve substantially. In 1970, running off 5.50 yards, McNeill won the 120 yards New Year Sprint held at Powderhall in Edinburgh, recording a time of 11.61 seconds. It was the 100th running of the New Year Sprint. In August 1970, McNeill broke the world professional 120 yards record, setting a fastest time of 11.14 seconds. In 1971 McNeill ran 2nd off scratch in the New Year Sprint at Meadowbank Stadium conceding 6 yards to stablemate Wilson Young who won the event. In 1972, he was crowned world professional sprint champion after winning three of four races against USA Olympic champion

Tommie Smith Tommie C. Smith (born June 6, 1944) is an American former track and field athlete and wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith, aged 24, won the 200-meter sprint finals and gold medal in 19.83 sec ...

at the

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

rugby ground. In 1972, McNeill visited Australia for the first of what turned out to be many trips abroad to run on the professional athletic circuit. He ran at Stawell in the heats of the Stawell Gift for several years including three consecutive finals from 1979 to 1981. In 1979, he was runner-up to Noel McMahon and the following year finished fifth to John Dinan. At the age of 34, McNeil returned once again in 1981 – the 100th edition of the Stawell Gift. Running off 4.0m and in one of the most exciting races ever, McNeill ran brilliantly to win the Gift at his ninth attempt in the time of 11.9secs. McNeill still remains the oldest winner of the Stawell Gift. McNeill took up coaching in the 1980s, training Willie Fraser to win the 1985 New Year Sprint and David Clarke to 2nd place in the 1985 Stawell Gift. He has also worked in coaching football teams, including Hearts and

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. McNeill's son, also named George, was a Scottish youth sprint champion. In 2003 McNeill was inducted into the

Scottish Sports Hall of Fame The Scottish Sports Hall of Fame is the national sports hall of fame of Scotland, set up in 2002. It is a joint project organised by sportscotland, the national governmental body for Scottish sport, and National Museums Scotland. It is also funded ...

in the Athletics category. McNeill works as an after dinner speaker.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McNeill, George Scottish male sprinters British male sprinters Living people 1947 births Sportspeople from Tranent Scottish men's footballers Men's association football wingers Hibernian F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. players Stirling Albion F.C. players Scottish Football League players Heart of Midlothian F.C. non-playing staff Livingston F.C. non-playing staff Tranent F.C. players Stawell Gift winners