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 ...
Tulip was one of the first Englishmen to play in the
Scottish League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a 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 km sout ...
. His discovery was quite unique as he was spied by a Dumfries
policeman
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
on holiday in the north of England who then recommended him to the Queens directors. He was snapped up and made his debut on 11 November 1933 against Rangers at Palmerston. This was Queens first season in Scotland's top division following promotion the previous season with Hibs."Club History" on the official Queen of the South website
As a player Joe Tulip was part of two landmark events in the history of Queen of the South:
* Queens highly successful first season in the top division finishing 4th – their highest finish to date. Queens also made it to the quarter finals of the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1936 overseas tour and the Algiers invitational tournament. Queens returned with the trophy after beating
Racing de Santander
Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league syst ...
Celtic Park
Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is al ...
on 23 December 1933 the billboards for the
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...
evening press ran with the headline, "Tulip tiptoes through the shamrocks". The result gave Queens a double victory that season over Celtic as they did also against Hibs and Hearts.
Among the others at Queens at the same time as Tulip were fellow players Willie Savage,
Willie Culbert
Willie Culbert was a former Scottish footballer best known with Dumfries club Queen of the South.
Queen of the South
Willie Culbert was a 1932 Queen of the South signing from Clyde.
Culbert was one of the mainstays of the side that were prom ...
,
Willie Ferguson
William Copeland Ferguson (13 February 1901 – 31 August 1960) was a Scottish footballer and manager best known for his time at Chelsea and Dumfries side Queen of the South. His position was usually as a left winger.
Early years
Ferguso ...
and
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
international
Laurie Cumming
Laurence Stanley Slater Cumming (10 April 1905 – 19 November 1980) was a professional footballer and journalist, born in Derry, Ireland. Cumming played for Alloa Athletic, Huddersfield Town, Oldham Athletic, Southampton, Queen of the South, ...
. The managers he played under included
George McLachlan
George Hardie McLachlan (21 September 1901 – September 1964) was a Scottish professional footballer and manager. He played for a number of amateur sides as a youth but began his professional career with Clyde in the Scottish Football League. ...
and Ferguson as McLachlan's successor.
Joe Tulip made 129 appearances scoring 43 goals, some from the penalty spot.http://www.qosfc.com/may06.htm All of Tulip's time at Queens was spent in the top division (excluding war time interruption Queens spent every season in the top division following their promotion until 1959 except one).