More Than a Football Jersey

There is no doubt that the decision by the club at the beginning of last season to issue a special commemorative jersey has raised the awareness of the role that the McCrae’s Battalion played in the Great War of 1914-18.  There was some excellent press coverage when the jersey was launched and then of course this time last year, when the authorities arranged the fixture list so that Rovers would visit Tynecastle Park on Remembrance Weekend, a number of media outlets in the broadcast, print and digital fields told the poignant and moving story of the footballers who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

But for one family based in Florida, the Remember jersey and McCrae’s Battalion has come to represent a whole lot more as they have played a huge part in helping one young  boy in his battle to overcome learning difficulties.

The story began in May 2014 when Rovers fans John Greer and Jim Clark took over one of the new strips as a gift for Jim’s nephew, ten-year old Liam.  As Jim explains, “It was just about giving a sports-mad wee boy a different jersey to wear.  His dad Stevie is Celtic-daft and Liam already owned a number of their home and away strips so we thought he’d like the new strip as it had a bit of green in it.  His face lit up when we gave him the jersey and right away he put it on and insisted on wearing it down to the golf course that afternoon.”

Any thoughts that this was just a wee boy being polite were quickly banished as Stevie began to send back a stream of pictures featuring Liam in his new strip at all sorts of events. Indeed, it sometimes looked as if it was the only item of clothing he owned but as Stevie was soon to discover, the jersey had triggered off something in Liam that was to have a big impact on the whole family.

“Liam has some minor learning difficulties and as a result he attends a privately-run school here in Florida that specialises in smaller class sizes.  Like any other kid, he sometimes likes school and then there are times when he can’t be bothered. Then one day he came home all excited and that’s when he told us he was going to be talking to the whole class about a project he had been secretly working on.

“It turned out that he had been so intrigued by the whole ‘Remember’ idea that he had been sitting in front of his computer in his bedroom quietly researching what it all meant and that’s how he had discovered the story of the McCrae Battalion and what had happened in the war.  When his teacher then said that the class was going to be looking at wars and battles as part of a lesson, Liam said that he had an amazing story to tell everyone and so a few days later, proudly wearing his Rovers jersey, he stood up in front of the class and told the story in his own words.  It really was a huge step forward in his personal development that raised his confidence levels and it’s incredible to believe that it was all inspired by the history of a team that he hadn’t really known about until John and Jim gave him his jersey.”

The ‘Remember’ jersey is now getting a bit on the tight side as Liam has grown in size this past 18 months, but he still was able to show it off at a recent ‘Wear Your Favourite Sports Shirt to School’ day.  Newer jerseys from baseball and American football teams (as well as this season’s Celtic away strip) were shunned.   And even when he gets too big to wear it, Liam will always have a permanent reminder as pride of place on the wall of his bedroom, is a framed jersey, originally worn by Paul Watson and signed by all of last season’s squad, right above a match programme that featured a photo of Liam with the Roary look-alike mascot of Orlando City FC in the ‘Rovers Fans Abroad’ section.

With a bit of luck, Liam and his dad will be able to come over to Scotland at a time when the football season is in full swing for up near the top of Liam’s wish list is a visit to Stark’s Park to see his favourite Scottish football team.  In the meantime, his Uncle Jim’s task will be to get his hands on a larger size strip for his nephew to wear to Orlando City’s matches next season.

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