Born: 1 February 1874, Dromore, Co. Down
Died: 26 March 1940, Belfast
Position: Outside/Inside-Right
Representative Honours: Ireland: 7 Full Caps (1895-1902); Irish League: 2 Caps / 1 Goal (1894-1895).
Club Honours: (with Glentoran) Irish League Champion 1893/94; (with Burnley) Football League Division Two Champion 1897/98 (promoted via play-off); (with Celtic) Scottish League Champion 1895/96; "World Champion" 1896.
Club Career:
Teams
|
Seasons
|
Signed
|
Fee
|
League
|
FA Cup
|
Other
|
Stormont
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Glentoran
|
90/91-93/94
|
-
|
-
|
*26/17
|
-
|
-
|
93/94-02/03
|
Feb-1894
|
-
|
7/ 1
|
-
|
-
|
|
Glentoran
|
94/95
|
Nov-1894
|
-
|
*6/ 3
|
-
|
-
|
94/95-96/97
|
Apr-1895
|
-
|
15/ 2
|
1/0
|
-
|
|
97/98-02/03
|
Feb-1897
|
-
|
171/25
|
11/2
|
5/0
|
|
02/03-03/04
|
Dec-1902
|
-
|
29/ 7
|
7/1
|
-
|
|
Colne
|
-
|
Sep-1904
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
06/07
|
1906
|
-
|
1/ 0
|
-
|
-
|
|
Glentoran
|
07/08
|
1907
|
-
|
10/ 2
|
-
|
-
|
TOTALS
|
-
|
-
|
266/58
|
19/3
|
5/0
|
|
Biography:
From ForzaGlens:
Thomas ‘Ching’ Morrison was the youngest of five sons born to James and Annie Morrison. The first three boys were born in Scotland and the youngest of them, Bob who was also an international, played for Linfield until his untimely death from pneumonia in 1891 aged just 23. Another brother, Alex also played for Glentoran in the 1890’s.
Thomas was born in Belfast in 1874. He made his first appearance for Glentoran on 18th April 1891 in a Charity Cup game against Ulster at Solitude. He scored in that match which was abandoned with the Glens trailing 4-1. The following season (1891-92) saw ‘Ching’ score 11 goals in just 9 games, including a hattrick in the Irish League against Ligoneil.
Morrison was part of Glentoran’s Irish League winning side of 1893-94 and in March that season moved to Burnley. His scored on his Burnley debut, a 3-1 victory against Derby County, but early the following season he was dismissed by the Burnley committee for ‘misconduct’. He returned to the Glens and at the end of the 1894-95 campaign he was capped against England, Wales and Scotland. In that final game against the Scots in Glasgow he gave Dan Doyle (full-back) such a torrid time that Doyle’s club Celtic signed him. He scored for Celtic in the Glasgow Merchant’s Charity Cup final, in which Celtic defeated Rangers 4-0 at Cathkin Park on 25th May 1895. Thomas Morrison returned to Burnley in February 1897 and helped them to the Second Division title in 1898. He won four further caps before joining Manchester United in 1902-03. He remained there until the beginning of the 1904-05 season when he signed for Colne. ‘Ching’ returned home to Belfast and ended his career with Glentoran, scoring two goals in sixteen appearances in 1906-07. Thomas Morrison died on 26th March 1940 in Belfast.
Further notes:
- On 20 April 1896 Morrison played in Celtic's 3-1 win over Aston Villa at Parkhead in a match for "the Championship of the World".
- Glentoran were due to play Linfield in a benefit match for Morrison on 5 May 1933, however this was postponed as Linfield played Belfast Celtic in the Co. Antrim Shield final on that day. The match was eventually played on 28th August, resulting in a 1-1 draw.
- "Ching" is probably a corruption of Ah-Sin from the racist doggerel by Bret Harte about a Chinese card-sharp cheating some Simon Pure white chaps. Tommy's game was supposed to resemble Ah-Sin's jugglery with the cards: That for ways that are dark/And for tricks that are vain/The heathen Chinee is peculiar. (taken from "An Alphabet of the Celts
").
- Another nickname regularly attributed to Morrison was "Sandy" or "Sandy Row".
09-03-1895 England. A L 0-9 BC
16-03-1895 Wales... H D 2-2 BC
30-03-1895 Scotland A L 1-3 BC
04-03-1899 Wales... H W 1-0 BC
24-02-1900 Wales... A L 0-2 BC
01-03-1902 Scotland H L 1-3 BC
22-03-1902 England. H L 0-1 BC
Summary: 7/0. Won 1, Drew 1, Lost 5.
With thanks to Chris Goodwin of England Football Online for forwarding some additional details.
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