It might be difficult to realise in the 21st century with telephones that can take photographs, but there some runners who had no pictures taken of them in action. Jim was one of whom there are few: the picture above shows the start of the Edinburgh to Glasgow with Jim the runner in the red box. Any others out there would be welcome.
One of the finest young runners that I have seen in a career in the sport that has so far lasted for almost 70 years was a chap called Jim Finn who ran in the colours of Monkland Harriers. The pity is that he barely raced as a Junior or Senior athlete and his talents have been almost forgotten. Joe Small, who himself ran for the club has written this account for us. Joe writes.
Speaking to Tom Callaghan over the years, he has occasionally mentioned a runner called Jim Finn who normally appears in results, reports and athletics journals as J. T. Finn. Jim was a tremendously talented cross-country runner who won numerous races as a boy (Under 15) and Youth (Under 17) before disappearing from the scene as a Junior Man (Under 20). From the village of Mount Ellen near Coatbridge, he joined Monkland Harriers in the late 1950’s. He was successful right from the beginning. Note the progress in the National Championships:
*In the 1958/59 National Cross-Country Championships he finished seventh and was a member of the Boys team that finished second, the other runners being J Grant (3rd), R Grant (12th) and T Callaghan (35th). The team was only three points behind George Heriot’s School.
*By 1959/60 he had moved up to be in the Youths age group where he led the club to fourth: Jim actually won the race in his first year as an Under 17 with R Grant 15th, J Johnstone 19th and EN Marshall 59. With 94 points they were only one single point behind the Dundee Hawkhill team that took bronze. The Glasgow Herald race report read – “JT Finn (Monkland Harriers) caused a surprise when he beat the holder, W Fleming (St Modan’s AC) for the Youths title run over 3 miles. Finn won by 60 yards with M Ryan, also of St Modan’s, just beaten on the line for second place.”
*In 1960/61 he was again first in the age group, followed home by such talents as GB Brownlee (ESH), Hugh Barrow (VPAAC), JC Douglas (Teviotdale), A Leitch (Gateshead) and L Stewart (Vale of Leven). The club was again fourth with Jim followed home by J Grant (5th), T Gallagher (55th) and F Thomson (65th) but missing third place medals again by only one point behind George Heriot’s. The report this year said: “Easy win for Finn – JT Finn the holder, of Monkland Harriers, beat his principal rival, GB Brownlee (Edinburgh Southern), the Eastern District champion, by 60 yards in the Youths Three Mile event. H Barrow (Victoria Park, last year’s boys champion, finfished a good third.”
*His first year as a Junior (1961/62) saw Jim finish a very creditable sixth. Sixth in his first race as an Under 20 Junior runner. He was of a generation blessed with genuinely highly talented runners as can be seen form those in front of him – AIC Heron, Craig Douglas, Mike Ryan, Allan Faulds and Jim Bogan. Bearing in mind that this was his first year in the age group he had behind him such as Lachie Stewart (8th) Leitch (9th), Chris Elson (10th), and others such as Fergus Murray and Martin Craven. This result saw him selected for the International Cross-Country Championships where Scotland was third team with the medal winners being Lachie Stewart in tenth, Alasdair Heron eleventh and Jim sixteenth. The Glasgow Herald reported on the race briefly as follows:
“Scotland’s Junior team performed creditably, finishing third to England with a total of 37 points.”
*In the National in 1962/63 he finished 20th in the Junior race – the first time that he had finished outside the top ten. The opposition was even stronger than in the previous year but there were some ahead of him who had finished after him more than once.
This progression was of course shown in other events such as the District Cross-Country championships. where the results were as follows.
| Year | Group | Individual Placing | Team Placing | Team Members |
| 1959/60 | Youths Age Group | 3rd Individual | 1st team | JT Finn, J Johnstone, R Grant |
| 1960/61 | Youths | 1st | 3rd team | JT Finn. R Grant, T Callaghan |
| 1961/62 | Senior/Junior | 31st | – | – |
Senior Junior Career
Jim had had a stellar career as a boy and Youth, especially over the country but his career in the Senior ranks was sketchy with only a few appearances at the top. For example he only had one run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay. That was in November 1962 where he was twelfth of the twenty runners on the first stage. sandwiched between former internationalists Tom O’Reilly of Springburn Harriers and Dick Penman of Bellahouston. Not in evidence at the Midland District Championships his run in the National Championship that year seems to have been his last race ever. Placed 20th, it was not a bad run at all. He was two places behind Dick Hodelet of Glenpark Harriers and one place behind Ray Baillie of Glasgow University, one place ahead of R McKean of St Andrews University and two in front of Brian Scobie (Maryhill) and three ahead of Albert Smith of Victoria Park.
The name of Tom Callaghan has appeared in many of the results noted above and he was a team mate of Jim’s in County, District and National medal winning races. Tom comments: “JT Finn was an outstanding talent as a Youth who was able to perform to the level he did with a limited amount of training. He seemed to have so much natural ability that he should have been a top performer at 5000m on the track. Perhaps the natural ability wasn’t enough and the work ethic was missing.
Our three for most races was Jim Grant, Jim Finn and myself, with Tommy Gallagher as fourth choice. During the two seasons we ran as Youths, we were almost unbeatable in relays. I would run first, Grant second and Finn on the last leg. Our one regret was that we never won the National as a team despite JT Finn winning the individual title twice in 1960 and ’61. I think it was in ’61 that Finn was beaten in the Midland District cross-country at Renton, after which one of the senior members of the club said to him, “What happened to-day?” Finn replied “Wait till the National.” In those days the National was held at Hamilton Racecourse. Finn allowed whoever wanted to make the pace do so, until the final hill where he just ran away from the field to score a convincing victory.”
The following results in very high quality relays verify what Tom said above.
- Garscube Harriers Youths Relay, 1960: 1st Monkland Harriers (T Callaghan 11:58. R Grant 12:50, J Finn 12:30) Finn beat Lachie Stewart’s course record by 29 seconds.
- Lararkshire County Road Relay championship in 1960: 1st Monkland Harriers (T Callagahan 11:58, J Grant 11:17, T Gallagher 12:04, J Finn 11:11) Fastest individual: JT Finn.
Summing up, another immensely talented runner as a Boy and Youth who never made the transition to the Senior Ranks, reason unknown – a great loss to the sport.