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IT started with two football shirts. They were placed in the cosy reception area of a small business. The company grew and so did the collection of sports memorabilia. Now, 30 years later, John Horne can reflect on how his business, JR Scaffolding, employs 200 people, And smile at how he became one of the biggest collectors of sports paraphernalia in the country.
‘My wife, Annemarie, and myself started the business with 1100 quid,’ he says. ‘I had no business training. I had no experience of dealing with customers or contacts. We put a Celtic strip and a Rangers strip up in the reception. This was 1995 so they were signed by such as Pierre Van Hooijdonk and Jorge Cadete of Celtic and Ally McCoist and Gordon Durie of Rangers. They broke the ice when people came to visit us.
‘They would ask what was my team. I never hid the fact that I was Rangers daft. But a tenner is the same colour no matter who you support.’
This is said with a chuckle. Horne, manager director of JR Scaffolding, has watched his business affairs outgrow matters restricted to a tenner. He has lived a life that has taken him from Govan, through a football career that brought close encounters with such as Billy McNeill, and now to a thriving business.
The sporting memorabilia, too, has moved to another level.
John Horne shows off some of the signed football boots in his collection
Boxing also features heavily in John Horne's collecton of sporting memorabilia
Horne has put up 130 items for auction. These reminders of sporting triumph will help address the pain of human tragedy. The charities chosen for his largesse and that of the bidders will be close to his heart.
‘The first is the Emmie Smillie Charity Foundation,’ he says. Emmie died of cancer in 2015. ‘Her father, Andy, has been my friend, my mentor and my father figure since my own dad passed. He was the one who told me to work for myself, to start my own business. He was the one who allowed us to use his yard and put a wee office in there. I am honoured to help the foundation.’
The other charity also has personal links. MND Scotland has been chosen because his close friends are the Souttar family who lost their son Aaron to the disease three years ago, aged 42.
The Souttar family, of course, has sporting heroes in the shape of both John and Harry, who play for Rangers and Leicester City, respectively. ‘My youngest son, Evan, was at Celtic when he was 10 and so was Harry. They became good friends and so did me and Jack, Harry’s dad. MND Scotland seemed an obvious choice.’
The auction items reflect Horne’s lifelong interest in sport. He has his own stories to tell of playing against Real Madrid youth teams and being praised by Billy McNeill, one of the greatest Celtic heroes. But, first, how and why did he amass such a collection of shirts, boxing gloves, signed portraits and, yes, even a signed Gazza water bottle that brings echoes of a day in 1996 that we need not go into too deeply?
‘I would buy the stuff at charity auctions at sporting events and then people would approach me to see if I was interested in something. I was asked if I wanted a signed Jimmy Johnstone strip, for example. I think the guy thought I would be reluctant because I was a Rangers fan but I grabbed it right away,’ he says.
The memorabilia would either be stored or placed in the corridors of his large offices in Paisley. ‘We have a dedicated Old Firm corridor and people just come to our offices to see it,’ he says.
The collection is fascinating for those who love sport. The football highlights include signed objects from Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Pele, Brian Laudrup, Graeme Souness, Shunsuke Nakamura and so many others.
Boxing fans will be attracted by a signed Muhammad Ali photograph, a signed Lennox Lewis glove and Manny Pacquiao signed shorts. Golfers will set their sights on a Dubai Classic flag signed by Tiger Woods. The auction began on Monday and continues into next week. More than £11,000 has been pledged already but this should soar.
John Horne shows off the signed Rangers and Celtic strips in his collection
John Horne's collection features several golf items including a Dubai Classic flag signed by Tiger Woods
‘I suppose I am a wee bit sad about losing some of the stuff but it is the right decision. It will all go to people who will cherish it and the funds will help the charities,’ he says. The corridors will now feature images of the works completed by his firm.
There will be one refuge in the offices for sporting memorabilia. ‘We are building a staff gym and we will put some stuff in there,’ says Horne. The 53-year-old businessman also has a museum in his home. It features Tommy McLean’s shirt from the 1972 European Cup Winners’ Cup final victory against Dinamo Moscow in Barcelona. It reached a world record £19,000 for a Scottish football strip.
He also has memorabilia signed by Sandy Jardine. This is deeply personal, not just because Horne is a Rangers fan. ‘I was signed for Hearts as a schoolboy when I was at Govan High,’ he says. ‘Alex MacDonald was the manager and Sandy, of course, was his assistant. Both had wonderful careers at Rangers.’
Horne’s career immediately went in another direction. He signed for Clydebank, playing with such talents as Chic Charnley and Owen Coyle, before signing as a teenager for Hamilton Academical.
‘I had a great drive and ambition to make something of myself,’ he says.. ‘I realised quickly that I was not going to get anywhere fast earning 60 quid a week playing football.’
The scaffolding business soon consumed him but he has much to look back on in football terms. He was given trials at Celtic and played in friendly matches and youth tournaments. ‘I went to Spain and played in youth tournaments against Real Madrid, Ajax and Sporting Gijon,’ he says. ‘When I came back to Glasgow, Celtic asked me to play in a friendly. We were not doing too well at half-time and Billy McNeill, then the manager, came in and gave the players a roasting.
‘He looked at me and said: ‘’Sorry, son, but I have forgotten your name.’’ I told him and he told the other players: ‘’Look at him, he’s not even signed here and he’s playing as if he belongs here.’’
John Horne is a family friend of Rangers and Scotland defender John Souttar
Horne was scheduled to play in the Glasgow Cup final but the match was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch. He did play in a bounce match against the first team and that gave him a lasting memory. ‘Paul McStay was playing and I have never seen anything quite like him,’ he says.
He then went to Leicester on trial but came back to Scotland and the Accies.
‘I am an honest guy and I didn’t do well at Leicester,’ he says. ‘I also realised that football would not fulfil my ambitions so Annemarie and I started the business.’ Their personal partnership extends back to the days when they were just 15.
‘We were so young when we started out,’ he says. ‘We worked hard and we had drive and ambition.’ he says. ‘We were dealing with big companies and I had no formal training in business or how to talk to these guys. So we had to do it our way and in our style. The Celtic and Rangers strips were a part of that. But we never forget that people helped us along the way. Andy Smillie was a huge part of that and still is.’
Those strips hold more than just sporting memories.
To view the items and place a bid, visit: weareeventpal.com/jrgroup[https://weareeventpal.com/jrgroup] - donations to the charities can also be made directly via the site.
