Contemporary pride in place is important but in a country as ancient as ours it is just one element with historical self-esteem arguably just as salient. And that is as true of football as it is more generally. Scotland, indeed individual not just cities but towns and villages within the country having been the source of players, officials and administrators, who have been pivotal in the creation of the global game. Remember the not-unlikely probability of "No Scots, no Soccer", certainly as we know it. 

And it is something that the good folk of Busby in Renfrewshire have clearly grasped, albeit so far uniquely. As a reflection, although far from a mirror-image, of the golden statue in Bangu in Brazil of Tommy Donohoe, one of their own but also taker of the game to the country that made it "beautiful", a bust was erected in the village for all locally to be reminded of his feat of feet. 

However, it remains a lone example, albeit at former Glenbuck there is a plaque mainly and a little myopically to Bill Shankly, and this despite numerous possibilities for repetition of the concept elsewhere. Uruguay's John Harley was born and raised in Cathcart, Spain's William Alexander Mackay in Lybster in Caithness, Chile's David Scott and Andrew Gemmill in The Borders and Moray respectively. And they are not alone. Moreover, again amongst others, a plinthed miniature in Braco of the Villa Park McGregor statue and in Bellshill of Old Trafford's one of Matt Busby might not go amiss. Nor would a copy in Paisley of the bust of Huelva's Charles Adam or replicas in Kirkcaldy and Dumbarton, in painting or more solidly, of the mural portraits in London of Arsenal's David Dankin and in Prague of Celtic's, Scotland's and Slavia's Jake Madden.      

Yet, whilst existing recognition in physical form of the above might be capable of Scottish replication, there are many still, such as Argentina's Alex Watson Hutton, who are of parallel importance but for whom, even in their adopted country, never mind their homeland and for whatever reasons, there is nothing comparable. But there are alternatives. As this is written the musical and filmic awards' season has come round again, each in its own way largely an annual refection of achievement that is in most cases completely ephemeral. Yet film and music still do reserve a little for the longer term and in the form of "lifetime" awards, physical and now on-line. Indeed, the first to receive the American version of just such an honour, the "Lifetime Oscar" was Charlie Chaplin, who was, of course, not just an ex-pat but a two-fold Diasporan. He was born an Englishman, who made his name on the other side of the Atlantic, living there until 1952 and then staying in Switzerland until his death by Vevey in 1977. However, quite naturally he is also remembered at home. Chaplin was the seventh to receive the British BAFTA life-time equivalent.    

And for football there are Oscar equivalents, the Halls of Fame. The USA has one, many of the inductees our countrymen, Australia also. Scotland had one too. One hundred and twenty-two were admitted between 2004 and 2019. Then it ceased. Quite why is unclear. But even then for Scots football, the Scottish football taken by Scots elsewhere, the equivalent of the BAFTA-award to English Chaplin for his achievements in American Hollywood, there was almost nothing and never had been. The few, who had made at least a part of their reputations abroad, did so to some extent as players but otherwise as managers and not beyond England. There was and still is no Scottish place of recognition for McGregor, the administrator, for Watson Hutton, regarded in Argentina as the "Father" of its game, for the coach Madden and their like, something we at the SFHG now seek to correct.    

And to do so we look to the "Oscar" as inspiration. The most widely believed reason for the name is that a librarian way back when at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on first seeing the statuette said it reminded her of her Uncle Oscar. True or false it does not matter. But what it does mean is that we can choose a name of seemingly similar insignificance. Moreover, our Scots footballing "award" needs no physical embodiment. It can be in virtual form therefore costing little except commitment and a small amount of effort. Indeed, all that is really required is a name.  

But we can do better than just that and to do so suggest a figure you might never have heard of but has a background story that has been seriously unsung. For without him, the man in question, the unrepentant enthusiast, who won representative but never quite international honours, both the Scottish and Scots games might not exist. 

The proposal is for the awarding of the "Connell", named for John Burns Connell. A man, of whom we have no visual record - no sketch, no photograph - but know the following. He was born in 1846 in Doune, just north of Stirling but another Perthshire boy. He was raised on a farm in nearby Port of Menteith and there he played not foot-ball, or football and certainly not soccer or rugby but the ancient village- and town-sport of "fitba". In fact so taken was he with the game that when he came to Glasgow to find work in 1862 he brought "a ba'" with him, the first to do so, it is said. And that really is the key to this whole, very-Scottish tale, which he personally, in a posthumously-published article in The Daily Record in 1933, three years after his death in 1930 in his adopted city, would recount much better than anyone . Read the piece below in full, another example of the tireless detective-work of the inestimable Andy Mitchell, and you have both his story and a charming encapsulation of the early days of our "beautiful game".