TO BECOME a living legend at one football club is quite an accomplishment. To achieve that kind of status of status at two requires those rarest of qualities, pure talent and personality. John Garrett has an abundance of both.

Born in Ballymena in 1959, John was brought up in the Rectory Estate.

It was here and at his schools; County Primary, Dunclug Secondary and Ballymena Technical College, that he honed the skills that would grant him such a prolific career in the Irish League.

Some of John's earliest memories are of sneaking into Ballymena Showgrounds on a Saturday afternoon, to watch United play.

"From about the age of six, we climbed over the fence every week" he said.

"Maurice Millar would chase us most weeks but we always made sure we had a bigger boy alongside us to help us over the fence.

"When I was eleven, I bought my first season ticket and for the next five years I bought my season ticket off Davy Holden, every year.

"Davy, who owned the shop on the Market Road, was the Chairman of Ballymena United at the time."

Meanwhile at school, John's skills on the ball were developing all the time. But, it was outside the school arena that the teenager was catching the eye of those in footballing circles.

BALLYMENA

Future Ballymena United manager Alex McKee had established a Ballymena Youth Club which, although seperate from Ballymena United, it was seen as a feeder to the senior side.

Ironically, every member of that Youth side was snapped up by Ballymena United at some stage in 1974 or 1975, except for John.

"That was a good wee side" he explained. "Ronnie Sands was in nets and David Kenny was at outside left.

"Jim O'Connell was the centre-forward and Stephen Cathcart was in midfield. Former Ballymena Assistant manager Joe McCall was also in the side."

At this stage, John became a regular figure in the Northern Ireland schoolboy side. The team was run by Jackie Gallagher and contained Liam Butcher, who would go on to carve out a successful career with Coleraine and Ballymena United.

John turned out for them five times and competed in a Home Nations tournament against England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.

"England had a particularly strong side" he explained. "They had Kenny Sansom, who later signed for Arsenal, and Gary Mabbutt, later of Tottenham.

"There was another guy Higgins who signed for Everton but was actually forced to retire at the age of 20.

"We were beaten 7-0 by England at Villa Park and my ears were ringing and my head splitting from listening to the fans shouting 'England, England' over and over again. England were a lot fitter than we were". However, John must have been doing something right.

PERFORMANCES

On the back of those performances for the Northern Ireland Schoolboy side and with a word of advice from International team-mate Jackie Smith, who was in the Linfield squad, John was snapped up by the Windsor Blues.

It was the start of a love affair that would last eleven years and would see a whole host of winner's medals.

John made his first team debut for Linfield at the age of 16, when he came on as a substitute for the great Eric Bowyer.

Bowyer broke his leg in a match against Distillery at Windsor Park and John was brought on at outside left.

He even managed to rattle a shot off the crossbar in the dying minutes of the game.

The following Tuesday, Linfield played Crusaders in the County Antrim Shield. John scored a goal in that game and his name was established forever in Linfield FC folklore.

That match took place a couple of weeks before the Irish Cup Final of 1976, where Linfield were taking on Carrick Rangers.

Player-manager Roy Coyle recalled all the older heads for that one and they were beaten hands down 2-1, by the B Division side.

The following year, it was out with the old and in with the new at Windsor, and John became a regular feature in the starting XI.

"That was a super side" he reminisced. "Peter Rafferty was at centre-half and Eric Magee was in the midfield. "Eric Bowyer was still there though, and Coyle was player-manager."

LINFIELD

Linfield were stuffed 4-1 by Coleraine in the Irish Cup Final of 1977 but the following year, they exacted their revenge on a strong Ballymena United, beating them 3-1 at the Oval.

John continued: "I remember reading somewhere once that Alfie Stewart was the youngest player to play in a cup final but actually the statistics point at me for that one."

1978 was a phenomenal year for Linfield and John. They lifted four trophies - the Irish League, the Irish Cup, the Ulster Cup and the Gold Cup.

Prophetically, Coyle would say of John that he got "too much, too young". That year, John was a second year electrical apprentice earning £33 per week.

All of a sudden, Arsenal FC put a bid in for the youngster offering him £200 a week.

But, the teenage John turned them down. And, he claims he has no regrets about that decision.

"I turned them down because I don't think I would have made it over there. "My eyesight has always been pretty dodgy and an awful lot of commitment is required."

John's international career was also coming along leaps and bounds.

NORTHERN IRELAND

He played for the Northern Ireland youth team (Under-18) a number of times and captained the side on nine seperate occasions.

He took them to fifth place in the European Championships of 1977, in Belgium, and also captained them on a tour of Iran, the same year.

He recalled: "There were armed guards everywhere. "The Shah was still in charge and they called it the Shah of Iran Tournament. "The Ayatollah actually disposed him a year after we where there.

"The funny thing about that trip was that it was February and we had an outdoor swimming pool. "It was still hot, about 24 or 25 degrees, and we asked for the leaves to be taken out of the pool so that we could go in for a dip.

"But, the hotel manager said that they only did that during the summer and not in winter. "They didn't realise their winter was hotter than our summer."

John spent eleven happt years at Windsor Park and in 1984, at the age of just 24, he was granted a testimonial season - one of the youngest players ever to do so.

A match was supposed to take place between Linfield and Newcastle but it fell through and instead, the various Linfield Supporters Clubs joined together to raise funds and show their appreciation for the Ballymena man.

John left Linfield in 1986, after playing 301 times for the side.

STRANGE

A strange statistic for lovers of the beautiful game is that John was injured and cast out of the game for nine months after 99 appearances and injured and out of the game for nine months after 299 appearances.

Both times, thankfully, he made successful recoveries.

He said: "The highlight of my career at Linfield was probably scoring against Ballymena United in the 1978 Irish Cup Final.

"Of course, winning a few medals and travelling the world are up there too in my list of favourite memories."

This, of course, is pure understatement from a man who has won every piece of silverware going, in the modern Irish game.

With Linfield, he accumulated four Irish League winners medals, one Irish Cup, one All-Ireland Tournament, four Gold Cup medals, three County Antrim Shield medals, three Ulster Cup medals, and a host of runners-up medals - an achievement virtually unchallenged in Irish League circles.

In 1986, Roy Coyle decided to release John or 'Shughie' as he was affectionately known in the Windsor Park dressing room.

John said: "Coyle had tried to sell me on a couple of times before that but I was going nowhere.

"Alan Campbell at Ballymena United wanted me to go to the Showgrounds, but I was happy enough where I was.

"Then, in 1986, Ballymena's manager Jimmy Brown put in a bid for me. "Carrick Rangers had actually offered four times more than Ballymena United but there was only one club I would have played for other than Linfield and that's the Sky Blues.

"At the back of my mind, I suppose, I always wanted to finish my career with Ballymena."

YEAR

After a year Brown left and Alex McKee took over. He and the Rectory Estate man had a close working relationship and it was no surprise when he made John his assistant coach.

"Alex was a great man manager" he continued. "The Ballymena team that won the 1989 Irish Cup was probably, on paper, one of the weakest that Ballymena has had but with Alex's skills, we went all the way."

In 1989, United beat Larne at the Oval. But that was the big one for John. He enjoyed the semi-final clash with Linfield much more, beating them 2-1.

Damien Grant was Ballymena's goalkeeper and the big man kept the Braidmen in the tie with a string of at least ten world class saves from shots by Martin McGaughey.

"That was an amazing experience and I am very proud of my second Irish Cup medal, particularly as it was with Ballymena United" he said.

"Martin McGaughey is one of my best mates and we chat about the semi-final, from time to time."

John's spell with Ballymena lasted seven years, until 1993 although two of those years he was out of the picture with a broken bone in his knee.

"I was injured during Jimmy Brown's time and he was never to pleased that I made a full recovery under Alex McKee, who took over from him, but could never turn out for Jimmy himself.

HELPING

"I had been helping Alex out with his training and I found that my knee was responding well.

"After I made a recovery, I played for the next four years without missing a game, under McKee"

McKee resigned in 1992 and Jim Hagan took over. The first match of the season was against the old enemy Coleraine.

John suffered a knock on his cruciate ligament, the same injury as Paul Gascoigne's, and never played a competitive senior match again.

He underwent the surgeon's knife four times in an effort to get back to playing, but the knee would never be the same and he retired from the sport.

He said: "I tried to come back to playing after a couple of years but there were guys going past me, and I decided to call it a day.

"I still train four times a week and my knee is fine so long as I don't twist or turn on it.

"I still keep fit and I try to look after my body as much as possible."

John has accured a European record which is second to none. He played on the continent 14 times for Linfield and twice for Ballymena.

The highlight of that adventure was for the Belfast Blues against Benfica, in Portugal, in 1977.

The teams were drawing 0-0 with 15 minutes to go, when Lee Doherty scored an own goal.

FLOODGATES

That opened the floodgates and the Portuguese champions scored two more to win the match 3-0. "We didn't disgrace ourselves" said John. "It was an amazing adventure."

An experience which wasn't quite so "amazing" was Linfield's European ties against Dundalk a couple of years later.

The champions of the North of Ireland met the champs from the South in the European Cup, in Dundalk.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw but was marred by horrific scenes of violence between both sets of rival supporters.

UEFA decided that the second leg be played in Haarlem, outside Amsterdam. Linfield always maintained close links with Haarlem and John had actually played there in his early career.

He turned out against Ruud Gullit, and was joint top scorer and runner-up up for the Haarlem Player of the Tournament, just behind Garth Crooks, who played for Spurs and is now a BBC pundit.

Anyway, the return to Haarlem was not an experience which John relished. He said: "Dundalk beat us 2-0 in this big, empty stadium."

EERIE

"It was a really eerie feeling. It was wasn't really fair that we were punished for the scenes in Dundalk as they were as much to blame, if not moreso than we were.

"It was us who had travelled to Dundalk and braved the barrage of bricks and golf balls. "It really hit home the team's responsibility to keep the fans under control."

"That's what stewards are there for. There were 5,000 of our supporters there and we outnumbered them, but I still maintain that it was the duty of the Dundalk stewards to keep them in check."

John played with, and against, a host of footballing superstars in a long and glittering career, but none stand out moreso than Martin McGaughey and Felix Healy.

Of McGaughey, 'Shughie' said: "He was the best player I ever played alongside. "He scored 40 or 50 goals a season, but also worked very hard, both on the pitch and in training.

"That is quite an achievement, to score so many goals while also getting around the pitch so much."

Likewise, he speaks in reverential tones about Coleraine and Derry City forward Felix Healy. "He was a real class act, the complete player. He could score goals and he liked to include his team mates too."

John cheekily claims that the biggest disappointment of his career was winning 9-0 against Glenavon.

GUTTED

"We were gutted that we didn't score ten" he smiled. "Colin McCurdy grabbed four that day while Warren Feeney bagged three along with Trevor Anderson."

Another great highlight for the Ballymena man's career was getting a call-up to the Northern Ireland squad for a World Cup qualifier in the mid-Seventies. John didn't actually play that but he did line-up in the 18-man squad alongside David McCreary, Sammy McIlroy, Martin O'Neill, George Best and Pat Jennings that took on a Holland dream team that contained Cruyff, Neeskins and co.

Two years agp. he achieved a dream come true when he was named in the starting eleven a Linfield Legends team to play Rangers Legends at Windsor Park.

"I was always a Rangers fan and I used to go to their matches when I could. "To play against the likes of Mark Walters and John Brown was a wonderful experience" he said. "It was also the day of my 42nd birthday so it really was a double celebration."

Today, he maintains his honourary position as Vice-President of Roden Blues Linfield Supporters Club, based off the Donegall Road.

With Martin McGaughey as President, he joins the club on their annual pilgrimage to Blackpool or Ayr and attends their AGMs and Christmas functions.

He still attends Ballymena and Linfield games, when he can and had a super time at the recent Ballymena v Linfield Irish League clash at the Showgrounds.

He also became a student a few years ago and did a degree in Building Services at the University of Ulster.

In a career that spanned 176 games for Ballymena United, scoring three goals and 301 games for Linfield, scoring 22 goals; John is a legend at both clubs.

His name will always be uttered in reverential tones, whether it is by supporters in a dark blue or light blue shirt.

Article from Ballymena Guardian 2005