Monday sees Pine Tree Percy Friebe celebrate his 80th birthday
Like the Queen he has two birthdays the official one which fell on the day of the Currie match when he had a birthday lunch and presentation at Old Anniesland and on the 9th May his real birthday according to the ESPN website

The legs of the GHK Hon President have covered a lot of ground over these years
A stalwart of the great Glasgow HSFP teams of the fifties he was capped against England in 1952 having played for the Combined Cities team against the Springboks earlier in the same season at Old Anniesland.
On that day fog fell in Glasgow and the Boks bus got lost in Jordonhill They eventually found a back entrance but had to climb over the roof of Skaterigg
Farm House where the High School of Glasgow now stands to get into the ground At that time the farm house was the home of a young Charlie Forsyth

Percy in his long career also played for Worcester and whilst serving in the RAF he played for Moseley He represented the RAF against the Army at Twickenham in the Inter Services Championship

One of his finest performances was for Glasgow HSFP when they beat a strong Cardiff at Old Anniesland in 1957

He holds the distinction of scoring the first ever try at Burnbrae when West opened their new ground on 17th September 1960 what he maybe didn't realise at the time was that the posts he scored near had been donated by a Glasgow Accie Jimmy Forrest

Percy had many nicknames including Big John, Big Jean,Perce and Nivea amongst others
It is recorded in the History of Glasgow HSFP "Chocolate and Gold" that his prowess on the rugby pitch was only surpassed by his acrobatics in the back row of the cinema on a Saturday night

From all at Hawks happy birthday on Monday Percy ---and here's to another 80

This article was posted on 8-May-2011, 12:06 by Hugh Barrow.