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A LIFELONG Celtic fan is now the proud owner of private car registration plates belonging to his all-time hero.
James Buntine, from Port Glasgow, collects memorabilia associated with his beloved club and now has his hands on the late, legendary Jimmy Johnstone’s ‘J777 NKY’ plate, after it changed hands for the second time.
The 71-year-old – who is in a wheelchair after suffering a devastating allergic reaction as a teenager which left him in a coma – is an avid Hoops heritage collector and says Jinky’s personalised plates are his most treasured possession.
James, whose home in Glasgow Road is a shrine to his club, said: “I go up to McTear’s auction house whenever there is Celtic memorabilia for sale.
“I went up for a look because they were selling fellow Lisbon Lion Stevie Chalmers’ medals and when I saw Jinky’s plates I had to have them.
“He is my biggest hero – I met him once at the Kerrydale Suite at Celtic Park and I was like a ten-year-old boy.
“I go to all the Celtic home games and I visit Lennoxtown regularly to see the players train.
“Jimmy was the best player I have ever seen.
“Sadly I missed the European Cup victory – I was only 16 and it was going to cost me £11 for a plane ticket, which was three weeks wages for me back then!”
Three years ago the plates first sold at auction for more than £2,000 and when they appeared again, James was quick to snap them up.
Now the plates are pride of place on his car, parked outside his house.
European Cup winner Jimmy, voted the greatest Celtic player of all time, lost his long battle with motor neurone disease 15 years ago.
Up until his death he had campaigned for stem cell research to find a cure for the illness and he helped raise awareness of its devastating impact on so many lives.
James has faced serious illness in his own life, after he had a terrible reaction to a smallpox and polio vaccination aged just 17.
He said: “I always wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps in to the Merchant Navy and I went down south to join.
“I’ll never forget it, on November 5 I went for the vaccination and a couple of weeks later I just collapsed.
“I was in a coma for six weeks in the hospital in Kent and lost most of the use of my legs and I walked with sticks.
“But I came home and I was from a generation where I just got on with it and had to find work.
“I managed to keep working and ended up in IBM for 15 years until I retired – they were a fantastic company to work for.
“By that time I was starting to struggle more and more and I needed the wheelchair.”
James married and had three children, daughter Colette and two sons, Edward and Alex, who are both in the army.
He says he has been in touch with the late Jimmy’s wife so that she knows her late husband’s registration plate is in safe hands.
James said: “I keep in touch with his wife and I let her know that I had the plates so she knows that they are well cared for.”
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