Hearts Cult Heroes

Bernard Battles

Bernard "Barney" Battles stood only 5ft 9in tall but carried a presence which made him one of the most feared forwards in the country during the 1920s and 1930s.

His goalscoring record helped a bit, too. Although a few results are missing from his career with Hearts, club records show he scored a phenomenal 218 goals in 200 games for the club. He struck 63 times in 47 games in season 1928/29, including 11 in three local cup finals in the same month against Hibernian. That was Battles' first season at Tynecastle after he returned from America during the great depression.

He had played junior football in Scotland before emigrating with his mother, and he won international honours with the USA before defecting back to his homeland.

He eventually hit a total of 150 League and Scottish Cup goals in 162 appearances for Hearts. This included another remarkable club record of 44 league championship goals in season 1930/31.

His solitary full Scotland cap came that season against Wales, and it is remarkable that he was not recognised more by national team selectors. A persistent cartilage injury forced Battles to retire from football in 1936 at the age of 30. He became a qualified physiotherapist and later a publican at the Boatie Row in Newhaven.

He passed away in November 1979.

Alex Young

The "Golden Vision", as he became known, was a free- scoring forward who enjoyed success with both Hearts and Everton in the 1950s and 1960s.

He was signed from Newtongrange Star by Tommy Walker in 1955 and spent five glorious years as part of the most successful Hearts side ever. He helped the club win the league championship in 1958 with 20 goals.

Two seasons later, he scored 23 goals as Hearts again won the title.

With such a reputation, he was soon lured south. In November 1960, the Everton manager John Carey paid 42,000 for Young and his investment, eventually, proved a rousing success.

Young took time to adjust to English football but in 1962/63 he scored 22 goals in 42 games as Everton won the English league championship. He also won an FA Cup winner's medal with the club in 1966. Young's elegant touch earned him the "Golden Vision" moniker, coined by the former Tottenham defender Danny Blanchflower: "The view every Saturday that we have of a more perfect world, a world that has got a pattern and is finite. And that's Alex – the Golden Vision." After spells with Glentoran and Stockport County, a knee injury forced Young into retirement in 1969. He received a belated testimonial match from Everton in 2001.

Bobby Walker

Few footballers achieve the notoriety of having a cup final named after them, but Bobby Walker is an exception.

Having joined from Dalry Primrose and helped Hearts secure the 1896/97 league championship, Walker rose to prominence with his performance in the 1901 Scottish Cup final.

Hearts defeated Celtic 4-3 and the match became known as the "Walker Final" in recognition of the midfielder's goal and overall contribution on the day.

With hindsight, he is regarded as Hearts' greatest-ever player alongside namesake Tommy. He represented Scotland 21 times, including a record 11 appearances against England, but it was at Tynecastle where he was best recognised as a phenomenal goalscoring midfielder. He struck 124 goals in 327 league appearances and his reputation stretched far and wide. In 1904, Hearts played Celtic in a benefit match for Walker, although he did not actually retire until May 1913. He was then awarded a national testimonial and presented with 250 gold sovereigns and an inscribed pocket watch for his contribution to Hearts. He later served the club as a director but died after a short illness in August 1930.

Allan Johnston

Known as "Magic", Allan Johnston was already idolised by Hearts supporters when he scored a famous hat-trick in a 3-0 defeat of Rangers at Ibrox in January 1996.

His astonishing performance that afternoon against the Scotland international goalkeeper, Andy Goram, attracted attention from suitors of other clubs both in the UK and beyond.

With his contract expired, he departed for the French club Rennes as a free agent that summer.

It was a great tragedy for Hearts that no transfer fee was received for one of the finest entertainers ever produced by the Edinburgh club.

Johnston was signed from Tynecastle Boys Club in 1990, making his first-team debut two years later at the age of 18. His style of play was a throwback to the 1960s and 70s when Scotland produced wingers of dazzling skill with astounding regularity.

With football evolving considerably since then, Johnston was something of a rarity in the 1990s as an old-fashioned "tanner-ba" player.

He could play on the right or left wing, cross accurately with both feet and, as proven that day at Ibrox, he could score goals. He struck 14 times in 94 competitive outings for Hearts and left for France hoping to broaden his footballing horizons.

However, within 12 months he was back in the UK with Sunderland after failing to settle abroad. He enjoyed two scintillating seasons in the north-east of England before falling out of favour after failing to agree a new contract. He joined Rangers in 2000, the club he had supported since childhood, and within a year moved on to Middlesbrough before being reunited with Jim Jefferies at Kilmarnock in 2004.

Johnston later played briefly for St Mirren and is still plying his trade with Queen of the South in Scotland's First Division.

He won 18 Scotland caps during a four-year international career which began with his debut against Estonia, ironically at Tynecastle, in October 1998. He is fondly remembered as the kind of player supporters would pay money to go and watch due to his magical ball skills and trickery.

The nickname accorded him stemmed from the famous American basketballer Magic Johnson, although those who watched the footballing Johnston in action are in little doubt that he was a unique talent in every sense of the word.

Tommy Walker

A TALENTED and elegant inside-forward who rightly went down in the annals of Tynecastle as one of the club's greatest-ever talents.

Walker was lauded for his gentlemanly conduct and corinthian spirit throughout his career. He grew up in Livingston and played for local junior sides before joining the Hearts groundstaff aged 16 in February 1932. He quickly became a regular in the first team and, in 1934/35, Arsenal expressed an interest in signing him.

The 12,000 fee mooted would have been a world record but, with Liverpool also monitoring the situation, the threat of a supporters boycott persuaded the Hearts board not to sell.

Walker's career was interrupted by World War II, in which he served as a sergeant in the Signals Regiment, and when holstilities ceased he joined Chelsea. He represented Scotland with distinction and returned to Hearts in a player/assistant manager role in 1948. By 1951 he was manager, a position he held until 1966 before joining Raith Rovers. He later served Hearts as a director but sadly died aged 77 in 1993.