William Simeon McPhail (2 February 1928 – 4 April 2003) was a Scottish football player who played for Queen's Park, Clyde and Celtic.
The match, referred to by fans in poem[14] and song[5] as "Hampden in the sun", resulted in a record 7–1 victory to Celtic, with McPhail scoring a hat-trick.
[3] He played just 57 games for the club in the major domestic competitions,[16][17] however he is widely described as a "hero" or "idol" for his three goals in the 1957 final which remains a record margin of victory in the fixture.
[6][14][18] John McPhail had also scored three goals against Rangers, in the 1950 Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup; this is the only occasion in Old Firm history that brothers achieved this feat.
[20] While never capped at full international level, McPhail was included in the Scotland squad for a game against Wales in 1955, but was forced to withdraw through injury.
[6] McPhail, with the support of medical specialists, associated the neurological symptoms with heading the leather football used in the 1950s, explaining how "the ball used to get very heavy when it rained – when you took that full in the forehead it nearly knocked you over.
[6][23] McPhail's condition and its possible causes were discussed during a BBC Scotland investigative television programme on the subject in 2000, also featuring another former Celtic forward Jock Weir who was suffering from a similar illness.