Below is an article from the Liverpool Echo circa 1924 bestowing praise on Alexander's career. I did my best to transcribe it, the text found below the image of the article, but some words were illegible.
Famous Old-Timers
Alec Raisbeck, who raised Liverpool’s prestige
By Victor Hall (1924)
To many of us the advent of young Alec Raisbeck to Liverpool meant the first tangible step in the upward progress of the Liverpool club that afterwards brought fame and, shall we say, fortune. Certainly the club occupied a more _______ niche at the end of his playing career at Anfield than when he joined. There are people who would, no doubt, inscribe other causes and wider influences for the upward progression of the club during the years of Raisbeck’s service, and we would not contest the point of view. For one thing the guiding reins were in the able, experienced hands of dear old Tom Watson (of whom we shall have something to write in a later issue) and under his wise guidance the club’s progress was assured.
Then, following Raisbeck, came other players of outstanding ability whose skill and loyalty to the club enhanced the growing fame, but, with these allowances, one can generally focus the real onward march of the club’s fame to the day when Alec Raisbeck won and held his premier position in the playing ranks of the Liverpool League team.
A Rare Trier
What a trier he was! Who that ever saw him play can forget the unmatchable enthusiasm he displayed in sheer love of the game! He not only put body and dash into the individual games in which he played, but, more important still he helped to create the soul – that inward, sacred fire of zeal without which no club can thrive and live. He joined the club about the period when the directors and committee had come to realize that Liverpool as a city was worthy of at least two first-class clubs, and that the football public of the Mersey district were not concerned in old or bitter rivalries, but were very much concerned in having real value for the money they were prepared to put up every Saturday for good football. Everton were consistently consistent in one thing at least; they gave good value to the public for the public support. Whether the team played well or ill week in and week out, the directors showed clearly that they were always willing to do their best. Ground, stands, accommodation were all provided in abundance to gain the liberal support of the regular patrons, and wherever good players were to be found money at least never stood in the way of getting the best men to wear the blue jerseys of Goodison.
With Liverpool – up to that date – the story had been different. For many seasons the committee and directors had been steadily and arduously working to lay the foundation of future success. Players of varying caliber had been tried, experiments had been made, ground additions and extensions had been added and the deficits of proceeding years had been made good. But the real goodwill of the public, that solid unyielding asset without which no club can exist, was slow in crystalising, and until that could be won, in the field of play – fair play – it could not be assured to the permanent fortune of the young and ambitious team. This then was the state of the barometer of the Liverpool Club’s outlook when first Alec Raisbeck wore the red jersey, and finally took ground in the league team.
Contrast that position with the state and standing of the club when he finally retired from Anfield, wearing every honour the game and a grateful Liverpool public could give him! He left the club admittedly one of the most brilliant and successful clubs in the English League, with every honour won that the game had to bestow. From a state of financial stress the position had improved so as to show one of the largest turnovers of any of the greatest English rivals. A ground fully and magnificently equipped and a directors to appreciated and honoured, even to the highest honour of all, in the charmed circle of the league. Freed for the future from any care or anxiety regarding financial development, and no higher honours in either league or cup to be won, surely a wonderful transformation to take place in the active playing career of just one man! It is no far flight of fancy to suggest that the individual merit of that “one man” had more than a little to do with this progress, when we _________ the capacity and centre half of Liverpool.
Let us recall his characteristics. Tall, lithe, sinuous, and yet gifted with muscular and physical development beyond the ordinary. He had that appearance of strong and ___________(missed many words)______. Active to a degree, speed either on the turn or in flight, and with niche, at the addition of resourcefulness and judgement that would have been all sufficient in a other player, without those added gifts, methodical in training, painstaking in preparation, genial with his players and considerate with his committee. With a perfect blending of the qualities that to make a really great player!
(Illegible paragraph)
We have said that he was speed in the turn, and on the run. We might amplify this, and say that we have never seen in England a speedier half back who could tackle a speedy forward, turn with him, and overtake and tackle him again. There may be, and there may have been others so gifts. We have not seen them. His judgment was sound, his valour outstanding, and, naturally for a half-back, his control and placing of the ball was equally confident. During his playing career at Anfield, he had to meet forwards whose names and records were outstanding in the history of the game, and yet of one of them could it be said they were superior master of Raisbeck’s defensive play. His temperament rarely failed him, no matter how vigorous the play he had to meet. Resolute to a degree in his methods, he rarely engendered personalities among opponents, and his proof of this popularity came whenever his selection was announced for international matches. No name was more popular in either Scotland or England than that of the fair-headed Anfield centre half when selections came to be announced.
Which brings up to the reflection that few players have carried greater honour from the field than did Raisbeck during his memorable years at Anfield.
Every Honour
For his own Liverpool Club he had, of course, gained every honour that one could covet, even as had been said earlier on to the highest of all in the English Cup and League, not to speak of Lancashire and Liverpool Cups and representative matches.
Chosen by the Scottish selectors to play for his country in 1900, he was never out of the international team for sever years (until 1907), surely an extraordinary long period for a player to hold his place, especially in a Scottish team where ___ game had its cradle, and with young skillful players being produced in abundance each year. In the inter-League match he also figured as late as 1911, but that retention by his native country as the leading centre half for so long a period indicated how he stood out, head and shoulder among his contemporaries for a long period.
To his own club in Liverpool, we had in some little way indicated how faithful and valuable was his service. His directors had every confidence in his judgment, and fearlessly relied on his opinion on all matters relating to the players and the matched of the moment. Early on, in his Liverpool career, he won the confidence, too, of the clubs following, and his ultimate selection as captain of the team was a popular one.
Apart from his playing career, his recreations were billiards and bowls, in both of which games he was above the average skill and equally popular in all club matches.
When the time eventually arrived to sever his connection with the Anfield Club, Raisbeck carried with him many memories of happy associations, and the warm regards and esteem of a wide circle of friends who had watched his career develop with real pride and genuine appreciation. Alec’s playing days are no over, but the game still has possibilities apart from paying – even in these parts!
