Celtic Cult Heroes , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - David Potter

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202 pages

English

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Celtic's Cult Heroes is devoted to 20 players who, over the years, have won a special place in the hearts of the Parkhead faithful - not necessarily the greatest footballers, but a unique brotherhood of mavericks and stalwarts, local lads and big signings. The cast list alone is enough to stir up the memories and tug at the heartstrings of any Hoops fan - Stein, Johnstone and Nicholas, Larsson, McInally and Aitken - recalling how these charismatic personalities used to ignite passion on the terraces. Find out which Celtic icon scored direct from a corner, was made to retake it and promptly scored again. Who celebrated his Scottish Cup Final hat-trick with a somersault, and which heroes were affectionately known as 'Yogi Bear' and 'The Golden Crust'. Discover and delight in the magical qualities of these 20 mere mortals elevated to cult status by the green half of Glasgow.

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Central Scotland

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Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	31 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781908051318
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0350€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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CULT HEROES
CELTIC FC
David Potter
CONTENTS
Introduction
DAN DOYLE NED 1891-1899
SANDY McMAHON THE DUKE 1890-1903
JIMMY QUINN THE BISON 1901-1915
JIM YOUNG SUNNY JIM 1903-1917
JOE CASSIDY TROOPER 1912-1924
TOMMY McINALLY THE BOY WONDER 1919-1928
JIMMY McGRORY THE GOLDEN CRUST 1921-1937
PETER WILSON PETER THE GREAT 1923-1934
BERTIE THOMSON BERTIE 1929-1933
MALCOLM MacDONALD CALUM 1932-1945
CHARLIE TULLY CHEEKY CHARLIE 1948-1959
JOCK STEIN BIG JOCK 1951-1956, 1965-1978
PAT CRERAND PADDY 1958-1963
JOHN HUGHES YOGI BEAR 1960-1971
JIMMY JOHNSTONE JINKY 1963-1975
DIXIE DEANS DIXIE 1971-1976
ROY AITKEN THE BEAR 1975-1990
CHARLIE NICHOLAS CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE 1979-1983, 1990-1995
HENRIK LARSSON KING OF KINGS 1997-2004
SHUNSUKE NAKAMURA NAKA 2005-2009
Bibliography
Photographs
DEDICATION
To all my wonderful family, in this world and the next, and not least to my grandson, little Callum Weir, who has suffered terribly through illness, but has fought back with all the tenacity of a true Celt.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
IN A book like this, it is impossible to thank everyone personally who gave their assistance to me, but I feel I should single out the following people for their help and encouragement - Tom Campbell, that Celtic polymath; Craig Mcaughtrie, the editor of the Keep The Faith website; Marie Rowan, who supplied the female insight into how women loved the bad bhoy Dan Doyle; Danny Leslie and the other bhoys and ghirls of the Joseph Rafferty Celtic Supporters club; Jack Marshall, who I met by chance one day at Parkhead and who supplied me with interesting information about Malky MacDonald; and Philip Hulme-Jones, who supplied his own dignified and detached perspective on my occasionally rabid view of things. In addition Tom Greig, Sean Quinn, Pat Woods, Tony Griffin, John Traynor, John Fallon, Douglas Simpson, Alex Petrie, Alan McCreadie and David MacDonald have all in their own quiet way supplied encouragement, as have the Watson and the Hepburn families of Falkland Cricket Club.
But two men, sadly no longer with us, have supplied most of the inspiration. Eugene MacBride, that grand old Celt with an encyclopaedic knowledge and love of the club, sadly passed away in 2006, and my own father Angus Potter has now been dead for more than a decade and a half - but still manages to talk to me about his beloved Celtic every day. My posthumous thanks to both of them. Heaven will not be dull with these two around.
David Potter September 2010
INTRODUCTION
C ELTIC ARE a team of legend, and of legendary characters. And from among their band of brave, skilful and exciting players it is no easy matter to choose 20 Cult Heroes, for the truth is that, in a sense at least, every player who dons a green-and-white jersey automatically becomes a cult hero for the sizeable community that is proud to call itself Celtic-daft - that hereditary, endogenous, irreversible and terminal condition which throws up so much happiness and so much pain in its wake.
Some of us fans have tried to shake off this yolk of serfdom. In the gruesome days of the early 1990s before Fergus McCann, things were so bad that I tried to associate myself with other organisations, to support smaller and therefore less painful outfits, even to stop watching football altogether and trying pursuits like swimming, dog walking, reading and even shopping but Saturday afternoon could never rid itself of that gnawing away at the vitals that is so much part of loving the Celtic, and 4.40pm would always find me in front of a television or with my ear to a transistor radio, agonising over how the team got on.
So what exactly is a cult hero in the context of this not so much a football club more a way of life that is Celtic? Clearly the effect that the man has on the support is a crucial factor. It is not necessarily the best player who is a cult hero. Kenny Dalglish, for example, was one of Celtic s greatest ever in terms of being both a footballer and goalscorer, but he never really became a cult hero - simply because he was so good and so professional. On the other hand Henrik Larsson, by some distance in my view the best player that Celtic have had in recent decades, did become a cult hero with masks of his features, Swedish flags and dreadlocks visible among the support, and songs sung in his honour - You are my Larsson, my Henrik Larsson - among many others. In short, it is the supporters who decide which players become a Cult Hero. It is we, the fans, who place these players on a pedestal and change them from mere mortals into Gods.
Sometimes cult heroes disappoint and let the fans down. Pat Crerand and Charlie Nicholas, for example, both arrived at the club with impeccable Celtic credentials, played brilliantly for the club for a time, but then departed in a way which reflected little credit on anyone and took their talent elsewhere. The effect of their departure devastated and drained the support as disorientated youngsters tried to make sense of it all, and wondered why anyone would, in any circumstances, ever turn their back on Celtic.
Yet the brand mark is always there. Charlie Nicholas, so vilified and hated after his departure in 1983, was working for Sky Sports more than 20 years later. Celtic had just scored a vital European goal, and Charlie was caught off camera (as he thought) going bananas with joy. Sky Sports then played it back to the public hoping, presumably, to embarrass Charlie, who should, like all good sports commentators, have been unbiased (some hope!). In fact it went a great way to redeeming Charlie in the eyes of Celtic fans, and even perhaps to earn him a degree of forgiveness.
Some Cult Heroes are obvious ones. The three Jimmies - Johnstone, McGrory and Quinn - were the deserved heroes of successive generations. How nice it would have been to have been born in 1890 and to have died in 1980 and thus have been able to enjoy all three of them! But other less obvious heroes are included. Joe Cassidy, Bertie Thomson, Peter Wilson and Malky MacDonald are less talked about these days as the generations which saw them play begin to dwindle, but as they were much loved in their time, it is only right that those of you too young to have seen them should nevertheless have the opportunity to hear about them and to read of their exploits in the days when they wore the green.
The only recent Celt among the 20 is Shunsuke Nakamura, the man of the free-kicks and the oriental wizardry who charmed the hearts of the Celtic faithful, particularly the maternal ladies in the support who loved his apparent vulnerability as well as his brilliant play. He, too, has changed the Celtic support in that Japanese flags could be seen among the crowd when he was playing, and he was clearly responsible for the large amount of young Oriental boys and girls who now appear adorned in the green-and-white, and thus lending even more credence to founding father Willie Maley s much quoted dictum that It is not his creed or his nationality that counts, but the man himself .
A high proportion of those selected are centre-forwards and goal-scorers. This is hardly surprising in the context of this club, whose supporters absolutely crave those moments of ecstasy when the back of the net balloons and another celebration begins. Sandy McMahon possibly started this love affair with goalscoring in the 1890s, but others have carried on the tradition. Quinn, McGrory and Larsson have already been mentioned, but there is also, for the fifty-something generation, Dixie Deans, whose hat-trick in the 1972 Scottish Cup final has perhaps even been overtaken in supporters memory by his somersault of rapture on that same occasion.
There are also one or two bad bhoys in the collection. Dan Doyle, for example, more than once went AWOL, yet remained a much loved and revered figure. Then there was the man who could have been the greatest Celt of them all, Tommy McInally, who brightened up the 1920s for a spell, but was finally laid low by his own follies, which were self-destructive in nature and freely admitted to by the loveable rogue that Tommy was.
Great commanding figures are also well represented. Sunny Jim Young, Jock Stein and Roy Aitken all had their moments of captaining the team, and in Stein s case also becoming a legendary manager. John Hughes remains an enigma. He was much discussed and argued about by the supporters in his day, for he could be infuriating and inspiring in equal measure and within minutes, love and admiration could become anger and bewilderment. Charlie Tully could do likewise. Cheeky Charlie s capers had often to be balanced with Tully s tantrums.
Not everyone will agree with my choice of 20, but no matter who your own particular Cult Hero or whenever your own halcyon days as a Celtic fan were, there will be someone for you to remember fondly in this book and also players to learn of anew. I have tried to pick heroes who animated and excited the support in their own time. I have also tried to give some sort of indication of what the love of the Celtic has meant and will continue to mean for the 60,000 who turn up on match day, proud to wear the colours and to be identified with what for us remains the greatest show on earth.
David Potter September 2010
MAGIC MOMENT: Having an outstanding game in the 1892 Scottish Cup final when Celtic won the trophy for the first time, leading to prolonged street parties in the poverty stricken East End.
DAN DOYLE NED 1891-1899
BHOYS CAREER: Games 133; Goals 6; Caps 8
D AN DOYLE was one of those who created Glasgow Celtic as a great football team. It was because of personality players like Doyle that Celtic did not go the way of so many other clubs which started in the 1880s and 1890s. Celtic did not disappear. The fact that Celtic stayed was, of course, due to good management and the undeniable fact that they had a huge captive audience in the Glasgow Irish, but also because they h