“I’d read of those heroes…” Fifties’ Player of the Day No.1 – John McPhail
In an era where Celtic boasted some of the most revered players in the club’s history, it was powerful captain and leader John McPhail who was the hero to many supporters in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Indeed, former Celts Peter Goldie and Billy Craig, who played alongside him, told me that they had ‘Hooky’ on a pedestal, “an absolute superstar.”
A schoolboy product of Glasgow’s prestigious St Mungo’s Academy, John was signed by then Celtic boss Jimmy McStay from Strathclyde Juniors in August 1941, the 17-year-old McPhail making his senior debut two months later in the wartime Scottish Southern League, as an inside-forward partnering the legendary Jimmy Delaney in a 1-1 home draw with Partick Thistle.
Two other Empire Exhibition Cup heroes from 1938, Bobby Hogg and Frank Murphy, also featured for Celtic that day.
John scored the first of more than a century of goals in his beloved Hoops in a 3-2 victory over Third Lanark in the same competition at Celtic Park in January 1943, by which time he was joined in the team by goalkeeper Willie Miller, defender Jimmy Mallan and wing-half Pat McAuley.
All four would be key in Celtic’s re-emergence as a genuine challenger for the major honours at the beginning of the next decade.
Replacing the long-serving Hogg as Celtic captain in the summer of 1948, the highlights of John’s career would follow over the next few years.
He scored Scotland’s opening goal against Wales at Hampden on the first of his five international appearances in November 1949, following that up with a double against Ireland at the same venue 12 months later.
Between those matches, John enjoyed his greatest moments as a Celt, also at Hampden. In May 1950, his hat-trick against Rangers won the Glasgow Charity Cup final in front of 81,000 spectators and Hollywood legend Danny Kaye, and the following April he led Celtic to a first Scottish Cup victory in 14 years.
In true ‘Roy of the Rovers’ style, the Hoops captain, centre-forward and talisman showed tremendous skill to score the only goal of the game to defeat Motherwell, before being carried shoulder-high from the field to the cheers of 132,000 supporters.
McPhail had scored 30 goals in 34 games in that 1950/51 campaign and would then become the centre of attraction as Celts paraded their newly won trophy across the USA and Canada that summer, just as his manager Jimmy McGrory had done 20 years earlier.
But he would struggle with fitness and injury on his return from the States, missing out on the St Mungo Cup triumph at the beginning of the new season.
Skipper John McPhail is front and centre with the trophy.
He scored a hat-trick in the 3-2 win over Rangers at Hampden, “in front of Danny Kaye.” Photo Celtic in the Fifties by Matt Corr
By the spring of 1953, John was revelling in a new role, as wing-half alongside Bobby Evans and new skipper Jock Stein as Celts defied all the odds to emerge triumphant in the iconic Coronation Cup tournament.
McPhail featured in all three games, against English giants Arsenal and Manchester United then the final against Hibernian and their ‘Famous Five.’ And the following season, he played his part with five goals in 26 games as McGrory’s men secured a first League and Scottish Cup Double in 40 years, John’s last honours as a Celt.
John McPhail’s final appearance in the Hoops was a 3-0 home League win over Stirling Albion on 17 September 1955, the big centre heading home Neil Mochan’s cross for Celtic’s second goal early in the second half. Charlie Tully scored either side of that.
John retired at the end of that season, moving into journalism and a career with the Daily Record then the fledgling Celtic View.
Born and raised in Lambhill, in the north of Glasgow, he settled in nearby Milngavie to raise his family after marrying local girl Ella McKinstry in June 1952. The Celtic hero passed away in Glasgow on 6 November 2000, perhaps poignantly the anniversary of the club’s formation, aged 76.
Main photo by @Highland_paddy, created for Celtic in the Fifties: Volume One, by Matt Corr.
Published by Celtic Star Books on 4th September 2026.
Signed copies available now celticstarbooks.com
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