“I’d read of those heroes…” Fifties’ Player of the Day No.3 – Bobby Collins… As baptisms of fire go, they don’t come much more challenging than that of pocket dynamo Bobby Collins in senior football… Plucked from Pollok Juniors under the noses of Everton in August 1948, Collins made his debut 12 months later on the right wing as Celtic opened the new season with a home League Cup tie against holders Rangers on Saturday, 13 August 1949. Known as the ‘Wee Barra,’ the 18-year-old had impressed manager Jimmy McGrory with an outstanding performance in the public trial seven days…
Author: Matt Corr
On this day in 1950: It’s Charles Patrick Tully…putting on the style… As it happened, Rangers and Partick Thistle would be Celtic’s next two opponents, the Ibrox side heading to Glasgow’s east end on Saturday, 23 September 1950. With Alec Boden injured at Motherwell, Jimmy McGrory brought Bobby Evans back into his normal wing-half role, the inside-right spot opening up for Donald Weir, a 21-year-old who joined Celtic from Kilwinning Rangers in November 1948. His solitary first-team appearance to date had been a 2-1 home League defeat to Third Lanark the following April. Thankfully, this would be a much happier…
“I’d read of those heroes…” Fifties’ Player of the Day No.2 – Bertie Peacock… When Celtic manager Jimmy McGrory snapped up 20-year-old amateur inside-forward John Robert Peacock from Belfast-based Irish League side Glentoran in May 1949, little would he have anticipated the gem he had just unearthed. Over the next 12 years, the hugely talented Peacock, known as ‘The Little Ant’ because of his workrate and industry, would be involved in every major Celtic event in a near 500-game career. The first of those was a home League Cup sectional tie against Aberdeen on the final day of August 1949,…
“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,…
Another young Celt dies in tragic circumstances… Celts were again on the outside looking in as the League Cup quarter-final ties were decided in midweek. On an evening of no surprises, Hibernian scored another six goals against Morton at Easter Road to progress on a 12-3 aggregate, former Hoops wing-half Rab Quinn scoring twice for the Greenock men, whilst Rangers eased through 2-0 at Cathkin. At Dens Park, cup-holders Dundee scored five without reply to blow away Stirling Albion’s first-leg lead and Division B would be represented in the draw by Kilmarnock, my uncle Willie Jack scoring twice at Rugby…