Heart-warming Celtic conversation about former centre-half Dan McColgan

Loved this on Twitter and thought it worth sharing with you this morning. Maura McColgan has been moving house and as you do, she came across some old photographs, this one being of her dad who had played football and had two spells at Celtic.

Here’s what Maura posted: “Moving house and came across this photo of my Dad on the start of his football journey. This is Baillieston Juniors. Then he moved to Celtic, Belfast Celtic, back to Celtic and on to Third Lanark and Ayr United. So proud.”

Moving house and came across this photo of my Dad on the start of his football journey. This is Baillieston Juniors. Then he moved to Celtic, Belfast Celtic, back to Celtic and on to Third Lanark and Ayr United. So proud 👏👏💚 pic.twitter.com/Bt3eB4suTw

— Maura McColgan (@maurak_mccolgan) October 23, 2020

“Is it Dan McColgan?” JoeBloggsCity (of The Celtic Wiki fame) asked, adding this photograph of the former Celtic player from the essential Celtic reference site.

He also added the biog of the former Celt from The Celtic Wiki which reads as follows…

Fullname: Daniel McColgan
aka: Dan McColgan
Born: 28 Feb 1903 (birthdate corrected by relative of Dan McColgan)
Died: 16 May 1974
Birthplace: Baillieston, Scotland
Signed: 9 June 1925 (from Baillieston Juniors)
Left: 27 Nov 1928 (to Third Lanark)
Position: Centre-half
Debut: Celtic 0-0 Dundee, League, 31 Oct 1925
Internationals: n/a

Baillieston-born centre-half Dan McColgan was signed by Celtic from his local junior side in June 1925.

His debut was a 0-0 league draw with Dundee on 31st October 1925 at Parkhead. A hard working defender he only made one further league appearance for the Hoops in a 1-0 win over Raith Rovers in January 1926.

Celtic won the league in 1925-26, the last time for ten years, so Dan McColgan got to play a small part that helped Celtic to a title win that can be taken in retrospect to mark the end of era.

After a number of loan spells he moved on permanently to Third Lanark in November 1928, but not before a return back to Celtic with a swansong appearance in the Glasgow Cup semi-final v Third Lanark which Celtic drew 2-2 in Sep 1928.

He also had a short spell with Belfast Celtic.

He died on 16th May 1974 and is buried in St.Joseph’s Cemetery in Airdrie.

Celtic remained heavily in the family. He took his daughter Maura McColgan to Lisbon for the 1967 final, and she herself went on to be the head of tours/Curator at Celtic Park for many years. Additionally, one of Maura McColgan’s grandparents was Frank O’Rourke, who was a member of the Bradford side who won the 1911 FA Cup; the manager of that Bradford side was ex-Celt Peter O’Rourke.

The Celtic Wiki – Biog of Dan McColgan

Maureen replied: “Another lovely photo. Cheers,” with JoeBloggsCity then saying “We’d love to add more info to the his page. Any anecdotes, post football life, further facts trivia data. Etc any pics too. And also if you have have any questions we’d love to help you too if we can.”