Donald MacLeod joined Celtic on 10 May 1902 and made his first –team debut against Third Lanark at Cathkin in a league match on 30 August of that same year.
Donnie quickly became a regular at full-back and over the next few years not only pleased manager Willie Maley with his form but also caught the eye of the Scottish selectors, who, for his first cap, chose him to face England at Hampden on this day in 1906, the 35th time the two countries had met.
Donnie was the only Celt in the side and as the players ran out on the pitch, they were confronted by an enormous crowd of 102,741 people – the biggest attendance to that time in Britain for a football match – who had travelled to Mount Florida on special trains, tramcars, the new-fangled motor cars, horse carriages and even on foot!
Two goals on either side of half-time by inside-right Jim Howie (Newcastle United) put Scotland ahead and although the English pulled one back through a ‘rocket delivery’ by Albert Shepherd of Bolton Wanderers, the Scots held out and the two points gained meant that the International Championship was shared between the two countries.
After 155 appearances for the Hoops, Donnie MacLeod moved to Middlesbrough, where after retirement he ran the Lord Byron Hotel in Bridge Street. During the First World War Donnie served with the Royal Field Artillery and on 6 October 1917, he died of wounds sustained on the Flanders battlefield. Donnie was 35 years of age and left a wife and three children.
Jim Craig
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