The 5th of October 1922, is a date that should be etched on every Celtic fans mind. For it was on this day that the “Immortal” Jock Stein was born. Stein would go on to play for Celtic, winning accolades as a player, before consequently becoming manager in 1965.
The coalminer turned footballer, initially started out playing part-time at Blantyre Victoria, prior to joining Llanelli Town full-time. He would return home to Celtic, enjoying moderate success whilst playing at centre-back for the Club.
The player would retire from football, before going on to forge a career in management, the likes of which Scottish Football will never see again. Stein took over a Dunfermline team that was battling relegation in 1960, then guided them to a Scottish Cup a year later against Celtic. After moving to Hibernian FC, he would eventually move back to Glasgow in 1965, when Celtic procured his services. Stein would lay the foundations of what we have come to understand as ‘modern Celtic’.
Born on this day in 1922, the legendary, ‘Immortal’ Jock Stein. pic.twitter.com/B879Q7pAhz
— Li’l Ze (@LilZe_7) October 4, 2021
Having taken over a team which lost regularly to their rivals in Govan, the new manager begun to get to work moulding a team that would reach the apex in European football. With the singings of Ronnie Simpson and Bertie Auld, Stein began to mesh together a team and style of play which was the precursor of “total football” in the 1970’s by Ajax.
Stein was crucially given control by Chairman, Sir Robert Kelly, after several failed approaches by Kelly to snare Stein from under the nose of Wolverhampton Wanderers. These were rejected as the offers did not allow creative control of the football operations (where have we heard that before?).
Stein won his first trophy early on in his tenure as manager, securing the 1965 Scottish Cup against his old club Dunfermline. This would be the club’s first in eleven years up until this point. Following this, Celtic would win the Scottish League Championship and go in to the 66/67 season with the possibility “to win everything”, as Stein himself put it.
With a swashbuckling style of football that placed goals and creativity at the heart of it, it came as a surprise when Stein would sign Willie Wallace from Hearts in the December of this season to aid an already potent attack.
Celtic would indeed go on to “win everything” this season under the tutelage of Stein. With a domestic quatruble secured, Celtic found themselves up against the might of Inter Milan and their meticulous “Catenaccio” style of play that was antithetical to Stein’s methodology. Stein, however, would find a way to win through “Pure, beautiful, inventive football”, making history as Celtic became the first non-Latin side to lift European football’s elite cup.
A moment for the ages, created by a man of the ages. Stein would cement Celtic Football Club’s name in the firmament of European football culture. As a result of Jock Stein, Celtic will be forever synonymous with the European Cup, and total football.
Stein enjoyed countless success at Celtic Park, accumulating 10 League Titles, 8 Scottish Cup’s and 6 Scottish League Cup’s. And of course, one majestic European Cup. In 1978, Stein left Celtic for pastures new in the form of Leeds United. Never being able to fully recapture the magic he created at Celtic, Jock would go on to manage Scotland too, with varying degrees of success.
It would be on Scotland duty that he would sadly leave us at Ninian Park. In a World Cup qualifier against Wales, Stein collapsed with heart complications and passed away on the 10 September, 1985.
As his friend Bill Shankly rightly said after our triumph in Lisbon: “John, you are Immortal now”, how true it rings in 2021, on this the day of his birth. Jock Stein created modern Celtic as we know it, and has given us a rich tapestry of European history that certain clubs could only dream of. We will be forever grateful Mr Stein.
Thank you, Immortal one!
Paul Gillespie
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A slight error in this: Ronnie Simpson was sold to Celtic from Hibs by Jock Stein and Ronnie said to his wife when Jock came as manager, “Well, that’s me looking for a new team now.” Instead, Stein played him and he became a Lisbon Lion.