Last Sunday, the Celts’ New Year took an upturn as the Bhoys extended their lead at the top of the League to 13 points. However, at one point, a power failure in Glasgow’s east end threatened to switch off the floodlights, a problem that was thankfully averted thanks to Celtic’s own emergency generator…
The Celts have a long history with lighting at their games. It includes some historic moments and firsts, and on numerous occasions helping other clubs with their own floodlights. There have even been arguments that helped stop a British football league – and one monster sighting!
From football’s earliest days, there were attempts to introduce lighting to allow games to be completed. On numerous occasions, matches had to be abandoned in the winter months owing to a lack of light, so solutions were sought to this.
1878 – nine years before Celtic’s formation – was a big year for these efforts. It saw a floodlight game in Sheffield between the Reds and the Blues. And in Scotland, Third Lanark attempted a basic lighting system for a match versus Vale of Leven.
Christmas Day 1893
However, football still had some way to go before it would have an effective method that could be used. Celtic had a pioneering role in these efforts. On Christmas Day 1893, the Bhoys welcomed Clyde to Celtic Park. It was truly a novelty, as the match was to be played under electric lights.
This was not the traditional floodlights on pylons which would later become a dominant sight at Celtic Park. Instead, high poles were erected and then wires of lights strung across the pitch. It was less than effective, with complaints about dark areas of the pitch, and the ball hitting the wires.
January 1894
In January 1894, Celtic used these lights in a Scottish Cup match with St Bernards, and the Edinburgh side complained about the lights making it difficult to play. As such, Celtic’s lighting project was abandoned, and Parkhead would not again be lit up for almost seven decades.
But this did not mean that the Bhoys played only in daylight. In fact, Celtic’s first ever floodlights game came in the 1930s, although it first involved a journey to another continent. In 1931, Celtic went on their first tour outside of Europe, travelling to North America.
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![Celtic in the Thirties]()
- Celtic in the Thirties – Volume One
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![Celtic in the Thirties - Volume Two]()
- Celtic in the Thirties – Volume Two
25 June 1931
13 games were played on this excursion, against interestingly named clubs such as Bricklayers, Ulster United and Montreal Carsteels. On 25 June 1931, Celtic went to the University of Detroit and faced the Michigan All-Stars, with the Hoops winning 5-0. This was the club’s first floodlights experience.
Around this same era, floodlights were also being used in Britain. As Celtic met Falkirk in a league game in February 1930, Mansfield hosted a cup game played under floodlights. There was even a short-lived attempt to do this in Scotland, with a monstrous outcome.
Loch Ness Monster
In 1933, Inverness Caledonian installed a basic lighting system with three lamps on poles on both sides of the pitch. However this was only used for one game following a claim in July 1933 that some sort of creature had been seen in Loch Ness. As such, the lights were taken from the ground to provide illumination for the monster hunt, and yet another football lighting experiment came to an end.
The key decade in the growth of floodlight use in British football came in the 1950s, the same era in which Celtic would – somewhat reluctantly – succumb in to this new trend.
October 1951 saw Scottish football’s first proper floodlight game as Stenhousemuir welcomed Hibernian to their Ochilview ground. Following this, numerous Celtic visits to England involved floodlight games, then seen as a huge novelty and advertised as such.
Doncaster Rovers v Celtic
Celtic’s first game in Britain played with proper floodlights was a friendly in Yorkshire on 18 November 1952. The Bhoys beat local team Doncaster Rovers 3-2, and clearly had a taste for playing under this new technology. In March 1953, Celtic were the first team to play Newcastle United at St James Park under floodlights, with the visitors losing 2-0.
This continued Celtic’s historic connections with Newcastle. In September 1892, the Bhoys had gone south for a game versus Newcastle East End. However, this came shortly after Newcastle East End had taken over Newcastle West End, and is generally considered the merged Newcastle United’s first game.
Celtic at Molineux
Later in 1953, Celtic had two more floodlight experiences. First, in October, they lost 2-0 to Wolves in the second game to be played under lights at Molineux. In fact, Celtic were the first club side to do this because the first actual team had been South Africa.
Two weeks later, the Celts became the third side to play Manchester City in a floodlit Maine Road, drawing 1-1 with the home team. In fact, Hearts were the first team to play under Maine Road’s floodlights having done so earlier in the month.
These English lighting developments naturally spread to Scotland, with more and more teams using the technology, including Rangers from 1953 onwards. Celtic however – like many other teams – refused to embrace the option of lighting.
There were different reasons for this opposition. One was a fear that lighting could easily fail, plunging games into darkness and calling off the matches. There was also a financial worry that Saturday afternoon matches attracted most fans, and playing midweek would result in lower crowds.
Celtic also argued that when it came to stadium improvements, lighting was not a priority. At a time when most grounds had uncovered sections – forcing fans to stand in battering rain – the Bhoys’ Board claimed that they wanted to spend any available cash on fixing this problem.
These issues led to various disputes between clubs, including in relation to new footballing competitions which could have brought together English and Scottish sides.
Proposal for a ‘Floodlight League’
In the mid-1950s, a proposal was put forward to have a midweek ‘Floodlight League’ featuring top teams from north and south of the border. The idea was that this would be in addition to usual domestic games, and provide extra income. Ultimately, Celtic and other clubs argued against this, and the plan eventually died.
In addition, floodlights didn’t always solve all problems. In 1954, Celtic were due to play a floodlights game versus Leeds United at Elland Road, but snow arrived to call-off the game. And in later times, Celtic had games changed or postponed owing to high winds damaging floodlights and stopping the game from happening.
Despite this, the direction of travel was clearly moving towards the adoption of floodlights, and Celtic had little choice but to comply. By 1958, floodlights had been installed at Celtic Park purely for the purposes of allowing training sessions on the pitch. And then in 1959, this was further extended.
12 October 1959
Celtic appointed an Edinburgh firm to install pylons and lights at Parkhead. On 12 October 1959, they invited Wolves to Scotland to be the first team to experience the new Celtic Park lights. Although the home team lost 2-0, an illuminated era had begun in Glasgow’s east end.
With the spread of this technology – and not just in Scotland – Celtic soon had more ‘firsts’ when it came to playing under lights. The Bhoys’ first European experience was in 1960. Celtic went to France to play in the Anglo-Franco-Scottish Friendship Cup. Celtic lost 3-0 to Sedan in a floodlight game, a match also notable for being the first time that Celtic wore numbers on the back of the Hoops.
Valencia away
This European run continued in 1962 when the Celts first entered official European competition. Playing in the 1962 Fair Cities Cup – the forerunner of the UEFA Cup, and then Europa League – Celtic travelled to Valencia in September 1962, losing 4-2 in their first European game, which was also played under lights.
Over the years, Celtic became favoured visitors in Scotland and elsewhere when teams were first introducing new lighting systems. This included sides such as Cowdenbeath in 1968 and Inverness Thistle in 1972 who welcomed the Bhoys for the big switch-on. It even saw a joint Celtic and Rangers team travel north to Inverness in 1959 to mark Inverness Caledonian’s new lighting structures.
Hampden Park
By the early-1960s, Hampden Park had also given into the demand for lighting. Floodlights were installed by the same company that built Celtic’s, and the first lighted game at Hampden was in October 1961, when Rangers lost 3-2 to Eintracht Frankfurt.
This development meant that floodlights would become a feature of cup finals in Scotland. Celtic’s first Hampden final after this was the May 1962 Glasgow Cup Final, which was played in the afternoon and ended in a 1-1 draw, before the Bhoys won the replay a week later at Celtic Park.
Third Lanark’s Cup
Instead, it seems likely, based on photos from the time, that the Celts’ first Hampden floodlights final was the April 1963 Glasgow Cup Final, which the Bhoys lost 2-1 to Third Lanark.
Floodlights have had an impact on other Celtic cup finals. They once came close to stopping one of the biggest games in Celtic’s history. The Hoops had found fame when winning the 1967 European Cup, and by 1970, had the chance to repeat this. Celtic travelled to Milan to take on Dutch side Feyenoord, in a game the Bhoys would lose 2-1.
Industrial strike in Milan could have saved Celtic
However, an industrial strike in Milan – including by electricians who worked the floodlights – threatened to cancel the game. Perhaps it would have been better for the Bhoys if this strike had taken place, and instead the club might have eventually won the re-arranged fixture.
Another Celtic cup final – with an equally negative outcome – that was influenced by strikes and floodlights was the 1973 League Cup Final. Celtic played Dundee in December 1973, with a Tommy Gemmell-led Dens side winning a surprise 1-0 victory. This final was played at 1.30pm to ensure there was enough daylight given restrictions on electricity use at this time.
Twice in the early-1990s, Celtic went to Ireland to play the opening game under floodlights at different grounds, travelling to Dublin and Sligo. However, at Celtic Park, things were about to change. In the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, new stadia was being built across Britain, bringing to an end the sight of bright pylons illuminating matches and being visible from miles around.
Fergus McCann
Fergus McCann’s takeover of Celtic meant a move to Hampden whilst Celtic Park underwent a massive renovation. As well as the terracing disappearing at Parkhead, so too did the ground’s iconic floodlights.
Celtic Park of course continues to have a lighting system, but now this is built into the fabric of the stadium, rather than separate pylons. They have not always been without their problems.
Home games in the early-2000s against Dundee and Livingston saw long delays when Celtic’s lighting system failed to work. And this was reflected elsewhere too. One 2002 fixture at Almondvale was postponed after the floodlights switched off before the match began.
Disco Lights
In recent years, the main point of interest when it comes to Celtic Park lighting has been the installation of the so-called ‘disco lights’. The club invested millions of pounds in a state-of-the-art lighting system, which includes the ability to have special displays of different colours. These were first used before a game versus Leipzig in 2018, and have become a key feature of the pre-match build-up for European nights.
Each generation of Celtic fans has their own recollections of how Celtic Park looks. Older fans will recall seeing from a great distance the rising pylons that dominated and lit up the ground. In the modern era, fans will instead think of the ‘disco light’ displays now observed in the winter months. In both cases, what matters most is the football that’s being watched, and the memories it creates for Hoops fans of all ages.
Matthew Marr
Follow Matthew on Twitter @hailhailhistory
Matthew’s debut Celtic book titled ‘The Bould Bhoys – Glory to their name’ was published by Celtic Star Books last year and is available to order HERE. This brilliant book is also available on Amazon Kindle for just £3.49 and includes all photo sections that appear in the hardback edition.
Third Lanark! The OTHER Glasgow club who became extinct!
I don’t recall the SFA bursting their backsides trying to save and protect the Hi-Hi the way the did their old establishment club!
They let them die quite easily!
No corruption involved to keep them afloat like the club from Govan!