3. HEARTS FANS INVADE THE JUNGLE
It is Glasgow in January and it is raining heavily. There is no shelter on the “away” terracing or “Rangers end”, so what can a poor Hearts fan do? All he can do is come in to the “Jungle” where there is some sort of cover, inadequate though it is with the holes in the roof.
Normally there would be no room for it would be packed with Celtic fans and no Hearts fan would have the courage, but this is 16 January 1965 when Celtic are on their knees and in the crowd of about 20,000, Celtic fans are almost outnumbered by Hearts fans, for their team is going for the League Championship. Hearts win 2-1, and there now seems to be no hope for Celtic… unless of course they were to ask Jock Stein to be their manager!
4. DANNY OF THE MANY INJURIES
Danny McGrain, Celtic’s best ever right back, came through three horrendous crises in his professional life, any one of which would have floored a lesser man. On 25 March 1972 just as he was making his way into the Celtic team, he sustained a fractured skull in an awful clash of heads at Falkirk.
He overcame that, but then during the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, perpetual raging thirst made his suspect that something was wrong and he was duly diagnosed as a diabetic. Once again, Danny coped with this, but at the start of the 1977/78 season a mysterious foot injury appeared – and it was this injury, as well as the transfer of Dalglish to Liverpool which consigned Celtic to a barren and trophyless season and led to the departure of Jock Stein from the managerial chair.
It was also a severe loss to Scotland, for had Danny gone to Argentina, things would surely never have been so bad. His playing ability would have made a difference, but so too would his “level-headedness”, a quality that surely would have taken the sting out of the trouble that the malcontents caused to the beleaguered Ally McLeod. Danny was no softie, nor was he a moaner. His perpetual popularity is deserved.
