So just who were the Class of ‘55? Epilogue – Celtic’s David Duffy

It’s always nice to solve a mystery and even more so when it’s a Celtic mystery and we can give due credit to someone who wore the famous Hoops. We have finally managed to secure some additional information on – and current photographs of – a Celt from the 1950s who is still going strong at the ripe young age of 90! Here is the context.

July’s article in The Celtic Star featuring photos provided by Peter Goldie, Celtic’s oldest-living first-team player, provoked a lot of interest and discussion. One photo in particular generated quite a few queries. It was a photoshoot taken at the annual public trial match played at Celtic Park on Tuesday, 9 August 1955, replicated below…

Some of the players of course are instantly recognisable as Celtic legends, whilst most of the others are familiar to those who know their history but a few of the faces presented some challenges in terms of identification. Here at The Celtic Star, we like to acknowledge every Celt who lived the dream and could proudly tell their family and friends “I played for Celtic,” so we thought we’d make sure we had a full cast list to publish. That’s when the fun started, and I guess ended over the weekend with the additional information on the final Celt.

There was a report on the match in the following day’s Evening Times which listed the teams as follows:

Green and Whites (Hoops)
McCreadie; Haughney & Fallon; Evans, Stein & McPhail;
Docherty, Collins, McAlindon, Walsh & Mochan.

White and Greens (Shamrocks)
Beattie; Ryan & Meechan; McKay, Jack & Conroy;
Craig, McVittie, White, Sharkey & Auld.

Not all of the players in the photo featured in the match, as some were nursing or recovering from injuries. And an obvious absentee from the photoshoot was Bertie Peacock, who was in Belfast representing a Great Britain XI against The Rest of Europe in a match to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the six-county Irish Football Association. The Evening Times report also mentioned that a number of changes to the initial line-ups occurred at half-time – by which time the Hoops were leading 5-0 – as follows.

• Goalkeepers McCreadie and Beattie switched sides.
• Docherty and White switched sides.
• Goldie replaced Ryan for the Shamrocks.
• Duffy replaced Conroy for the Shamrocks.
• Rowan replaced Craig for the Shamrocks.
• Smith replaced Sharkey for the Shamrocks.

Within minutes of The Celtic Star publishing the article, @CelticCurio produced a list of all the surnames in the photograph. This was a huge help as we set about linking names to faces.

Top row: Higgins, Jack, McAlinden, Duffy, Evans, MacKay, Fernie, Meechan, Tully & Auld.

Middle row: Sharkey, White, Ryan, Craig, Beattie, Docherty, Goldie, Fallon, Boden, Bonnar, Haughney, Conroy, Stein, McCreadie & Mcllroy.

Front row: McVittie, Collins, Smith, McPhail, Rowan, Walsh, Reid & Mochan.

Starting with the back row, I was comfortable with John Jack (originally Jonas Kaduskeviechi) on the left, and Dunky MacKay, Frank Meechan and a young Bertie Auld from middle to right. The Celt fourth from left though was a new one on me. Curio gave his name as Duffy, a fact confirmed separately by Peter Goldie. Until the weekend, he remained the most difficult player in the group to secure information (and another verifying photo) on. Jamie Forrest did some digging and established that he is David Duffy, who played at Celtic Park between 1950 and 1956 without making a first-team appearance.

Peter Goldie on David Duffy

“The only one whose first name I can’t recall is Duffy in the back row beside Bobby Evans. He was a really nice person and came from the Dundee area. If you get his first name, I would like to know it, Matt.”

Continue reading on the next page…

Well, the good news is that we now have a resume of David’s life and career, as provided by his daughter Karen.

David Duffy was born in Dundee on Tuesday, 16 August 1932. A boyhood Celtic supporter, he played football from an early age and enjoyed success with St John’s school then Dunkeld Amateurs, with whom he won the Scottish Cup.

Quite a few of the Dunkeld team turned professional, including another Dundonian Duffy who played for Celtic!

Inside-forward John Duffy signed for Celtic in 1948 and following a stint on National Service with the RAF he made his Celtic first-team debut against East Fife at Bayview on Saturday, 21 March 1953. That match ended in a 4-1 defeat and John did not enjoy better luck in his second and final appearance for the club, and 4-0 hammering by Dundee at Dens Park a fortnight later. John would be on the periphery as Celtic won the Coronation Cup the following month then the League and Cup Double in the spring of 1954. He was released by Celtic at the end of that campaign and joined Southend United, where he made more than a century of appearances before retiring in 1960.

Centre-forward John Coyle also enjoyed senior success. He played alongside David with junior club Dundee St Joseph’s before joining Second Division Dundee United in 1950. Despite a career interruption for National Service, he scored an incredible 112 goals in 132 matches for the Tannadice men – including a club record 43 in 1955/56 – before First Division Clyde paid £8,000 for his signature in December 1957.

John continued on the goal trail at Shawfield, his 31 goals scored over the next five months including a hat-trick in Clyde’s 3-2 win over Motherwell at Celtic Park in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup and the only goal of the final against Hibernian at Hampden three weeks later. He then scored a double as the Bully Wee beat Rangers 4-0 to win the Glasgow Charity Cup.

That form earned Johnny his place in the 22-man Scotland squad for the World Cup finals in Sweden that summer, together with clubmates Harry Haddock and Archie Robertson. Sadly, John did not make an appearance in Sweden and would be fated never to represent his country at that level. He scored 59 goals in his 85 games for Clyde before leaving the club in the spring of 1960 to join Cambridge City.

Of the others, Dennis McGurk played one League game for Hibernian in March 1950 before joining East Fife in September 1952. He also played south of the border with Hull City. Charlie Thomson signed for Derby County and the McAnearney brothers Tom and Jim both played with Sheffield Wednesday.

David Duffy was playing in Junior football with St. Joseph’s when he was spotted by Celtic and signed for Jimmy McGrory in 1950. Amongst his close friends at Celtic Park were Vincent Ryan, Jimmy ‘Peam’ Docherty and Billy Craig, brother-in-law of Sean Fallon. The Sligo legend had signed for Celtic in March of that year and was also amongst David’s favourite players, others being Bertie Peacock, Bobby Collins, Willie Fernie, Jock Stein and John McPhail.

David spent two years doing National Service in RAF, playing for the station teams and turning out for Celtic reserves whilst on leave. He was demobbed in January 1955 and turned full-time with Celtic at that time. Whilst there would be no first-team action for him, David was a regular pick in the reserves, featuring at left-half in a 1-0 victory over Rangers at Celtic Park on Friday, 24 September 1955, when Matt McVittie scored the only goal of the game (As an aside, it was my great pleasure to host some of Matt’s family on a stadium tour of Celtic Park on Saturday, something which only came about as a result of this series of articles!). The Celtic team that day was as follows.

Benny McCreadie; Peter Goldie & Frank Meechan; Frank Whyte, John Jack & David Duffy;
John Higgins, Matt McVittie, Jim Sharkey, Jimmy Rowan & Bertie Auld.

Three members of that team would be released by Celtic at the end of April 1956, those being David, Jimmy Rowan and Frank Whyte. David returned to working at his trade as a plumber whilst signing for Second Division Montrose on a part-time basis for season 1956/57. Later that year, though, David married his sweetheart Mary Clark and decided to give up playing football. He would still be closely involved in the game though, as a commentator for visually impaired supporters every week at Dens Park and Tannadice for over 20 years.

David is now happily retired, and on August 16 he celebrated his 90th birthday with his family of four daughters, seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren (number 12 on the way!).

Living happily ever after with a loving family, having lived his dream of wearing those famous green and white Hoops!

As a footnote, David’s daughters did not escape the football world after their dad had retired, as two of them married professional footballers! George Sinclair was a talented forward with Arbroath in the First Division of 1977/78 before moving to junior outfit Dundee North End.

And John Holt will be no stranger to Celtic supporters of a certain vintage. John made over 400 appearances for that wonderful Dundee United team under Jim McLean which won the first major trophies in the club’s history. John played in both League Cup final victories of 1979 and 1980 then the title triumph of 1982/83, all three won remarkably on the ground of fierce city rivals Dundee.

He was also pivotal in United’s run to the semi-final of the European Cup in 1983/84 and the final of the UEFA Cup three years later, those campaigns ending in bitter disappointment at the hands of AS Roma and IFK Gothenburg. John would enjoy spells at Dunfermline Athletic, Dundee, Forfar Athletic and as a player-manager at Deverondale in the Highland League before following in his father-in-law’s footsteps by signing for Montrose in 1993, once again in that combined role.

Having returned to Tannadice in a coaching capacity, John replicated David’s footsteps again by working for Celtic, initially as a scout then as the manager of the woman’s team. His last job in football was as the caretaker manager back at Links Park, Montrose, after his old United captain Paul Hegarty had been sacked as manager.

Hail hail!

Matt Corr

Follow Matt on Twitter @Boola_vogue