You’ll sometimes see a Celtic account on social media asking you to name the Celtic manager on the day you were born. I’ve always answered Jock Stein, but reading an advance copy of David Potter’s new book The Celtic Rising ~ 1965: The Year Jock Stein Changed Everything on Kindle (available next week in hardback and on Kindle) I began to realise that in actual fact I might have been actually have been a Jimmy McGrory baby, which in itself is kind of cool.
I always knew that my arrival into this world signalled a huge change for Celtic. Before we had won nothing since 1957 and afterwards we conquered Europe, won 9IAR (I remember as a ten year old being absolutely bewildered when some other club, these days no longer with us, won the league) and dominated Scottish football while being a major force in Europe.
Big Yogi – god bless him – started the ball rolling for me scoring five goals on the first Celtic game of my life as Aberdeen were humiliated 8-0 at Parkhead (as it was known back then).
So I thought I’d check with the Celtic historian and The Celtic Rising author aboutbwho was the Celtic manager on the day I was born on Sunday 24 January 1965. Here’s what David Potter said…
“Jimmy McGrory, in theory. Sean Fallon possibly was doing most of the work, and Bertie Auld once told me that he knew that Jock was coming back and that Jock, still manager of Hibs, knew all about Bertie coming back.
“A complicated question! Kinda like asking who is the Prime Minister of Great Britain today!
“If you were born on the 24th of January, (the very day that Winston Churchill died, incidentally!), Robbie Burns was the 25th and the Kaiser of Germany was the 26th, so you are in good company. My eldest daughter was the 28th of January 1978 – a Saturday but most games were snowed off including Celtic v Dundee.
“The 23rd of January 1965 I recall hearing Morton 0 Celtic 3 and saying that with Bertie Auld back, we have now turned the corner, but final score was 3-3 and it would have been 4-3 if the referee had allowed another three seconds. The ball was in mid air when the whistle went.
“What a world it was for a baby to be born into!”
Well there you have it, you learn something every day. What a wonderful celebration of our football club The Celtic Rising is. Maybe in fifty odd years from now a Celtic fan born this year will publish a follow up to The Celtic Rising on the year Ange Postecoglou changed everything at Celtic all over again?
The Celtic Rising is a Celtic book, you deserve to own and all advance ordered copies will signed and will be posted out next week, a week ahead of its general release. You can order your signed copy below…
