The first week in December throws up a number of Celtic anniversaries close to my heart. On 5 December 2023, we celebrated the golden anniversary of Harry Hood’s historic Hampden hat-trick against Rangers, whilst the following day that lovely gentleman Tommy Callaghan enjoyed his 79th birthday. A couple of very special Celts indeed for those of my vintage. But there are two significant dates immediately either side of those, which took place in 1951.
As December 1951 beckoned, a seven-year-old Harry Hood was kicking a ball around the streets of Balornock in the north of Glasgow, whilst over on the east coast, his future friend and teammate Tommy Callaghan was eagerly awaiting his own seventh birthday in the Fife town of Cowdenbeath. Both boys came from huge Celtic-supporting families, so no doubt much of the conversation in the two households at that time would centre around the club.
So, what was happening with Celtic in 1951?
Well, for the first time in many years there was fresh silverware in the Parkhead boardroom. Skipper John McPhail’s early strike against Motherwell in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden in April saw the man known as ‘Hooky’ hold the famous old trophy aloft in front of 132,000 spectators at the end of the match, a first major honour for the club under manager Jimmy McGrory, and a first Scottish Cup since the spring of 1937, when McGrory himself was pivotal in the 2-1 victory over Aberdeen.
Just like that inaugural North American tour of 1931, when once again the Hoops had beaten Motherwell in the final, the Scottish Cup would then accompany the victorious Celtic party across the Atlantic the following month to bring the ex-pat supporters living there a welcome taste of home. The Celtic squad would then return with a few more trophies to add to the collection, following a successful visit to the USA and Canada, as captured in a wonderful team group photograph taken at Celtic Park that summer.
By that time, the Celts had added another unique piece of silverware, which remains on display to this day, the St Mungo Cup. This was a trophy put up by Glasgow Corporation (the predecessor to the City Council) as its contribution to the Festival of Britain, a nationwide exhibition marking the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, albeit it probably served as a morale-booster for a population slowly recovering from a devastating six-year world war. In that sense, there were many similarities with the Empire Exhibition of 1938 which predated that global conflict.
Celts had won the football tournament which ran alongside the Empire Exhibition – Willie Maley’s final major success as manager – and they would now repeat that feat in the St Mungo Cup of 1951. The top 14 teams in Scotland competed for the trophy, plus recently-relegated Clyde and Second Division Queen’s Park, that duo included presumably because of their Glasgow roots in the competition named after the city’s patron saint.
Despite their Scottish Cup success, Celts had finished seventh in the previous season’s Division A table, a distant 19 points behind champions Hibernian and their ‘Famous Five’ forward line. That being the case, their opening opponents – fourth-placed Hearts with their own ‘Terrible Trio’ of forward talent – would probably have started favourites at Celtic Park on Saturday, 14 July 1951, but goals from 20-year-old new Bhoy Jimmy Walsh and John McPhail saw Celts beat the Gorgie men 2-1.
That was Walsh’s first competitive goal for Celtic, having only made his debut against the new Scottish champions at Easter Road on the final day of that 1950/51 League campaign.
Celtic’s reward for that victory was a quarter-final tie with east end neighbours Clyde, played at neutral Firhill five days later, Thursday, 19 July 1951, in front of 30,000 spectators. They would get their money’s worth and then some, Celts trailing 2-0 at the break then 4-2 late on before Bobby Collins – with his second goal of the match – and John McPhail beat former teammate Willie Miller in the Clyde goal to salvage a replay. Jimmy Walsh had again been on target early in the second half to bring Celts back to 2-1.
The replay took place at the same venue 24 hours later, skipper John McPhail finding himself dropped with full-back Sean Fallon moved up to centre-forward, a role he had performed on the American tour. The Sligo man would justify that decision by scoring his first competitive goals for the club, a double either side of the interval, Bertie Peacock and Walsh again taking Celts through despite two late Clyde strikes as the match ended 4-2.
Celts were unchanged for the semi-final against Raith Rovers at Hampden, on Saturday, 28 July 1951. The match would be a personal triumph for Jimmy Walsh, whose hat-trick took his tally to six in just four games as the Hoops beat the Fifers 3-1 to progress to the final.
Their opponents four days later, Wednesday, 1 August 1951, would be Aberdeen, the Dons having enjoyed a top five League finish in 1950/51 before eliminating both Hibernian and Rangers from the St Mungo Cup.
More than 82,000 rolled up to Hampden and they would see Aberdeen – minus their former Celtic legend Jimmy Delaney – take a two-goal lead against a Hoops side who played a period of the first half without injured goalkeeper George Hunter, new team captain Bobby Evans the able deputy. It took a bit of Charlie Tully cheek or genius to change the game, the Irishman taking a throw-in and playing the ball against a defender’s back to force a corner. When his cross came over, there was Sean Fallon to beat Fred Martin and the Hoops were back in the tie at 2-1 just before the break.
It would be the Sligo man who would square things up in the opening minutes of the second half, Fallon taking a pass from Jimmy Walsh to blast the ball home, and with 20 minutes to go the cup was destined for Celtic Park. Once again Tully beat his man to reach the byeline, his cross met by Walsh who maintained his record of scoring in every game to win the match.
The trophy itself was not handed over until a ceremony in the Kelvin Hall three days later, and there we discovered another memorable addition to the vaults of Scottish football history. It would transpire that the ‘St Mungo Cup’ was actually a yachting trophy from the Victorian era!
Legend has it that the cup had two handles glued on before being passed off as the country’s newest football silverware, however, a photo of Bobby Evans at the presentation would appear to dispel that as a myth. In any case, despite Celtic’s request for a ‘proper’ trophy to be secured, the cup sits proudly in the Celtic Park boardroom to this day.
Continued on the next page…
