Willie Groves and Mick McKeown – The two first capped Celts…
It’s international week this week and as Scotland take on Spain in a bid to secure qualification to the Euros, our skipper Callum McGregor will as usual play an important part for Steve Clarke’s side with Greg Taylor also a member of the squad.
Throughout the years many Celts have starred for Scotland. Well known names like Danny McGrain, Kenny Dalglish, Paul McStay, Roy Aitken, Tom Boyd, Scott Brown and of course Callum McGregor all winning numerous caps in the dark blue of their nation.
The first two players to receive the honour of being called up for Scotland while being a Celtic player, were Willie Groves and Mick McKeown. It was way back in 1889 when the club were just a year in existence.
Willie Groves was an exciting attacking player, a real crowd pleaser who also had a knack of finding the back of the net. Celtic were just in their infancy back then so Willie was one of the first Bould Bhoy heroes to don the Celtic shirt. His displays for Hibernian led to him being signed by the club in August 1888. He would go on help the club reach the Scottish Cup final that year which we sadly lost.
Mick McKeown was a left back and maybe wasn’t as popular as Willie Groves was, but he too was one of the first players to pull on the shirt of Celtic Both made their international debuts against Ireland at Ibrox of all places on 9 March 1889.
It was Groves though who grabbed the headlines grabbing a hat-trick in a 7-0 win. Scoring a hat-trick on your international debut is the stuff of dreams and doing so as one of the first ever Celts to be capped for Scotland made it even more special.
Willie would go on to play for West Brom and Aston Villa, with his move to Villa making him the first £100 player! He would return north for a second spell at Hibernian before coming back to Celtic for a second spell winning two Scottish cups with the club in 1899 and 1900.
Bould Bhoy Mick McKeown went on to play for Celtic for a few more years and had a spell with Blackburn Rovers, and like Willie Groves will always have the distinction and honour of being one of the first Celtic players to be capped for Scotland.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
Come and join The Celtic Star live at the Kerrydale Suite at Celtic Park during the International break…
John Hartson will be just one of many special guests at a huge and unique Celtic Star event to be held in the Kerrydale Suite at Celtic Park on Thursday, 19 October 2023. Tables for 10 at £180 or individual tickets priced just £20 for this special evening can be purchased now via Celtic Star Books.
Meanwhile here’s Matt Corr talking about his latest Celtic Star book on The Celtic Exchange Podcast…
Majic, Stan and the King of Japan is out in Friday 20 October and is available to order now HERE.
The Celtic Star presents a night with John Hartson and Stephen McManus at the Kerrydale on Thursday 19 October…
There’s no Celtic action for a few weeks due the latest international break, but you can still come along to Celtic Park on Thursday 19 October – on the anniversary of Hampden in the Sun, Celtic 7 Rangers 1…to join The Celtic Star team live in the Kerrydale with special guests John Hartson and Stephen McManus as we launch Matt Corr’s new book ‘Majic, Stan and the King of Japan’ which tells the story of Gordon Strachan’s first season at Celtic and we’ll have the trophies Celtic won that season there too!
There’s live music from the wonderful Boolavogue and many more Celtic guests coming along which we’ll start to announce tomorrow. Tickets are selling fast so get yours now, just click on the image below and we’ll see you in the Kerrydale. it’s going to be some night and a great Celtic fix during the international break!
