The Making of a Legend

It was on December 8, 1951, 65 years ago this week, that Jock Stein made his competitive debut for Celtic, and it was the start of an association with the club that would have a profound impact on its fortunes.

- Joe Sullivan

IN the summer of 1945 as the worst ravages of war dissipated and football gamely tried to kick-start some life back into the sport, Celtic took part in a five-a-side tournament out in Coat bridge.

The stringent inflexibilities of modern-day Champions League organisation weren’t in force at the time so the lack of bureaucratic red tape and the possibility that the Bhoys may not have been taking the tournament as seriously as they might have done, combined to ensure that Celtic turned up a man short.

A 22-year-old unused central defender from home side Albion Rovers stepped from the sidelines to rise to the challenge and donned the green and white Hoops for the first time...

The guest player won a wallet that day - it wasn’t to be the last prize he won with Celtic and it’s hardly the highest flight of the imagination to surmise that thousands of us, players and fans alike, still profit from the myriad of treasures that wallet unleashed.

For that young ungainly defender was Jock Stein. It was 20 years later that he walked through the hallowed portals of Paradise as Celtic manager and things were never quite the same again.

Stein started as a 16-year-old with Blantyre Vics and within four years he was on his way to Albion Rovers. These days, Cliftonhill can hardly be described as a Mecca for the crème de la crème of the beautiful game’s talent or the weekend’s most optimistic customers

Back in the early post-war years under the old two-division set-up, things weren’t much better for the Coat bridge side but they did gain promotion for season 1948/49 to earn a fleeting liaison with the top flight.