A great story of the magnitude of Jock Stein and how much he achieved on and off the pitch for the city of Glasgow.
In 1956, after a heavy defeat to Rangers it became clear that Celtic could no longer challenge for the title that year.
A successful and much loved Celtic team was coming to the end of its days- with Stein, Peacock, Evans and Tully etc, a mix of catholic and Protestant player crowned as league champions 2 years before and Coronation Cup winners in 53 and celebrated as a victory for diversity in fractious times, all nearing the end of their careers
After that defeat fans favourite Tully, brought up in a Catholic community in the even more divided city of Belfast, was incensed - pointing to Stein and other Protestant players blaming them for defeat and saying “we need to get rid of these orange b*****s if we want to win anything.”
Stein jumped up and attacked Tully, punching him across the dressing room before grabbing him by the throat until his face turned blue- only stopping when Irish hard man Sean Fallon got in between the pair- possibly saving Tully’s life but also making it clear to him his rant was unacceptable and pointing out the success of the “mixed team” as it was known then in Glasgow.
The incident caused a major split in the dressing room that would never be healed- Tully apologised to the team for his comments but him and Stein never really spoke again off the park and Stein left the club around 6 months later.
He of course returned as the club’s first non-Catholic manager around a decade later- when Celtic were going through another slump and again calls were starting to come to make it “all Catholic” side in response to the apparent success of Rangers and their “no catholics” policy at the time- but Stein dug his heels in and insisted on keeping their founding principles of being a club “open to any race, religion or nationality” and was vital in the club retaining this policy.
In 1967, with a squad almost made up of a 50/50 split between religions, Stein led Celtic to the European Cup in Lisbon.
In 1971, Tully passed away at the tragically young age of 47 in his home of Belfast- during a particularly violent period of “the Troubles”- a few days later Stein received a letter from Tully written from his death bed- thanking Stein for the “lesson” he taught him that day in 56 and “proving to everyone that bigotry is for fools” with his all conquering side before admitting he was always too proud to apologise in person and always regretted it before ending the letter with a request for Stein to carry his coffin at his funeral.
Stein was only to happy to accept, however the infamously brutal Northern Ireland police force the RUC visited Celtic and warned them that no current or former players or managers were to travel to Belfast “under any circumstances” as they “couldn’t guarantee their safety” such was the profile of the club
But the legendary manager ignored their advice and risked arrest by secretly travelling to the funeral under a false name and, in a show of defiance even bringing along his young captain Billy McNeill, and showing respect to his old pal by carrying his coffin as requested. [FOUR LEAF CLOVER]
“Jock Stein was many things to many people; he was the man who stood with pickets during the miners’ strike of 1985 telling ‘scab’ drivers that they were doing good people out of a job. He was the man who stayed behind at Ibrox after the disaster of 1971 to tend to the injured and dying. He was the man who entered the crowded terraces at a Celtic away game to tell fans that there were enough good Celtic songs without adding politics or bigotry to their repertoire. And most of all he was the all-conquering manager who made a team born of an impoverished migrant community the best in Europe.” -
Post taken from the fitbaw bible on fb.
Gesendet von meinem Redmi Note 8 Pro mit Tapatalk
von McCeltic » Di 23. Apr 2019, 17:46 
Eine ganz schwere Woche für unseren Verein, aber man wird halt nicht jünger.
