John Hughes, legend who wore his heart on his sleeve

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I got to know John Hughes through his good friend, CQN’s own, Alex Gordon.  He was in his 70s by then, but retained a charm and mischievousness.  He loved talking football and, in particular, Celtic, who he continued to follow as a fan.  Unlike you and I, when John talked Celtic, there was an edge that could only come from playing for the club you loved.

Had he cared less, missing out on Lisbon would not have mattered.  It did, though, you could hear the pain in his voice when talking about it.  The five European Cup games he played that season, however, brought the team to the final.  A chance not converted three years later in Milan also troubled him; John wanted to deliver for Celtic as much as anyone ever did.  He scored the equaliser in Celtic’s home semi-final at Hampden against Leeds, front of 136,000 people, which will forever remain an attendance record for a European Cup match.

I often found the Lisbon Lions faultlessly diplomatic.  John, however, told it as it was.  Some of his experiences cut too deep to bandage over.  Fans recount the past through the prism of football results, for players like John, memories of events past were about what you were like as a person.  I am glad we had his testimony to eventually add to the annuls of Celtic history.

On the park, he was a Bear of a man.  A striker with strength whose record as goal scorer is bettered by only seven others in Celtic’s illustrious 134-year history.  He took the club through its most transformational time, the 1960s, when Celtic went from being domestic also-rans to kings of Europe.

For most of us, the most enduring memory of John will not be of a prolific footballer, it will be of a smiling legend we met at Celtic Park.  The Celtic world is enormously poorer today; how lucky we were to have such heroes.  Our condolences to John’s family and close friends.

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304 Comments

  1. I make that 3 CL qualifiers and 3 defeats for the newco. These qualifiers are a world away from Europa football, that’s the harsh truth.

  2. TB- unfortunately no subtitles on the radio for Hateley……kept giving it the royal….’we’,…..clown

  3. Reading one of their Media Partners.They are in this position because they lost the League to a shit Celtic team.They have now made it worse,by losing to a shit Belgian team.

     

     

    Her her hee,Everybody that’s shit beats them.

  4. garygillespieshamstring on

    Bada @ 10.24

     

     

    Didn’t someone once say “your grandchildren will be Celtic supporters” ?

  5. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Nice tribute indeed to Yogi by Crystal Palace.

     

     

    Thank you (?) for posting link.

     

     

    Kevin McKenna’s op ed of Iain Bankier?

     

     

    Personally think he overcooked it a bit.

     

     

    If he’d restricted his piece to the first four paragraphs and the last six?

     

     

    I think that would have landed better.

     

     

    Agree with the key sentiment though.

     

     

    Calling his tenure uninspiring is, IMHO, neither unfair or untrue.

  6. 442 park the bus on

    THE EXILED TIM on 2ND AUGUST 2022 9:44 PM

     

    L67-TB

     

    Mr Stein said and I paraphrase, “we need to score than the oppo to take the referees out of the equation” sixty plus years later they are still cheating us, maybes it really is about time our suits grew a pair, or even one would be enough >:)

     

    “““““`

     

    We would need supporters with a pair to get rid of the lounge lizard plc grifters who don’t have a pair, and replace the lounge lizards with non lounge lizards, but where do we get them?

     

    We’ve got supporters who get mugged by every cheap punk who fancies their chances with them!

     

    Oh but their all well educated now, judges, lawyers, doctors, journalists, scientists, political correspondents, and below them are well educated business owners, chefs, restraunt and pub owners, digital scientists, etc, but, where are the street fighters, the nobodies mugs squadrons, the burn the park down if necessary provisional wing?

     

    There is not a pair of balls to be found in the entirety of Timdom.

     

    And all of our enemies are fully aware of that.

     

    Our, CELTIC supporters enemies, are Celtic & Rangers plc`s, SFA, SPFL, Scottish MSM, Scottish government, and Celtic supporters who say Rangers died then buy a £49 ticket which maintains the same club lie(SCL) and a general malaise of an underdog consciousness within the mindsets of 53k season ticket holders who financially justify a Celtic plc board which played a huge part in getting David Murray, and Rangers FC, virtually untouched after thieving 22+ trophies, and these 53k shouldn’t have purchased another season ticket until Res12 was brought to a positive conclusion.

     

    Celtic supporters have become the hungry, outlaws, outcasts, who got rich and became, lazy, and fat, and smug, and conceited, nd got so far up themselves that they’ve forgotten who heir actually meant to be, and to such an extent that the plc lizard grifters know that they can bring back Peter Lawwell and today’s Timdom with all of its clever clogs supporters, won’t lay a single glove on the plc.

     

    When season book money, for this season, is banked before, last season had even ended, then the plc has Timdom by the balls!

     

    But hardly any Celtic supporters outside of CQN has even heard of Res12, even till this day.

     

    We have a majority of fans whom if asked,….

     

    “In your view of all things Celtic, what’s more important to you, mantaining a Celtic fc which retains its integrity, and its unique legendary status, which would ensure that Celtic fc`s status as a stand alone club, would never be severed, OR, you retaining your season ticket?”

     

    Most fans would retain their tickets.

     

    Liverpool, ManUtd fans cheering for, and voting for, Jeremy Corbyn, whilst Celtic supporters were voting for a wee sleekit clique of lying, sexual deviants, who couldn’t make it any clearer that they detest everything about Celtic, even trying to put them in jail, all of this showing that Liverpool and and ManUtd fans where still to this day, working class socialists, whilst Celtic fans have become woke, bogey men merchants, deflectors, a big boy did it and ran away types of characters, whataboutery fobiaists, never getting to the point, identity politically inured into a lazy, swamp, of a bitchfest, were decency is dumped at the door, going inside a door that will lead them to who knows where?

     

    hh

  7. I don’t think the Dynamo Kyiv / Kiev fans will be cheering for JC after his car crash interview.

     

    The weak shouldn’t fight back — they should just lie down and take it.

     

    Tough gig to sell that to the working class.

     

    At the moment anyway.

     

     

    2017 seems so far away now.

     

     

    Stop the War was very silent for far too long — I wonder why?

     

    At best they have run out of road — self loathing to order only gets you so far.

     

    At worst they have quite a few paid shills / voices winding up the useful idiots.

     

     

    Now they want the Martians to come in and hold the jackets.

     

    Asking the Middle East to sort out the Southern steppes?

     

    They do have experience to be fair.

     

     

    But it will cost — usually 10K ransom slaves per year back in the day.

     

    Unworldly is the best I can come up with.

     

    Again 2017 is so far away.

     

    Another world.

  8. Huns get gubbed 2 – 0

     

    Unionists pegged.

     

     

    Popcorn needin more Popcorn

     

     

    Lols

  9. Good morning all from County Garngad.

     

     

    BRRB – Have a nice break.

     

     

    What a laugh last night, they will probably still go through but you never know.

     

     

    D :)

  10. Melbourne Mick on

    Hello again all you young rebels.

     

     

    Another one of our legends has gone, but same as the rest, the

     

    great John ( Yogi ) Hughes will never be forgotten.

     

    Met the great mhan a couple of times, one when two daft bhoys

     

    running up to Firhill when Celtic were playing Thistle in a sold

     

    out game hoping to get a ticket from anywhere.

     

    John had retired a few years earlier and was heading through a

     

    bit of spare ground to the game.

     

    “ Is that no big Yogi ?

     

    “ Who else could it be that size ?

     

    “ mon we’ll talk tae him “

     

    “ Naw just give him peace “

     

     

    “ Hey bhoys have youse got tickets for the game ?

     

    here you go “

     

    Couldn’t believe it, a legend, an Icon, a ghod, just offered us tickets.

     

    Don’t think the big fhella would have got any more compliments

     

    from anybody about his soccer prowess than we gave him that night.

     

     

    A extraordinary player because of his size, power, speed and ability

     

    and of course his love of the Celtic.

     

    I know I’ll never see a player like him again, but I hope all you young

     

    dudes are lucky enough to .

     

    RIP JOHN ( Yogi ) HUGHES.

  11. Tom McLaughlin on

    I remember standing at the wall at the front of the stand enclosure as a wee bhoy watching Celtic play. I was 9 or 10.

     

     

    Beside me were two old ladies. They must’ve been about 25. John Hughes was running up and down the left wing in front of us.

     

     

    At one point he came towards us to collect the ball for a Celtic throw-in. One of the old ladies said to the other, “He’s like Elvis isn’t he?”

     

     

    On the way back to the supporters bus I asked my dad, “Who’s Elvis?”

  12. Melbourne Mick on

    TOM MCLAUGHLIN

     

     

    😂 Nice one Tom, but don’t think the Hearts player was born then 🤪

     

    H.H. Mick

  13. MADMITCH on 3RD AUGUST 2022 1:05 AM

     

    I don’t think the Dynamo Kyiv / Kiev fans will be cheering for JC after his car crash interview.

     

     

     

     

    The weak shouldn’t fight back — they should just lie down and take it.

     

     

    ###

     

     

     

    Have you seen the interview?

     

     

    Do you have a link to the interview?

     

     

    Do you have any direct quotes from the interview?

     

     

    If not where are you basing your comment on?

  14. THE RETURNOF WEERON on 2ND AUGUST 2022 9:35 PM

     

    “All of which is to say…I wouldn’t put too much weight on the willingness or ability of a Chair appointment. the only Chair that impressed me was Brian Quinn.”

     

     

    Why? Because he’s a “Celtic Man”

     

     

    Brian Quinn”s chairmanship was the start of “The Slow Lane”

     

     

    Brian Quinn was a typical “Square Mile Operator” who was put in place by DD to stop managers from spending money and bring us back to profit and accountability. He wasn’t good for us the supporters, but, I can’t think of any past chairman who was, por cierto.

  15. I KNOW the huns COULD still go through but, IF they don`t, what does it mean financially for both THEM and us?

     

     

    PS Although they make my post look a bit Madmitch-ish, I felt the capitals were helpful :-))

  16. Almost spat my coffee out watching wee Goo’s post match interview on prem sports this morning. He said Union sat back at times and that was a sign of fear ! My goodness, self awareness, where are you, my old friend ?

     

     

    The huns look devoid of any coherent game play when up against a well organised team that know when to sit back.

     

     

    Anyone that rates their chances of progress should get to a bookies, they’re 7/2 to qualify now.

  17. I didn’t see the huns last night but they may be a victim of their own Euro success.

     

     

    1. Teams don’t see them a pushover like Dortmund did and are more cautious

     

    2. they sold their 2 best performers in the Europa run

     

     

    From our point of view, we need to be flexible domestically this season as our style is now well known but in Europe we will not be seen as a threat based on the last 2 years so may surprise a few teams

  18. Wee Gvb reminds me of the spitting image David Steel puppet hanging out David owens pocket.

     

     

    BRRB

     

    Enjoy your travels,I will be asking questions on coming back so try limit the black stuff intake :-))

     

     

    HH

  19. MELBOURNE MICK , think you and big Jimmy should get together and write a book of anecdotes.

     

    I know I would buy a copy :)