AMERICA proved to the the perfect launch pad for Celtic’s spectacular 1966/67 season when Jock Stein’s all-conquering heroes achieved unparalled success.
Billy McNeill and Co were unstoppable as they blitzed the opposition home and abroad to win EVERY tournament in which they competed.
The domestic treble was won in swashbuckling style before Big Jock’s juggernaut brought down the curtain on a glorious crusade with the historic European Cup triumph in Lisbon on May 25 1967.
The Hoops even threw in the Glasgow Cup for good measure!
In another CQN EXCLUSIVE, author Alex Gordon rolls back the years with an extract from his best-selling tribute book, ‘That Season in Paradise‘, which was published by CQN in 2016.
Please enjoy Part Three of your walk down memory lane!
BOBBY LENNOX, with 10 strikes in the first three games, couldn’t stop scoring on Celtic’s marathon one-month tour of America in the summer of 1966.
In the fourth outing at the Varsity Stadium in Toronto in front of 20,000 fans, the lightning-swift raider got the only goal of the game to defeat Spurs.
The voracious little forward struck 16 minutes from time and Jock Stein’s dedication to winning – even friendlies far from home – was demonstrated when he put on Jimmy Johnstone for John Hughes in the 70th minute.
The White Hart Lane club’s assistant boss Eddie Bailey, with manager Bill Nicholson remaining in England, was incensed at the substitution. He believed there had been a pre-match agreement that fresh players would only be introduced to replace an injured colleague.
Completely unfazed, Stein replied: “Yogi had a knock and, in fact, shouldn’t even have played in the first place.”
Bailey was rendered speechless; no-one had noticed Celtic’s giant winger in any distress during his hour-plus performance. In fact, Hughes was in the starting line-up for the next outing four days later against Hamilton Primo in Ontario.
CENTRE OF CONTROVERSY…John Hughes upset Spurs on States tour.
Bobby Lennox, as anticipated, took centre stage with a four-goal spree in an 11-0 walkover. Bobby Murdoch knocked in a hat-trick, Joe McBride, two, and Tommy Gemmell got others, but the individual who took the spotlight on this occasion was the unassuming quiet man of Parkhead, dependable sweeper John Clark.
Lennox recalled: “I scored four goals, but John got all the plaudits after that game because he, too, netted with the help of a penalty-kick. John didn’t score an awful lot, so the players made a fuss of him afterwards.”
Two evenings later, Celtic played Italian opposition in Bologna who had finished the season as runners-up to Inter Milan in Serie A, only four points adrift after their 34-game campaign.
The game was organised by the large Italian community in New Jersey and the occasion was marred by bottle-throwing from raging fans after star winger Giancarlo Merrone was sent off for persistent fouling in the 68th minute.
It finished goalless accompanied by a cloud burst throughout the second-half and veered close to a roughhouse on occasion. Billy McNeill missed the next game after receiving stitches in a gash on his brow.
The entire episode wasn’t aided by the fact it had been played on a surface at the Roosevelt Stadium that was more suited for baseball.
