Celtic have been synonymous with great goal scorers throughout their history, but only McGrory, Lennox, Larsson and Quinn scored more than Stevie Chalmers, who died this morning, aged 83. But, unlike all the other greats in our history, Stevie scored the winning goal in a European Cup Final. If he did nothing else in his entire time as a footballer, this would be enough to ensure a vaulted place in the history books, but Stevie did much more.
In a portent of what lay ahead, Celtic were without a league title for 12 years when Stevie scored a hat-trick against Rangers in January 1966. That feat boomed across the land: Celtic were in command. The next nine league titles would go to Parkhead. Goals galore followed for Stevie, who rejoiced in his role as Celtic centre forward.
Stevie’s journey to the top was unconventional. Serious illness blighted his early adulthood and he was 23 before he joined Celtic, his first senior club. He played through the difficult early 60s until the return of Jock Stein, whose magic sparked the most remarkable run of success known in British sport.
Like his great captain Billy McNeill, Stevie suffered dementia in recent years. Both lived the lives of Celtic supporters before becoming players and legends. Like all of that great team, Stevie remained accessible to fans throughout his life. They were magnificent on the field and magnificently normal human beings off the field. It was as though Stevie would never allow himself to believe the full impact of what he did.
April 2019 has taken its toll on our greatest team ever. Rest in Peace, Stevie.
We also lost one of our most respected CQN’ers yesterday, MurdochauldandHay. Rest in Peace, Stephen.
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Another legend leaves us.
What a sad week.
RIP STEVIE CHALMERS THE CELTIC No 9.
☘☘☘☘☘☘☘☘☘?
Leftfield comment of the weekend — something about a big announcement regarding the club in a couple of months …
Not about the manager but about our place in world.
Moving to England — might be old news but it was a new angle to me.
Summer 2019 — We give the SFA et al 2 years notice that we are going.
Two years still to play in the SPL which points to some interesting challenges ahead.
Based on a couple of things:
DD and his arbitrage ways — not big on growth just transformation.
The hoarding of cash — this will cost us a lot of revenue over a few years so we will need some funds.
Best way forward for the club as the SFA / Media / MIB ludge antics are starting to grate.
Payback for the loss of a CL campaign / Res 12 stuff.
More of the same is not good enough long term.
Political dimension — Nat bashing means the FA / EPL might be more receptive.
As always there are a number of issues that would make it difficult:
What level do we join — League 2 / National or some sort of EPL2 that has been rumoured.
How welcome would be down-south — recent games have attracted the wrong headlines.
The loss of EU football for quite a few years.
Do we leave a team behind in the SPL?
Our newly formed CUZ cohort haven’t helped.
Plus there seems to be a concerted campaign by Yaxley-Lennon to generate trouble.
However lots of moons need to align for this to be anywhere near real.
Consequently interesting rumour with a very short shelf life — June should tell all.
Just back from sunny, sad Celtic Park…big Billy’s shrine continues to grow. Stevie’s passing makes it even harder to take…
Oddly, someone asked how many of Inter’s players have passed on…
It’s amazing how much of one’s life is intertwined with Celtic…
God Bless the Lisbon Lions…
Who is responsible for deciding if Defoe should be cited?
JJ
Tony Rome…my friend, those who stood yesterday with arms folded…that is ‘scum’…
Regards…
MM
Coupla things:
First up – The 66-74 team was in reality two teams. The Lions compared to Atletico ’74 shows it clearly:
Simpson, Craig, McNeill, Clark, Gemmell, Murdoch, Auld, Johnstone, Lennox, Wallace and Chalmers, with Fallon on the bench
became
Connaghan, Hay, Brogan, Murray, McNeill, McCluskey, Johnstone , Hood, Deans, Callaghan and Dalglish, with Hunter, Wilson, McGrain and Lennox on the bench.
It’s an often overlooked aspect of Stein’s ability that he made one of the greatest teams on earth, then remade a new team that was almost as good.
Secondly – I’ll eat my bunnet if June brings news of anything remotely akin to Celtic moving to England. I’ll add, it would be a great pleasure to dine on it in the circumstances.
Hot Smoked 2.53pm
Craig Thompson will just say he saw it … no further action required, yellow card offences no retrospective action
HOT SMOKED
SFA via SMSM
No chatter, no referral
https://twitter.com/grandetoro1949/status/1122822769824153601?s=21
Says so much about the man.
MWD
TBB @ 3.04
I was there when RS led out the full LL’s for the last time — Clyde in 1970.
Not really that old — first game.
I think JS was allowed one major player a season to improve the squad.
Plus the reserves / QSG came good from 1970 onwards with DH being the first to get a regular game.
Looking back a severe case of what could have been.
Lesson to be learned by some currently in the exec level.
What a sad sad week for the Celtic Family RIP Stevie Chalmers YNWA
GFTB on 29TH APRIL 2019 3:07 PM
Hot Smoked 2.53pm
Craig Thompson will just say he saw it … no further action required, yellow card offences no retrospective action
McKenna got done after cleaning Eddy out at CP,with Madhun watching on,but we know they pick and choose whatever suits them HH
MWD- Thanks for sharing that,lovely story
We’ve got Stevie Chalmers – number 9
We’ve got the best team in the land.
RIP
GFTB
Itd be a dull world if we all thought the same, im still hoping for a young maldini type, but im sure we can agree that its all about the partnership at the back that matters as opposed to their individual talents so we’ll see in the summer hopefully.
RIP Stevie Chalmers – Lisbon Lion
YNWA
Sad to hear of the passing of CQNr Murdoch Auld Hay. Rest in Peace and prayers for you.
RIP Stevie Chalmers .
My earliest memory of him was seeing all the photos of him in the sunday papers scoring the fourth goal in the 1969 scottish cup final. He went on a long run on the left cut inside and nonchalantly chipped the ball in at the keeper’s near post. He was an athletic player, Never seemed to get ruffled and always stayed focussed. I have stood in the spot ,like so many others on here, where he struck the winner in the Estadio Nacional and it was special. Up there with Big Billy and the other Lions he knows home much he was loved down here and 83 years is fantastic. Condolences to his son Paul Chalmers who played for St Mirren as a chip off the old block number 9. Sad start to any week.
GFTB
Do you think Craig Thomson will get away with saying he saw it all the way from Easter Road?
What do you think Don Robertson will say? ?
GTTS 3.36pm
We might have 2 young Maldini’s in our midst…
Kieran & Kristoffer :-)
Sid 3.51pm :-)
Don, Craig, Steven they are all the same…. although I know who wasn’t the ref … wee Willie isn’t allowed to ref hyphen these days
I actually posted yesterday about Don’s Sevco v Aberdeen debut but I don’t even pay attention to my own posts
https://youtu.be/X0Q2abMq5_0
Saturday’s tribute..
MA&H doing what he did best.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/61614987@N07/8021402333/in/dateposted/
MWD
Bada 3.25pm
Walker & co on sky were quick to point out Defoe was guilty but only a yellow card offence …. the fact is missed he would have walked later in the game if the rules were applied, but as you rightly point out … rules are applied differently
Condolences to the Chalmers family and friends ….rest in peace Stevie…he was honourary president of the St Fergus Celtic supporters club Forfar…..a great pal of Father Eugene O`Sullivan who started the club….Stevie and John Clark were often at dances in the chapel hall….he will be sadly missed but never forgotten…..he was a braw braw loon….
NB.
I never met Steve Chalmers but his reputation for decency, humility & goodness was known in some of my other non Celtic circles.
After Steve had retired from football, I worked for a few years at a place in Paisley owned/managed by a man from Bishopbrigss and his sons.
He found out that I was a Celtic fan and after a wee while confessed that he knew Steve Chalmers. Turns out that he & Steve were members of the same golf club, Bishopbriggs as I recall. This older, very traditional man from a strict Presbyterian background told me that Stevie “Chammers” was a real gentleman, a very thoughtful person & a good golfer – a really nice man that all members thought very highly of.
Thanks for all that you did for Celtic Steve, on and off the pitch.
YNWA
Stevie was a true working class hero and he epitomised all that was good with the club. He signed for us 15 month after hampden in the sun and truly lived through the years in the wilderness.
One of his main attributes was his never say die attitude, in one dreadful game at Parkheid only 18 months after his debut when earlier in that season we had beat deidco in the Glasgow Cup and away in a League Cup sectional game only to lose 1-2 at hame in a truly durty game where after Stevie had given us an early lead he was eventually cautioned for retaliating against one too many slim jim fouls. They literally kicked a young Celtic team off the park.
So the following week due to injuries sustained an equally younger Celtic forward line, Stevie at 23 was the oldest while a 17 year old Bear the youngest, took to the field.
We were absolutely thumped 1-5 with big John Kurila bearing the brunt of the loss. Although only 1 down at the half in which Stevie hit both the crossbar and post the roof fell in with 25 minutes to go and yet five down with one minute to go the never say die Stevie scored our consolation goal, that was the manner of the mhan.
In one of his meagre international appearances against Brazil in which he opened the scoring for the home side Stevie was awarded Pele’s jersey at the end of the game.
It was a tradition he did after every game to the player who impressed him the most, this was a Scotland side containing greig, mckinnon, baxter, scott, wee Billy Bremner, Peter Cormack, who allegedly turned down a move tae us so we signed Wispy instead, and the wonderful and surely Inverclyde’s finest player Charlie Cooke.
It was also 11 month before Lisbon so he had no idea who Stevie was or Luggy for that matter who marked him out of the game.
I could write tomes more about Stevie, like Bobby Evans another of my mother’s favourites, true working class heroes, however, here are a couple of wee bits of useless information here:
Stevie’s da David played for Clydebank along with a fellow Garngader on loan fae us, James Edward, one of only 3 centre forwards fae the good and the bad tae play for Scotland.
He was 31 when he scored THAT goal in Lisbon, at that time an age when most players were winding down their careers.
He was approaching his 34th birthday when he broke his leg in the LC Final causing him tae miss Milan, a bit like BBJ and Seville, what if, hmmm.
He was 35 when he left us and continued playing in the first division until the age of 39 when he retired although he did play briefly for St Roch the following season.
Like his captain Big Billy a true Celtic legend, RIP Thomas Stephen Chalmers.
As to who will be managing Celtic next season.
It sometimes appoears that NFL is behaving like it will be him & he knows it.
– Refusing to field loanees so as to assess exactly who we have BUT who’ll also be with us next season.
– His trip to Paris last week to assess a player there
Circumstantially, how difficult would it be for him to manage a nervous & misfiring Celtic team towards the finishing line if he knew or reasonably suspect that he was not going to get the gig permanently?
As for Moyes & Morinho…Both are members of the same club already.
Failed at ManUtd Club.
Moyes is more likely ot be amenable to a fiscally prudent Celtic board. But his antecedents are all UK based & he has an inconsistent record. Success at Preston & Everton but failure at ManU & West Ham.
Morinho would be a huge challenge for our board & as much as I think he’d shale the place up & get us on the right track he’d more than likely walk away if the board started any nonsense with him & his plans. he’d want even more control than BR had.
We need continuity but not so that we settle for whatever plateau we’re on at the moment. Good managers understand the need to match existing expectaions & resources with a new way forward so that they bring all along with them.
HH
MurdochAuldand Hay……condolences to those who love you and hold you close…
you will never walk alone ….
NB
In the heat of Lisbon
via celticbynumbers
Hats, scarves, newspapers, jackets all went up in the air when Steve Chalmers bamboozled Sarti with that deft flick for that history making winner in ’67. RIP
Taken fro a Scottish rag….
Celtic’s lead on safe standing set to be followed by host of Premier League big guns
A law-change is needed but clubs in the English top flight are growing increasingly confident they will be able to follow the Parkhead side’s lead.
Dear Jermain,
Why did you punch Aberdeen’s Joe Lewis is the face?
Asking for a friend.
Stevie Chalmers used to live in Easterhouse and used to go to mass in his wee Volkswagen
It was when Easterhouse was a new scheme and the mass was held in the school dinner room. One day when Stevie and his wife were going up for communion they asked me I was 12 at the time if I would hold their baby it was their first child
The parish priest at the time was father McGinn brother of Celtics future director. As fate would have it we moved to Canada and my son ended up marrying as we found out later was Father McGinns nephews daughter
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 29TH APRIL 2019 5:12 PM
Dear Jermain,
Why did you punch Aberdeen’s Joe Lewis is the face?
Asking for a friend.
Twice…..
They say our youth is restored when we get to the Promiosed Land and I imagine Steve and Billy will be first choice picks in St Peter’s team up above.
Dudu Dahan was involved in a number of transfers during Neil Lennon’s first stint as manager and still represents Bitton.Dahan represents Hibs keeper Ofir Marciano, and looks to have come to Scotland for the Edinburgh derby as he was spotted with the shot-stopper after the game.
Celtic are also holding contract talks with Bitton and that too could be the reason for Dahan’s trip to Parkhead.
Hi Bhoys
RIP Stevie Chalmers the mhan who sparked the biggest party Elderslie has ever seen.
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CELTICROLLERCOASTER
Sorry I can’t make MA&H funeral. I’ve got one tomorrow and no way would I be given another day off this week.
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weebobbycollins on 29th April 2019 3:02 pm
Tony Rome…my friend, those who stood yesterday with arms folded…that is ‘scum’…
Regards…
No arguement there BOBBY
KEEP THE FAITH
DD,BT OLDTIM RITCHIE is BLANE VALLEY ok for friday or is it cancelled because of funeral ?? I am coming up for funeral and will call in to pick up my whisky flagons.also meeting up with WEE GEORGE and GABRIEL.