As Inter Milan walked onto the Estadio Nacional that Thursday evening in May 1967, they were strong favourites to win their third European Cup in four seasons. They had been denied in 1966 by eventual winners, Real Madrid, in controversial circumstances. Revenge would be extracted in the 1967 semi-final, where Inter beat Real home and away.
That team, immortalised as La Grande Inter, were top of the league and expected to win their fourth Italian title in five seasons, their only loss in that period coming after a play-off.
Real Madrid dominated the European Cup for its first five seasons, but they won only two domestic titles in that period. No team had been such a formidable force at La Grande Inter. Real of the 50s were Continental celebrities, Inter were dominant on a whole new level. Not only were they feared, they were disliked for their oppressive defensive style of play, known as catenaccio.
Across Europe, no one gave Celtic a chance, but thousands in Scotland knew better. Celtic fans knew theirs was a special team. The previous two years were remarkable. Celtic won only three titles in 40 years. They were a novelty team winning little more than novelty titles.
Jock Stein arrived from Hibernian and the world changed. The league was won, then retained for the first time in 50 years, as the club won their first treble. After a long period of desolation, it seemed anything was possible for Celtic. There were no limits.
Celtic didn’t just win the European Cup, they destroyed Inter, ripping apart their imperious reputation. Catenaccio, the belief that the most effective way to play the game was to defend, was dead. Instead, pure, beautiful, football, played by a team born entirely in the Glasgow urban area, saved the game as a spectator sport.
You and I know our founding story well, but there is another founding story. Modern Celtic, the confident football club, which wins trophies and builds structures for its future, was born on 25 May 1967. Without Jock and the Lisbon Lions, nothing that we currently know about Celtic would have happened.
They inspired you and me. They also inspired Brendan Rodgers, Neil Lennon and Martin O’Neill. Without them, Fergus McCann would not have imagined what the right management could achieve.
Brother Walfrid put food on the table of impoverished children, but the hundreds of thousands helped by the Celtic FC Foundation in recent decades are a direct product of the Lisbon Lions. They laid foundations for a modern football club which can fulfil its mission.
I was lucky enough to meet them all. Their humility is overwhelming. Unlike imposters who have followed them since, they have time for their generations of fans. They understand the importance of representing Celtic, even now.
It wasn’t all humility, though. On the field, they were hard. This was a team who took care of themselves and each other. They were (and are still) also funny, cheeky, guys. Devilment donned the hoops. Their success will be celebrated for as long as football is played.
Your life is better for them and it will remain better until the day you die. You are a child of the Lisbon Lions. Thank God for each of them.
Real Betis congratulates @celticfc for their amazing achievement!
Hail, Hail! #inVIncibles#GreenAndWhite pic.twitter.com/2RLg3bfk6a— Real Betis Balompié (@RealBetis_en) May 24, 2017
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Great post Paul 67 and a quality blog today, Brogan, yer a wordmeister:))
A great day; great posts. We are part of something special.
http://www.celticfc.net/news/12695
Sensible decision by the Club.
I thought that I might share a memory of 1967.
My father was a Celtic fan from Govan – there are more than a few of them you know. He joined up for World War Two and was posted, via Tern Hill, a few miles from Stoke, to North Africa and Italy. After the war he went back to North Staffordshire, where he had met my mother, married her and settled down. Universally known, in our corner of the Potteries at least, as ‘Jock’ McAulay, he drank regularly in the Red Lion where he was well known, possibly slightly feared, for his forthright views trenchantly expressed on politics (left wing), folk north of the border (hardy, intelligent, good at fotball) and football itself (liked Stanley Matthews, loathed Nobby Stiles, loved Celtic).
On the night of the Lisbon triumph he went off to the pub at his usual time of 10 pm only to find no-one, not a soul, in the bar. His fellow regulars been regaled for weeks with accounts of Stein and his genius, and predictions of glory. The prospect of articulate, rational and genuinely witty discourse on the theme of Scottish superiority and Celtic’s uniqueness was just too much, even for the hardened men of the Public Bar. They stayed home that night.
Pop Pickers. It’s Thursday 25th May 1967 .. new chart day
At number 10, it’s Something Stupid by Nancy and Frank Sinatra
(Maybe going to Lisbon seems stupid now, but wait until tonight)
Up from 15 to number 9 – we have the Jimi Hendrix Experience with The Wind Cries Mary
(The Jimmy Johnstone Experience made loads of us cry)
Going down to number 8 – Lulu with The Boat that I Row
(Did anyone have to row back from Lisbon?)
Up one place to number 7, THE DUBLINERS with Seven Drunken Nights
(Doubt it stopped at seven)
The Who fall from number 4 to 6 with their Pictures of Lily
(I prefer my Pictures of Billy)
Down from number 3, Sandie Shaw with her Eurovision entry Puppet on a String
(More Eurovision to come tonight but none of the performers will be puppets)
Rising 8 places to number 4, The Beach Boys who admit Then I Kissed Her
(Bet there were lots of confessions like this)
Now, we’re Dedicated to the One I Love with The Mammas and The Pappas at number 3
(Wrong title – should be Dedicated to the Eleven I Love)
Enjoying a Waterloo Sunset at number 2. it’s The Kinks
(Sunset for Herrera certainly)
Staying at Number 1 for the second week, it’s The Tremeloes who think that Silence is Golden
(Not much chance of that tonight)
————————————-
Thank you to all at Celtic in 1967.
Hello this is WEE BGFC. Happy national ‘Celtic’s the best team in the universe’ day my fellow tims!!!
Hello this is WEE BGFC. A safe trip back to York for favourite Uncle. Thanks again for the awesome 66-67 wee green book!
Its a sunkist 23.5 degrees in gloriously timmy North Lanarkshire :). The heavens are smiling today!!!
“Unlike many other Celts, I cannot claim that Celtic was my first love but I can say that it will be my last love.”
Jock Stein
Lynch’s are showing the full game today,same kickoff time
The bhoy and his pals are away doon for the party
HH
Every time I see the pictures of the Lisbon Lions it brings back that sense of anticipation I felt when I climbed up the steps up the back of the terracing and as I reached the peak, I gazed down upon the pitch and gazed upon the boys warming up on the park.
The strip was not this ever changing creation we get these days.
That magic of anticipation for some reason has never been the same since we were forced to drop the numbers off the shorts, I loved that. I don’t recall if we were the only club in the world to wear the numbers on our shorts but it certainly identified our club.
Maybe it was just me growing up….
The numbers on the shorts still bring back that ‘magic’ to me. I’d love to see them back again.
Inspirational post, Paul 67.
I remember the day well. At 10 years old I had just been to my first first team game, the cup final triumph v Aberdeen.
On the great day our family of six was joined in front of the black and white telly in the sitting room by two aunties and an uncle. One of the aunties had, sadly, lost her husband, a big Celtic fan, some months before.
The penalty was watched in anguished disbelief; the following 83 minutes were watched in optimistic rapture. I saw (stone cold sober) adults behave in such a way as I’d never seen before. At the final whistle we danced at the window, waving to our neighbours doing likewise across the road.
Me and my two big brothers ran across the street to the school playground just down the road to celebrate with our red plastic football covered in Celtic graffiti. We lasted about two minutes before the big hun jannie stormed out of his house and started chasing us. We outran him…..
Three utterances from my late father are etched in my memory:
‘You’ve got the world at your feet, wee man’ (to Jinky in possession)
‘So sad that Uncle ……. never got to see this day’
‘You boys will think it’s always like this but, believe me, there were years and years without trophies. Never forget this day’
We didn’t.
HH
25th May 1967.
Came off night shift and went to early Mass.
Home for a bit of kip.
Got up and went for a round of golf.
Watched a football match on TV.
;Followed this by getting thoroughly blitzed.
Were’nt us Old Timers the lucky ones.
“My proudest moment? Every Friday morning when I look at the board at Celtic Park and see my name on the team sheet for tomorrow’s game.”
Jock Stein
The story of the journey to Lisbon by Charlie Fryars is excellent. 10 years ago I was in Nantes studying for a year. Often used the TGV to Paris to see the then girlfriend (not Mrs Davidopoulos). I used to always grab a quick demi in the cafe at Gare de Nantes before boarding the train. I wonder how different it looked back in 1967.
I wonder if Ghislaine is still there… :)
*was not is
Afternoon champions ,unbeatables !!
Lionsroar67 thoughts are with you …get well soon..
And to Hana Skye I wish you a braw braw seventh birthday….give that Dad of yours a big Lisbon hug..
Christushimmelfahrt so all of Germany on holiday ,and the village partying outside my door…time to put the hoops on and spread the gospel according to Stein…
Awfy braw …
Braw.
ITALIABHOY on 25TH MAY 2017 7:02 AM
Like what BTSport have done with Scottish football. But Owen Hargreaves? Gee whizz, may as well have sat there wrapped in a St George’s Cross.
*That’ll be Calgary born Owen of an english da and Welsh mother who played in Germany for 7 years with Bayern Munich winning 4 titles and the Big Cup.
He could have played for his native country, the fatherland were he learned the game, Wales on account of his mother and one of his brothers or the birthplace of his da and his other brother.
BTW no too many Canadians claim england as the mother country anymore, that generation is well gone. Especially in Calgary where 78% of immigrants are what we used tae call minorities.
NEUSTADT-BRAW
Thank you mucker, it’s a holiday here too but the idea of the Swiss partying outside my door is as feasible as the Huns winning the league next season.))
Viel vernugen
https://thecelticblog.com/2017/05/blogs/happy-lions-day-a-celebration-that-reaches-across-the-generations/
Aye the locals love a braw bit of preaching…
I hope I son,t let them doon..
Smiley Lutheran thing …
Braw.
I played amateur football in my youth and didn’t get to a lot of Celtic games.
In August 1966, playing football, I ruptured my right achilles tendon. There was no quick fix in those days so I was out for the rest of the season.
I don’t think I missed a home game and got to some away games too!
Every cloud……………………….
I was going to post last night after the BBC Lions documentary, but I couldn’t stop crying.
So many lovely football memories from that time centred mostly around my Dad and Celtic.
He was a great Dad, loved his family, his faith and the Celtic.
He would have loved this time so much, yet he would have had sympathy for the huns and there predicament.
See, Da, ye wurny perfect efter awe!
But I still love and miss you!
Philbhoy
Starry I widnae be so sure thems will be there next season! Hahahahaha
Braw
Scorchio here in north staffs
I had a college exam that day so was home for 4 o’clock only to find our telly was broke – so me my dad and 4 brothers went round to my uncle’s to watch the game. Can remember sitting in the back row of chairs . Deflated after 10 mins – extatic after 90. Can see me now rolling about on the floor with my brother. Even my uncle and cousins who were not into football could not hide their joy. Best moments of my football supporting life.
God bless the Lisbon Lions
Davidopoulos,
Re my love affair in Nantes. The bar then was an old fashioned one, much like old railway bars here.
By coincidence I am in France now, near Rennes and not far from Nantes. Was a wee bit tempted to go until I saw the look in my wife’s eye, who’s a little peed of with the Ghislaine story.
Peed off
CHASBHOY
……………..so there’s no a happy ending?
:-(
More from the court:
Findlay “No sustainable business plan has ever won a football match”
Horne “I disagree”
Sounds lie a text on which Paul might base a wee article.
Chasbhoy ..I think we bridged that far!
Smiley French thing
Braw
Philbhoy,
Not then, but three years later I met my wife at Notre Dame College training as mature student teachers and we’ve been married for 43 years.
Coincidentally my son married a French girl and lives near Rennes, hence my visit here now. Might have picked a better week to go away!
Crowds gathering inside Estadio Nacional. The sun is splitting the skies. What a glorious sight. Big lump in my throat and not the least bit embarrassed.
God Bless The Celtic.
James Doleman @jamesdoleman 30m30 minutes ago
Findlay, the year before Rangers went out of the Champions League from a team from “of all places Lithuania”
Findlay: this shows how important Europe is financially. The next year knocked out by Malmö
Horne “Historically Rangers and Celtic will finish first or second, so you have a guaranteed income”
Findlay “Until you go to Lithuania”
KTF
See if yer a Hun, unfortunate enough to have been born on the 25th May, is it true that since Feb 2013 they can change their birthday by deid poll?
James Doleman @jamesdoleman 48s48 seconds ago
Findlay: “There was a man named Paul Murray who came up with a splendid plan, the bank wouldn’t want it’s money back’
Findlay: Johnson and Murray “didn’t have a clue…Mr King had his own issues..How was Murray letting these people run his football club?”
KTF
Horne “They were big Rangers guys, they seemed to fit the the bill”
KTF
Grenade incoming:
Findlay says Mr Johnson “probably illegally” increased the salary of the chief executive
Horne “I don’t know why Alistair did that’
Findlay: They didn’t know what they were doing?”
Horne “Not strictly fair..had good skillset, not equipped for the financial crisis”
KTF
Just loving the Blog. Soaking up the Lisbon nostalgia from whatever source it comes from.
kikinthenakas is a star, posting the best ever videos from the antics at Lisbon, absolutely love the big mhan but he is stone mad and he won’t mind a bit me saying that. By the way he made a brilliant post earlier. A pity he doesn’t post more often.
Only disappointment, Recorded the documentary last night from BBC but the timetables must have been out of sync and my recording came to an abrupt end even before footage of the game itself was shown.
Tried to watch it on BBC Player Link posted on site but that only works for the UK so no luck there.
If anyone has an idea of how I can watch the entire programme, I would be extremely grateful.
In the meantime I look forward to more personal reminiscences of the day. They are all brilliant & each one just a little bit special.
Sitting Home Alone a long way away but never felt closer to my fellow Celts & the Worldwide Celtic Community.