On the evening of 25 May 1967 in the Estadio Nacional outside Lisbon, Celtic Football Club became the first British team to win the European Cup. They beat Internazionale of Milan 2-1, coming from behind after Sandro Mazzola’s penalty gave Inter the lead in the seventh minute. Tommy Gemmell equalised in the 63rd minute with a shot that went in off the post. Stevie Chalmers redirected a Murdoch shot six minutes from time. The final whistle produced scenes that people who were there have spent the rest of their lives trying to describe adequately.
What made the achievement specific to Glasgow, and specifically to a particular understanding of what Glasgow is, was a fact that Jock Stein mentioned in every interview he gave about it for the rest of his life: every single player who took the field that night – all eleven – was born within 30 miles of Celtic Park.
Jock Stein and the Rebuild
Stein had taken over a Celtic side in 1965 that was mid-table, trophy-less for years and directionless. He had previously managed Dunfermline and Hibernian, winning the Scottish Cup with Dunfermline in 1961 in one of the great upsets of the era. At Celtic he worked with a squad he had not assembled, took them to the Scottish title in his first season, and then in 1966-67 achieved something that had never been done: Celtic won every competition they entered. The Scottish league, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, and the European Cup. They also won the Glasgow Cup. Five trophies from five competitions.
The team was built on principles that Stein articulated clearly: attack, movement, using the width of the pitch. Inter under Helenio Herrera played catenaccio – defensive, organised, difficult to break down. They had won the European Cup in 1964 and 1965. The tactical contrast between the sides was total, and Stein had prepared for it with a specificity that his players remembered in detail decades later.
The Players
Ronnie Simpson in goal was 36, a veteran who had been at Celtic as a backup keeper for years. Tommy Gemmell at left back was the scorer of the equaliser – an overlapping full back before that was a standard tactical concept. Bobby Murdoch in midfield was considered by many who watched him one of the finest players of his generation, under-recognised because he played in Scotland. Jimmy Johnstone on the right wing was the magician of the side: small, quick, technically extraordinary, terrifying to play against. Stevie Chalmers, the man who scored the winner, had nearly died of tuberculosis as a child.
None of them had grown up wealthy. Most came from working-class families in Lanarkshire, Glasgow’s East End or the surrounding mining communities. The European Cup was won by a team that looked, in demographic terms, like the people in the stands who were watching them.
The Aftermath
Celtic reached the European Cup final again in 1970, losing to Feyenoord. The Lions were gradually dispersed – retirements, sales, the natural end of a generation. Jock Stein remained as manager until 1978, winning nine consecutive league titles between 1966 and 1974. He died in September 1985, minutes after Scotland had qualified for the World Cup, on the touchline in Cardiff.
The statue of Jock Stein stands outside Celtic Park. The European Cup sits in the trophy room inside the stadium, next to photographs of the players who won it for a club that had been founded in 1888 to raise money for the poor of Glasgow’s East End. The 30-mile radius is still cited. It means something specific: that this was done with local people, by local people, for the city that made them.
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