SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

As I said yesterday,it’s good to be a Tim.  More accurately perhaps,good to be a Celtic supporter. Four years ago,the citizens of Lisbon could not believe that around 7000 of us descended on their city despite the fact that there wasn’t a game on.

Just like fifty years before,not an arrest. Same in Seville with nearly 100,000 of us,no trouble at all.

We take our love of the club wherever we feel like it,and we wear that like a badge of honour.  Not even a need for self-policing usually,though it is becoming a worrying trend.

But our influence on the game goes back a lot longer than the events above,and a lot deeper too. Many of us will be aware of the story of Johnny Madden because of the lustrous wordsmithery of BROGAN ROGAN TREVINO AND HOGAN. He told the tale of the great man via a wee tale of Lubo signing for Dr Jo. If you haven’t read it,you should.

The tale of Lubo and Joe —– and the old man in the park! | Strandsky Tales & Stories (wordpress.com)

Johnny kicked the first ball for Celtic,played for us for a number of medal-laden years,then decided to moved to the Czech part of Austria-Hungary about 1905. He then turned Slavia Prague into a machine. To the extent that when the European clubs ran a competition in,erm,competition to the inaugural cup in 1930,Slavia were runners-up.

Johnny is known and respected to this day as the father of the game in his adopted country. A country that was known for its skill,even if there were few occasions when they could show that on the wider stage abroad.

So it was that I opened an article about another forgotten man who was pivotal in the foundation of the game in not one,but two,nearby countries. And at just about the same time. Altough the article was about an administrator called Mr Shires,the name that jumped out at me in that article was Jimmy Hogan. I’ll post it a link to that later,but here’s one via CELTICWIKI.

Hogan, Jimmy – Right Man, Wrong Time – The Celtic Wiki

Jimmy Hogan was doing in Austria and Hungary exactly the same as Johnny Madden had done a few years before. And anyone who knows their football-awright,anyone who got the Topical Times at Christmas and Shoot every week-knows that the interwar years showed Austria to be damnnear unbeatable,and that Hungary were not far behind them.

Even after the war.

So,Jimmy Hogan,why the article?

Jimmy was hired by Bob Kelly in 1948. He was 67yo by then,a good number even if he didn’t realise it at the time. It seems that a number of the players did not appreciate the different approach from Jimmy. We didn’t have internet then,so his legend would likely be unknown. But Tommy Docherty-infamous for his indiscipline!-adored him and listened. Indeed,he called him the best coach the world had ever seen.

Charlie Tully sat down and paid attention.

And so too did Bertie Peacock,Sean Fallon and…

Jock Stein.

Those last three in particular are known for finishing training and hitting a restaurant or café and talking tactics and strategy. Cruet sets,cups and saucers,anything was fair game. I wonder,reading back about the sadly unlamented Jimmy Hogan,just how much input he had to the thoughts of those three giants of our club.

My Dad calls the days before 1965 The Famine Years,and he certainly has a point. But there was a wee few glory days in the 50s. And I am pretty damn sure that they came from the people who listened to Jimmy Hogan.

Jock   and Sean listened and learned. Like Alex Ferguson did with Jock,they did with Jimmy.

Jimmy Hogan is an afterthought in Celtic’s history. I genuinely believe he should be a legend.

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Above article by BMCUWP