03 Mar 2021 12:17:37
Jock Stein's first game in charge was in March 1965 in a 6-0 victory away to Airdrie.
Jock started his managerial career at Celtic Reserves in 1957.
He was in charge of future Lisbon Lions Billy McNeill, John Clark and Bobby Murdoch.
In his first season the reserves won the cup by defeating Rangers 8-2 on aggregate.
Jock Stein was then appointed the Dunfermline manager in March 1960.
Dunfermline were struggling and they hadn't won a league game for 4 months and were only 2 points from the bottom of the league.
But Big Jock won his first 6 games in charge and saved the club from relegation.
The following season, Jock guided Dunfermline to the first ever Scottish Cup triumph by beating Celtic 2-0 in a replay.
In the next season Dunfermline reached the Quarterfinals of the Cup Winners Cup and they finished a very respectable 4th in the league Championship.
Jock Stein was eventually appointed the manager of Hibs after previously rejecting their offer.
Hibs had a brilliant team in the 1950s but they narrowly avoided relegation the season before Stein took over.
Jock was only at Hibs for one year before joining Celtic.
But he left Hibs with still their best win ratio of any manager in their history with 62%.
In his last game in charge, Hibs managed to beat Rangers in the Quarterfinals of the 1965 Scottish Cup.
Which later would turn out to be significant because a couple of months later Jock Stein would help win Celtic the 1965 Scottish Cup by beating his old club Dunfermline 3-2 in the final.
It was the first major trophy Celtic had won since the 1957 league cup final massacre.
Before Jock Stein became our manager, sports journalist Archie McPherson insisted Celtic wouldn't appoint Jock Stein as our manager because he was a Protestant.
In the previous 77 years in our history, Celtic only had 3 managers who were all Catholics.
Archie's claims turned out to be false because Celtic appointed Jock Stein as our new manager.
Everybody knows Jock Stein's record was remarkable, which included our first 9 titles in a row.
Our Big Jock's guidance, Celtic were very successful in Europe, including winning the Big Cup.
And reaching 21 out of 22 domestic cup finals in his first 11 years in charge is an amazing record.
Celtic actually reached the league cup final before his arrival, so Celtic actually reached 22 out of a possible 23 domestic finals.
Celtic are an Amazing club who were managed by an Incredible Man, Jock Stein.
03 Mar 2021 15:09:42
Buzz I don't know where or how he got it but my uncle has a handwritten letter on Hibernian headed notepaper from Jock Stein, it was sent to parkhead basically saying once he ties up a few loose ends he will be with Celtic.
03 Mar 2021 16:20:01
That’s interesting A. glasgow. green.
Because Jock Stein told Hibs on January 31st that he was joining Celtic but he wouldn’t leave until they found a replacement.
After Hibs beat Rangers on March 5th in his last game,
Jock Stein found his replacement with Dundee manager Bob Shankley,
Who was the brother of Liverpool legend Bill Shankley.
03 Mar 2021 20:12:47
In 1957 my mate and I wrote a letter to Mr 'McGlory' telling him how much we would love to visit 'Paradise' and much to our surprise we received a reply inviting us to the pre season first team v reserves match. No exotic friendlies then!
Jock Stein showed us round Celtic Park and introduced us to various players including a very young Billy McNeill. Before the match we were inside with the players watching such as Charlie Tully, Bertie Peacock, Bobby Collins, Dick Beattie etc etc playing snooker. ( The 50s equivalent of a warm up I suppose! ) .
It was all a blur, but two very happy wee boys went home Celtic fans for life.
I vaguely remember telling Bobby ( Lennox ) about it and he was green with envy!
Now there's irony for you!
04 Mar 2021 12:26:50
I had a similar experience cokey in about 1990/ 91 season.
Me and a friend were doing a project for school and we were invited to Barrowfield to watch the players train.
And then into the front entrance of Celtic Park to interview the players.
It was a project about the Glasgow clubs.
We never received a reply from Rangers, probably due to the name of our school.
It was a good experience to talk to our heroes.