Tommy Callaghan - an appreciation

St Anthony on the passing of Tommy Callaghan

You may have to be in your mid 50’s to have seen Tommy Callaghan play for Celtic, but the sad news of his recent passing has brought back a host of memories for those who saw who did actually him perform.

Tommy was signed from Dunfermline in 1968 at a time when Celtic could boast of being in the top handful of teams in Europe. Jock Stein was at the peak of powers and knew Tommy well from his time as the Pars’ manager in the Kingdom of Fife and was delighted to get his man with a £30,000 fee, which was a Celtic transfer record at that time. To be truthful, Jock always had a soft spot for Tommy during his time at both East End Park and Parkhead.

Tommy scored on his Celtic debut at Firhill in a 4-0 win over Partick Thistle in November 1968 but despite this good start, Tommy had to serve something of an apprenticeship for a period, as holding down a place in the Celtic midfield was very difficult with such talents as Bobby Murdoch, Bertie Auld, George Connelly, and Davie Hay, to contend with.

The 1969-70 season was a most exciting one for the Celts. At the beginning of April it looked as if Celtic would emulate their all-conquering season of 1966-67 by winning everything in sight. Tommy was in the team which beat St Johnstone 1-0 in the League Cup final and he was played in the European away ties at Benfica and Fiorentina on the road to the European Cup final in Milan in May 1970. Celtic then suffered two shock final defeats within three weeks, firstly to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final and then to Feyenoord in European football’s most prestigious game. Tommy was on the bench against the Dutch side in Milan but to this day it is not clear if substitutes actually received medals.

The first real impact that Tommy made in his Celtic career was in the 1971 Scottish Cup final replay against Rangers. In later years Tommy explained to me how Jock Stein hastily changed his tactics in the lead up to the kick off, when he heard that Rangers’ youngster Jim Denny was named at right back as a replacement for Alex Miller. Stein told Tommy and Jimmy Johnstone to attack down the Rangers right flank and both Tommy and Jimmy were instrumental in Celtic lifting the trophy with a 2-1 win. Tommy’s strength was running with the ball from deep and he had great stamina which he used to fine effect on the night. He said that Jimmy Johnstone went to Denny at the end to congratulate him on his performance and told him he should be proud of getting a medal. A magnanimous gesture from Jinky.

From then on Tommy was a regular in the Celtic first team. He had been viewed as something of an understudy to the great Bertie Auld and when Auld departed in May 1971, Tommy emerged from his shadow. The one problem he faced with the Celtic fans was he was compared unfairly with Auld. Bertie was certainly a classy player but he was aggressive and liked a battle. Tommy wasn’t a noted tackler and an element of the Celtic support often got on his case because of this. As Jock Stein often stated, Tommy was in the team to create and not to destroy.

Tommy was instrumental in the legendary three wins at Ibrox within 28 days in August-September 1971 when Rennes manager (spying on rangers as future opponents) waxed lyrical about the Celtic midfield of Murdoch and Callaghan as they controlled the game and rated Celtic as one of the top three outfits in Europe. Another league and cup double was won in memorable fashion but it was a case of what might have been as Celtic lost in devastating fashion to Inter Milan on penalty kicks in the European Cup semi-final. Tommy had a great game in the 6-1 romp against a fine Hibernian side in the Scottish Cup final when he created two of Celtic’s six goals and became a great Celtic player in his own right.

In March 1974 it was Tommy who saved the Celts by scoring the equaliser on aggregate against FC Basle in the European Cup quarter finals. Stevie Murray’s winner took Celtic through to another European semi-final against Atletico Madrid, however those games were tainted by Atletico’s thuggish behaviour which deprived Celtic of a prestigious final against Franz Beckenbauer’s Bayern Munich, leaving scars which took a long time to heal.

Tommy remained a regular for Celtic until September 1976. With a young Tommy Burns earning rave reviews and looking to be a real emerging midfield prospect, Tommy was now in the twilight of his career at 31, and he moved to Clydebank where he helped to inspire the Bankies to Scotland’s top tier league for the first time in 1977.

As stated earlier, Jock Stein was a huge admirer of Tommy. In 1972 when Celtic had defeated Ujpest Dozsa in the European Cup, the great Ferenc Puskas stated that he rated Tommy as being one of Europe’s best midfielders. In view of all of this, it remains a mystery why Tommy never received a full Scottish cap at his Celtic peak. However, he more than made up for a lack of international recognition by winning medals. Seven league winners, four Scottish Cup winners, two League Cup winners, and a Drybrough Cup medal. Tommy Callaghan more than made his mark.

In later years, Tommy was a popular figure around Celtic Park as a match day host, where he would regale the fans with stories from his career when he played for Celtic at the highest level. Although he played with several clubs, he will always be remembered as Tommy Callaghan of Celtic, one of the old fashioned breed of Celtic players who was proud to play for the jersey. An outmoded concept now, but something fans of my generation revere players for even now.

Said to be a regular church goer and a man of great faith, hopefully this will give his family strength at such a difficult time. May eternal light shine upon him.

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