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Details
Title: Jock Stein: A Definitive Biography
Author: Archie MacPherson
Published: 19 Aug 2004
Manager/Player Homepage: Jock Stein
Synopsis
A truly definitive biography of one of the most influential managers in the history of British football and the first British manager, in 1967, to win the European Cup. By the time of his death at the side of a pitch in 1985 he had become a legend.
He redesigned the landscape of the Scottish game as the great innovator, and successfully exported his values outside the country when European football was in the grip of an ice-age of defensive negativity.
This compelling biography reappraises Stein’s career and looks closely at the personality of the man whose shrewdness and cunning stamped him with greatness. The author worked his entire professional life as a contemporary of Stein and travelled the world with him.
He was present at nearly all of the great triumphs associated with the Celtic and Scotland manager.
Review
(from Keep the Faith – David Potter)
Jock Stein is in danger of rivalling William Shakespeare and Winston Churchill in that there is so much written about him that one would think that the time will soon be reached where we can go no further. But Archie McPherson succeeds in producing another excellent book on the great man, adding all sorts of small things that we did not already know.
This is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the man who is clearly the most significant figure in Scottish football history.
We know that he won the European Cup, nine Championships in a row, many other trophies and that he died tragically on the bench at Wales v. Scotland in 1985.
All these things are dealt with here, but McPherson’s biography adds things that perhaps we were less aware of, notably his Orange background in the backward Lanarkshire society of the pre-war years and how his father was unhappy about him playing for Celtic, and that several other acquaintances of his stopped speaking to him.
This perhaps explains Jock’s hatred of Rangers and all things sectarian, and his determination to do them down at every opportunity. He even asked the embarrassing question of Archie McPherson himself, “How many Catholics are employed by the BBC?” to which the normally very articulate Archie could give no satisfactory answer.
Another thing that emerges about Jock in this book is that not all his players necessarily worshipped the ground that he trod on. John Hughes, for example, could not bring himself to attend Jock’s funeral, as he had been frequently humiliated by Stein in his later years at Celtic Park. Yet Yogi is being a little unfair here, for he had some fine moments in a Celtic jersey as well under the guidance of Big Jock.
McPherson clearly won the confidence of Stein, and knew Jock well as he illustrates by his conversations with him, notably the one at the start of the book on a boring air journey. But there is one area of Jock’s life that McPherson (like other biographers) eschews. That is his relationship with women.
There were so many stories and rumours about Jock that, frankly, he seems to have been lucky not to have been alive in the days of the Sun, Star and Daily Record exclusives of salacious stories. But in Stein’s case, they remain gossip, for no biographer has as yet had the courage (or the prurience) to publish. Perhaps this is just as well. There was a moral side to Jock as well.
Once on the island of Bermuda, when the Roman Catholic players went to Mass, Jock got Ronnie Simpson to round up all the others and took them to a Church of Scotland service where he insisted that they sing the hymns loudly and ended up drinking tea and discussing football with the Minister!
Jock was a great man. Archie’s book is a great tribute to him. It is well worth a Christmas present for Dad, Granddad or indeed anyone with knowledge of the game.
Product Details
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Highdown (19 Aug 2004)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1904317731
ISBN-13: 978-1904317739
Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 16.4 x 3.6 cm
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