Willliam Boland | Player Pics | A-Z of Players
An interview with the oldest living Celt ( feb 5th 20??)
Gregor Kyle (Celtic view)
OLD BHOY IN PARADISE
The oldest living Celt takes to the pitch he first played on back in the 1940s
IT was fitting that in the week where the £500,000 wage was football’s hot topic, Celtic supporters were served up a little reminder of just how much times have changed.
At Celtic Park as the club’s Guest of Honour for the recent league win over Hibs, William ‘Bill’ Boland, the oldest living Celt, could only laugh and smile when the subject of Manchester City’s £150million target, Kaka and his weekly wage was first brought up. This is, after all, the man who in season 1944/45 pulled on his boots for Celtic for a weekly wage of £2, plus traveling expenses. The fact that he also drew the half-time Paradise Windfall draw, with an eight-and-a-half thousand pound prize for a lucky punter, further highlighted the earnings gap. Bill, who will be 90 years-of-age this year explained that the football world he occupied was on a different planet from that of today’s players, with the former miner combining playing and training with his full-time job down the pits. But during that era, financial rewards rarely entered the thoughts of players who operated on ‘100 per cent heart’ and today, as Bill looks back on that season-long spell at the club, he explained that he would not swap that experience for a year of Kaka’s wages.
“Everybody got a wage of £2 and that was win, lose or draw, there were no bonuses. We did get our expenses though,” added Bill with a broad smile, “they did give us our tram fare. “I worked full time in the mines as well and if you didn’t have a good attendance you could lose your job. But for quite a time, I had been off on a Saturday for matches. “I was eventually called up for absenteeism and was told that the only way I could get a Saturday off was if I worked a double shift on the Monday. “So I worked a double shift that day, worked a Tuesday and then went for training that same night. It was the same routine on a Thursday as well, working and the going straight to training. “One day I was on the road to Parkhead and was sleeping on the bus and when it turned in to the bus station at Strathaven I would usually wake up. One day, by the time we reached the station I was asleep again, so that should give you an idea how I was feeling. I was never tired playing, but afterwards I was exhausted. “I loved to play and the minute you finished your shift, all you thought about was football anyway.” Football was also one of the few remaining diversions from the tragedies and hardships of the Second World War, which, at that time was slowly drawing to a close. The league and cup competitions had understandably been restricted, with the junior leagues completely suspended, although it was this particular policy which handed Bill the opportunity to play for the team he had long-supported. When his hometown club, Muirkirk Hibs temporarily ceased playing, he was picked up by Celtic and played in two public trial matches amongst a group of players that the club hoped would lead the team into the post-war era.
One of his team-mates in those matches was a player who would go on to be recognised as a true Celtic great and afterwards, both were signed by the club. “We were good friends, Bobby Evans and I and he was a great player,” said Bill. “I always refer to Bobby Evans and Bill Shankly as being very much the same. “Bobby was a much better player than Bill, but they were both whole-hearted players who could also be constructive players.
“I always felt that Bill Shankly didn’t get the credit he deserved as a player and he came from the same era as Bobby and that was one of the reasons why.” The ensuing 1944/45 season was a difficult one for Celtic, who, shorn of experience, would struggle to re-establish themselves over the course of the next decade. However that season turned out to be the pinnacle of a playing career which started in the junior ranks with Auchinleck Talbot as a 15-year-old, with Boland making four appearances in the Celtic first team. Every minute of those matches is cherished and he explained: “It was great to be a Celtic player, just to play with some of the players I played with and represent the club was a great honour. I only played four games but the fact I played those four games, I am very proud of that.” The four games also included one partnering the great Jimmy Delaney, while he was replaced in the team by Pat McAuley, an exceptionally gifted player, who could perhaps be ranked as one of the club’s forgotten heroes. Delaney’s electric pace and unparalleled ability are still fresh in Bill’s memory, ‘during that era, you could probably say that Delaney was Celtic’ he commented. But so too are the memories of his own two strikes for the club. Two goals in four matches isn’t a bad haul for any player and when you look back in the history books, there is nothing but praise for this ‘sturdy junior’ who at times ‘showed the coolness of a veteran’. “I did score against Falkirk,” he said, “but the best goal I scored was against Partick Thistle.
“Our outside left took the ball across the centre back and just as the ball came to me there was a man closing me down from the other side to make the tackle. I took the ball off the outside-left’s foot, carried it forward and scored from there. “Afterwards I couldn’t have told you whether I beat one man or another, but I can see it clearly today. Just coming to the park on a day like this brings a lot of the memories back.”
After leaving Celtic and returning to his old club, Muirkirk Hibs, the club was never far from Bill’s thoughts and he has maintained his Celtic connection to this very day.
Back in 1993 he and his wife were thrown a surprise party for the Golden Jubilee of their wedding in the Walfrid Restaurant at the park and it was only two years ago that Bill reluctantly gave up his season ticket.
“I am still just as much a Celtic supporter today as I ever was,” he added. “In football terms, the club means everything to me. It’s always been that way and always will be.”