Blackwood, John

Personal

Fullname: John Blackwood
aka: N/A
Born: 31 Aug 1877
Died: 4 January 1913 [TBC]
Birthplace: Glasgow or Burnley* [see notes]
Signed: 21st September 1899; 2 May 1900
Left: 28 Oct 1899 (loan to Partick); 9 May 1900 (to Woolwich Arsenal)
Debut: Celtic 0-2 Hearts, League, 30 Sep 1899
Position: Centre-Forward
Internationals: N/A
International Caps: N/A

Biog

John Blackwood signed for Celtic as a striker from Glasgow side Petershill in 1899. He was signed after a trial match for Celtic v The Kaffirs (a South African team from Orange Free State) on 21 Sep 1899.

‘The Kaffirs‘ were the first black tourist team to play in the UK, so it’s an interesting landmark in football and a show of egalitarianism that Celtic are a small part in this piece of history.

A curious team to play as the term ‘kaffir‘ is now a derogatory term used in South Africa to refer to a person who is black. It was formerly a neutral term for South African blacks, so maybe it was acceptable at the time when Celtic played them (and likely the Celtic management were unaware of the full connotations of the name as it was a S African reference). A team of black players isn’t likely to have used the name if it was offensive to themselves (unless it was tagged onto them by their management). It wasn’t until the second half of the 20th Century that it was deemed and finally referred to as a derogatory term. The word is derived from the Arabic term ‘kafir‘ (meaning ‘infidel‘), which originally had the meaning ‘one without religion‘, but that is for a fuller discussion for elsewhere.

John Blackwood was to be among those with the briefest of Celtic careers making just a solitary league appearance in a 2-0 home defeat to Hearts on 30th September 1899 played in adverse conditions. The Glasgow Herald report was unnecessarily quite caustic on his appearance in the match:

“The Hearts played their usual team, but the Celts made an experiment – a [….] one, we venture to state in playing Blackwood (Petershill) in the centre. It was a trying introduction to first-class football, and the Celtic paid the penalty, as Blackwood was seldom noticed during the game.”

For the following match, the great Sandy McMahon returned to the first team.

It just wasn’t to be for John Blackwood at Celtic, but he got to play in what in retrospect is a major footballing series tour in historical terms. He was still young when at Celtic and maybe needed more time. Celtic finished second in the league title race that season (1899/00), far behind Rangers who took the title by 7pts with a very dominant record and just the one league defeat all season. Celtic did win the Scottish Cup that season but John Blackwood sadly didn’t play in any games in that run.

He had a loan spell at second tier Partick Thistle and achieved an exceptional scoring record (8 goals in 10 games) which must have pricked up the ears of the Celtic management. However, he ended up in a curious situation, almost unique to the time. He had been due to play for Partick Thistle in a Scottish Cup first round match against Galston on 13 January 1900. The club had arranged with the Caledonian Railway for the train carrying the team to stop at Gorbals to pick up Blackwood and William Goudie, but it did not stop, so he missed the match, but Partick Thistle still won 2-1.

He was recalled by Celtic and then moved to England in the summer of 1900, joining Woolwich Arsenal who were then in the second tier, and he even scored on his debut.

He later moved to other clubs including Reading & QPR where he was to settle best. For QPR he was a great goalscorer scoring 37 goals in 67 games in the league & FA Cup, so showing his ability, albeit not in the top tier.

He had a brief spell at West Ham Utd with few appearances before returning up north to play for Royal Albert (Larkhall).

When you look back at his career, he seemed to move around a lot remaining only for brief spells which could be telling, but then again it was not unusual for the time.

He died prematurely at just 35 years of age in 1913 in Glasgow [TBC].

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

none

Pictures

• Player Pics

80= John BLACKWOOD … (1904 – 1905)