Colrain, John

Personal

Fullname: John Colrain
aka: Big Colly
Born: 4 February 1937
Died: 14 July 1984
Birthplace: Glasgow
Height: 6ft 0in
Weight: 13st 0lb
Signed: 1953 (prov); 1957 (full)
Left: 1955 (Army); 18 Nov 1960 (£5,000 to Clyde)
Position: Centre-forward/Midfielder
Debut: Celtic 0-1 Rangers, League, 1 Jan 1958
Internationals: none

Biog

John Colrain came to Celtic with the weight of being labelled “the next big prospect in the game” to live up to. He could hit the ball hard but was poor in the air. He always considered himself a centre-forward when he may have performed better as a midfielder. He combined well with the talents of Jackson, Conway, Divers and Auld in the Reserve side in the 1957-58 season, and then he got his chance in the first team after the departure of Bobby Collins to Everton.

However it was not a great time to be with Celtic. After the classic League Cup success in 1957, Celtic did not win another trophy until 1965, and John Colrain’s first team debut was following not long after this success in a the 1-0 defeat to Rangers at Celtic Park in the the traditional New Years Derby. So it can be taken that Rangers managed to gain some revenge for their humiliation in the league cup final, although it was Hearts who went on to romp the league title.

He was a mainstay through much of the 1958-59 season taking over from James Conway, notably scoring a hat-trick against Stirling Albion in the league in a 7-3 victory in Dec 1958. He had a fair season, scoring 18 goals in 19 games in the three major domestic competitions. However, his best form was in the first half of the season where he was regularly scoring, and then like the rest of the team, his form seemed to slip. For Celtic as a whole it was a poor season, and Celtic finished well behind Rangers but also even Airdrie. The slump at Celtic had really set in, and was to only be resolved once Jock Stein arrived in 1965.

John Colrain swapped back and forth out of the team in season 1959-60, but ultimately it was future Lisbon Lion Stevie Chalmers who took over his place in the side at the end of the season, and the rest as they say is history.

In his final spell of games he was struggling to find the goal, and played in both the Scottish Cup semi-final matches which Celtic lost 4-1 in the replay to Rangers. His best form had seemed to now desert him.

His last game was in a 2-0 defeat to Dundee in the league.

For any aspiring footballer at the time, Celtic was a poor environment to be in with an admittedly poor team manager, a meddling chairman and a demoralised squad of players. Celtic were at a very low point this period.

Little Celtic success meant John Colrain’s time was not a fruitful one. Regardless, he can more than hold his head up high as he had a fair return of 23 goals in 58 games. Little more could have been asked of him, although most of those goals were concentrated in one single season. He just never seemed to show greater consistency which would have benefited his chances as well as Celtic’s hopes.

Post-Celtic
He left Celtic for Clyde and then moved to Ipswich before moving to Glentoran and was appointed as the player-manager at the age of 29. He managed probably the greatest Glentoran side ever which failed to be beaten by Benfica at home (1-1) and at the away leg (0-0) in the European Cup (losing on away goals). He also put together a Glentoran team for a North American tour in 1967 which returned unbeaten, and led them to back-to-back league titles. When he was sacked from Glentoran an EGM demanded his re-instatement. He was to be a legend at the club.

On a visit to New York while manager of the Northern Ireland side, John Colrain was introduced to American entertainment legend Frank Sinatra in a restaurant. It was just a casual meeting, the type of contact that many top stars are obliged to make with their fans. John Colrain, though, was a man of considerable charm, and soon he and Ol’ Blue Eyes were seated beside other and talking away as though they had been friends for years.

He went on to spend two years as a manager with St Pats before returning to England as a scout for Manchester City.

John Colrain is credited by Billy McNeill with giving him the nickname ‘Cesar‘ after Cesar Romero at the time of the original Hollywood bratpack of Sinatra, Romero, Sammy Davies Jnr., Dean Martin, etc. John Colrain himself had a fine voice and a full admiration for Frank Sinatra, he also had the looks for it and dressed well too.

John Colrain died prematurely of a heart attack at home in Glasgow at the age of 47 in 1984.