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Personal
Fullname: John "Iain" Gillies
aka: Rogie
Born: 29/7/35
Birthplace: Mallaig, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Signed: 1954
Left: 1955
Position: Mainly centre-half, but also wing-half and winger
Biog
Iain Gillies grew up in the remote Northwest Highland fishing village of Mallaig.
As a child he played with fishing corks as there were no footballs there during the war years. He played on the street as there was no organised football for youngsters in Mallaig but when the Gillies family moved to Auckland in New Zealand in 1949, Iain was signed by the North Shore club there and made his debut for their senior team aged fourteen.
When he returned to Scotland in 1950 he signed for Nairn County in the Highland League and travelled from school in Fort William to the East Coast to play every weekend.
While studying at Edinburgh University he was picked up by Celtic and offered a trial and then signed on professional forms. For a boy from the Highlands, this was a dream come true and he cherished his time at Parkhead.
Gillies was a regular in the reserve team under Celtic legend George Paterson and got to play alongside the likes of Neil Mochan, John McPhail, Sean Fallon, Alec Boden and Bobby Collins. Manager Jimmy McGrory invited him to train with the full-timers during the university holidays, which gave him a chance to rub shoulders with all the stars of that era, such as Jock Stein, Charlie Tully, Bertie Peacock and red-haired striker Jimmy Walsh.
A knee injury brought his professional career to a premature end but he recovered and resurrected his football career in New Zealand when he moved there with his wife and first son in 1959 and took up a job as a journalist. He was editor of the Gisborne Herald for thirty years and played centre-back for New Zealand in 1967.
He and wife Flora have six children, sixteen grand children and at last count eleven great grandchildren with another on the way. Iain has collaborated with his son Angus to record his early days in football, particularly those with Celtic in a book called Footballosophy, which is available as a book on Amazon and as an e-book on Kindle.
Quotes
“Gees, this is amazing. This is Parkhead. This is really Celtic. This is really a Celtic shirt I’m wearing. I’m wearing the famous green and white hoops.”
Gillies, Angus; Gillies, Iain (2014-04-15). Footballosophy (Kindle Locations 18-20). . Kindle Edition.
Pictures
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