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Fullname: Joseph McBride
aka: Joe McBride, Josie, Super Joe
Born: 10 June 1938
Died: 11 July 2012
Birthplace: Govan, Glasgow
Signed: 5 June 1965
Left: 5 Nov 1968 (to Hibs)
Position: Striker
First game: Dundee 0-2 home league cup 21 August 1965
Last game: Morton 1-1 away league 26 October 1968
First goal: Dundee United 4-0 away league 25 August 1965
Last goal: Morton 1-1 away league 26 October 1968
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: 2
International Goals: 0
Biog
| “I have been asked to name the best Celtic centre-forward I’ve ever seen play and the man I choose may surprise you. He’s Joe McBride… He was a tremendous headerer of the ball and could take a half-chance on the ground. And his heart was in the right place!” Jimmy McGrory |
A truly wise man once wrote: “McBride? He’s no use – all he can do is score goals!“, and that is exactly what made him one of the greatest ever, boasting an incredible strike rate of over 91%. In his first 18 months Joe McBride blossomed into the most prolific striker in the world and the sky was the limit, only for injury to curtail what should have been.
“Side by side with Joe McBride, We’ll kick down Derry’s Walls!”
While speculation in football is essentially meaningless (but mandatory in football), it is a reasonable suggestion that if Joe’s career had not been seriously interrupted by injury at such a crucial point, he might have established an unparalleled club scoring benchmark. He’d played a crucial role in the 1965/66 season to bring the league back to Celtic after 12 years and Celtic were unlucky not to have reached the European Cup Winner’s Cup final in the same season.
In the glorious Season in the Sun of 1966/67, he had amassed an astonishing 36 goals before Christmas, but then an injury at a match v Aberdeen saw him aggravate a knee injury. He was out for a year, and despite not kicking another ball following his breakdown at Pittodrie, he remained the country’s top-scorer at the end of that season. He ended up missing out on a place in the Lisbon Lions, the glory that was the European Cup win. Few would argue against that if fit that he would have been in the side.
When Joe McBride played his first full 90mins in a match against Morton on 23 Dec 1967 (after a whole year out), he scored three goals.
Sadly for Joe McBride, by the time he had regained match fitness a year later (though it was doubtful whether he was ever fully fit again), events had overtaken him. Celtic were now a major force in Europe and Stein, a man of unwavering determination once his mind was made up, had evolved a system around a main strike force of Chalmers and Wallace. Joe McBride became a peripheral squad player which was unthinkable at one point. He moved on a year or so later to play out the rest of his career with relative success at Hibs and Dunfermline. In the minds of those who saw him in his peak, though, he will always be, simply, ‘Super Joe‘.
Joe McBride was rated the very best by two Celtic legends:
– Jock Stein, who made Joe his first Celtic outfield signing (from Motherwell in the summer of 1965) described him as the quintessential striker, a man who stuck the ball in the back of the net when he couldn’t think of anything else better to do it,
– Jimmy McGrory included him at centre-forward without a moment’s hesitation in his all-time Celtic XI: “I have been asked to name the best Celtic centre-forward I’ve ever seen play and the man I choose may surprise you. He’s Joe McBride.”
The courage, style and obvious relish of his performance in the ‘Hoops‘, allied to the cruel way he was robbed of his rightful destiny, won him the undying affection of a generation of Celtic supporters. For whom Joe McBride will always be an honorary Lisbon Lion. He was awarded with a European Cup medal for his efforts in the campaign, but he is too often sidelined rather than being on the pedestal along with the others. He’d had the greatest moments stolen from him by injury and poor fortune, and it is hard not to feel for him in that sense, but the positives outshine all else and his record means he can more than hold his head up high with any others throughout the club’s history.
Joe McBride made 94 appearances for Celtic scoring 86 goals and is still very fondly remembered. With such a record, it’s a bizarre fact that he won just two caps for Scotland (don’t ask why he won so few, its a story for another day when it comes to Celtic and Scotland).
His son, Joe McBride junior, was a talented youth international who went on to play for Everton, Rotherham and Hibs amongst other teams. He was often linked with a move to Celtic but it never materialised.
Sadly, Joe McBride passed away on 11 July 2012 following a stroke. His goalscoring talents will be long revered in the memories of Celtic supporters and his contribution to the unprecedented 1966/67 season cannot be overstated.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1965-68 | 55 | 8 | 21 | 10 | 94 |
| Goals: | 54 | 3 | 24 | 5 | 86 |
Honours with Celtic
European Cup
Scottish League
League Cup
Pictures
Interview
Best moment with Celtic
“I had been a Celtic fan since I was a kid so just signing for them was a dream come true. I was Jock Stein’s first signing when he took over as manager at Parkhead in 1965.”
Best Celtic player
If you asked any of the Lisbon Lions – including Jimmy Johnstone, Tommy Gemmell, Billy McNeill or Bobby Lennox – the pick of the bunch was Bobby Murdoch.
Favourite goal
In the 1966/67 season I netted an absolute screamer against Hibs at Easter Road in a match I scored four goals in.
Most influential boss
Jock Stein by some distance.
Memorabilia
I still received a medal for Celtic’s victory in the European Cup in 1967. I had scored 36 goals up until Christmas when I got injured. I netted three goals in the first two rounds.
Playing Liverpool in Cup-Winner’s Cup semi-finals
“The game at Parkhead was terrific. Bobby Lennox scored the winner but I missed one from under the bar.
“Heading was a strong point of mine but I missed a certainty. The ball came across and I got under it and headed over the bar instead of under it.
“We should have won. Bobby Lennox’s goal at Anfield should have stood.
“Even the referee admitted, after seeing the television, that he had made a mistake.
“The ball came through from midfield and I was furthest forward with Ron Yeats at my back and I flicked the ball beyond him.
“Bobby had started his run five yards behind me and ran past both of us to score but the referee gave offside. How he did I’ll never know.
“Liverpool ran out 2-0 winners to go through. I guarantee that we would have won the Cup-Winners Cup with the final at Hampden, which was virtually a home game for us.
“Borussia Dortmund beat Liverpool but we would have beaten them on the night.”
Goal Scoring Feat 1966-67
McBride had scored 36 times by Christmas in the 1966-67 season when Celtic won the Treble and the European Cup.
But he was sidelined for the rest of the term with a knee injury.
McBride said: “Gerd Muller won the Golden Boot that season and he admitted at a function that the trophy would have gone to me but for the damage I did to my knee.
“The pain of being denied the opportunity to see what kind of goalscoring figure I could have achieved will live with me until the day I die.
“But 60 goals would have to have been a possibility.
“The doctors thought I needed a cartilage operation but the problem was caused by flaking bone behind my knee and it took a year out of my playing life.”
Of McBride’s goals, 33 were scored in the league and he finished top marksman despite missing the second half of the season.
He scored 86 goals in 94 games for Celtic.
Anecdotes
1)
Jim Craig/Bertie Auld – Would Joe McBride have played in Lisbon?
Joe McBride was one of the most prolific goalscorers to have ever graced the Hoops.He was signed in 1965 from Motherwell by Jock Stein and in the 1965/66 season he scored 43 goals.
The following season he was on fire and had scored 37 goals before Christmas when he sadly picked up a very bad knee injury against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on December19th.Joe was out injured for a year and it is a near certainty had he been fit he would have played in the Final in Lisbon – it was not to be but despite not playing again that season after Christmas Joe was still the top scorer in the League.
Bertie Auld tells of how in later years he wound up Jim Craig the Celtic right back that glorious day in Lisbon when discussing Joe’s injury.
Jim Craig – “Bertie – Do you really think Big Jock would have played Joe in Lisbon had he been fit”?
Bertie Auld (mischieviously) – “Aye, Jim – he would have played him at right back”!!!!!
I’ve learned to live with Lisbon Lions heartache
2)
Tribute to Joe McBride on day after his passing by CaltonBhoy1967 of KDS forum
Very,very sad news – We knew the prognosis wasn’t good but still hoped the Medics and the Big Yin upstairs would work a miracle – Sadly it wasn’t to be.
Compliments are often handed out when someone passeS but I can say with hand on heart that Joe McBride was a genuinely, lovely guy who was a modest,humble gentleman and as honest as the day is long – Joe would always do what he could to help the Celtic support whenever and wherever he possibly could – He particularly loved going over to Ireland and indeed was over again just about a month ago or so – Truth be told not playing in Lisbon did live with him but he accepted it – Joe never really got over the loss of his wife whom he had cared for when she had renal problems and then in 2004 she passed away shortly after a cancer diagnosis but being the sort of guy he was he would say he was coping okay even when he wasn’t.
One of my regrets is that I just missed the boat in terms of seeing Joe play for Celtic but I have spoken to enough of the auld school who say he was the best out and out goalscorer they have seen playing for Celtic and that is from Bhoys who have seen The Lions,QSG,Nicholas,Macca,Cadete and Henrik – A few years ago I said to Joe that I was fairly sure that in Celtic’s history in terms of goals scored to games played for Celtic’s First Team only Jimmy McGrory had a better record than him – Joe said he didn’t know that and then smiled and said “Behind Jimmy McGrory – I’d settle for that”.
To me the ultimate accolade for Joe came from Jimmy McGrory himself who said that Joe was the best goalscorer he had seen playing for Celtic – That is a remarkable statement given that of the top ten goalscorers in Celtic’s history excluding himself Jimmy would have seen play Jimmy Quinn,Patsy Gallacher,Jimmy McMenemy,Bobby Lennox,Stevie Chalmers,Big Yogi and Kenny Dalglish with the only two he wouldn’t have seen being Sandy McMahon and Henrik Larsson – As I said a wonderful accolade for a Great Celt.
Rest In Peace Joe – You were a Great Guy who wore the hoops very well and did the Celtic proud.
3) Funny story from the Nantes away match on route to Lisbon (1966) involving Joe McBride, he had forgot his boots, him & Neilly nipped back to the hotel tae get them, then fought their wae through the crowd on their return.
Articles
JOE McBRIDE ADMITS MISSING CELTIC’S BIG GAME SAVED HIS LIFE
(from News of the World, By Ewing Grahame, 23/05/2010)
JOE McBRIDE has had to live with the label “the unluckiest Celt in the club’s history.”
The centre-forward was the man who cruelly missed out on becoming one of the legendary Lisbon Lions through injury.
Now he has spoken for the first time about how the problem that denied him immortality turned out to be a lifesaver.
It’s 43 years on Tuesday since Jock Stein’s all-Scottish team beat Inter Milan 2-1 to become the first British club to win the European Cup and claim their place in football folklore.
The names of Simpson, Craig and Gemmell, Murdoch,McNeill and Clark, Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Auld and Lennox trip off the tongues of Hoops fans as kids.
One name missing is that of McBride, Jock Stein’s first signing. McBride ended that season as Scotland’s top marksman, notching 35 goals in just 26 games before Christmas till injury struck but while the Lions were beating the best in Europe, he was beating cancer.
Now 71, McBride refuses to resent the knee injury which kept him out of that Lisbon final. The problem had been building for about a month before it finally came to a head in a 1-1 draw against Aberdeen on Christmas Eve.
He said: “I got to half-time at Pittodrie and it became obvious that I just couldn’t carry on. The club sent me here, there and everywhere – including London – trying to find out what was wrong.
“Eventually – and I don’t know why we didn’t go to him in the first place – I was seen by Professor Roland Barnes in Glasgow. He examined me and told me my cartilage may be damaged but it wasn’t twisted and should be in good health.
“Fortunately, he spotted a pinhole in the cartilage when he opened me up. Most doctors would just have taken the cartilage out and left it at that but the professor wanted to discover what caused the hole.
“He investigated and found some flaking on the bone behind my knee-cap. What had happened was that a sliver of bone had punctured the cartilage and that was causing the pain.”
Luckily for Joe, the thoroughness of the leading orthopaedic surgeon in the country meant that he wasn’t prepared to take the easy way out. McBride added: “He didn’t stop there. He decided to repair my knee-cap by scraping the loose bone away, assuming that the bone would grow back in.
“The problem had been caused by years of wear and tear, of twisting and turning but then the prof analysed the flakes and discovered they were cancerous.
“I was very lucky because that was a really early diagnosis. We caught it early. If I had played on then I could have had my leg amputated or even died.”
McBride’s importance to the club in their greatest-ever season was emphasised by the fact that Stein still hoped his top gun would be able to take part in the rest of their European campaign.
He said: “I had been like Pele up until that injury, just scoring goals for fun. In fact, when I first broke down and I was having treatment at the ground all of the directors turned up to see how I was.
“On that particular occasion I was able to turn out against Hearts the following day. Hearts were on our tails but I scored twice in a 3-0 win.
“That was the beginning of the end for me that season, however, because my knee swelled up the next day. I still managed to score once in our next three games, though.
“Even when I came out of the hospital after my operation, Big Jock said to me ‘The semi-final’s a good few weeks away Joe – there’s still time’.
“As it was, I came out on crutches and with my leg in plaster up to my waist. I wasn’t able to give the crutches up until just before we were due to play Inter Milan in the final.”
McBride had already picked up a League Cup medal that season and had also played enough games to earn a championship medal. The club also awarded him a European Cup winner’s medal as thanks for his contribution in the earlier rounds – he scored against Zurich and Nantes.
It was 12 months before he completed another league match – and he notched a hat-trick against Morton at Parkhead.
Even so, he was sold to Hibs in 1968 where he topped their goal charts in both his seasons and he remains their joint-top scorer in Europe.
McBride said: “Fans have been telling me for 43 years now how unlucky I was at missing out on Lisbon and I do sometimes wonder ‘What if?’.
“However, I know exactly how lucky I was that that injury happened when it did.”
“THE SECOND McGRORY” – THE CELTIC LEGEND OF JOE McBRIDE
By David Potter
The tragedy of Joe McBride was that we did not really see enough of him. All in all, we saw one season and a half, but what an 18 months that was! “Goal a game Joe” he was nicknamed.
Not quite true, for he “only” scored 86 goals in 94 appearances – a ratio that puts him in the McGrory class, and indeed McGrory himself sings his praises, naming Joe as the best centre forward that he (McGrory) had seen in a Celtic jersey. “He was a tremendous header of the ball and could take half a chance on the ground. And his heart was in the right place,” says Jimmy McGrory, and that is good enough for us.
Even Joe’s birthday was a remarkable one. Like Yankie Doodle Dandy who was born on the 4th of July, Joe McBride was born on the 10th June 1938, the day of the Celtic victory in the Empire Exhibition Cup. Not only that, but Joe was born in Govan – not exactly a Celtic heartland, as we know – but on this very day, Celtic became the uncrowned kings of Britain when Johnny Crum’s goal beat Everton at Ibrox! Was it the shout that sent Joe’s mother into labour, or was Joe already with us to acclaim the goal?
Joe then went to St. Gerard’s School (another place with Celtic stamped all over it) and it was soon evident that young McBride was a fine player. For some reason, he slipped through the Celtic scouting net and was allowed to ply his reluctant trade with Kilmarnock, Wolves, Luton Town, Partick Thistle and Motherwell, all the time waiting in vain for the irresistible call. It was not that John McKenzie “The Voice of Football” in the Daily Express or “Waverley” in the Daily Record did not tell Celtic about Joe – it was just that Celtic did not listen.
Joe may well have felt that his time was past as he lined up for Motherwell in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Celtic at Hampden on March 27th 1965. But he had a great game that day scoring twice and giving Billy McNeill a hard afternoon. Indeed Motherwell looked the likely winners until Bertie Auld rescued Celtic. And it was the same Bertie Auld in the Replay with Celtic winning 3-0 who nudged his friend McBride, pointed to all the triumphant Celtic fans celebrating round the terracing and saID, “Do ye no’ wish ye could hae that, Joe?”
It was of course a rhetorical question, for Joe did indeed wish all that. And he had played well enough in the first Semi Final to persuade Jock Stein that he should be his first big signing for Celtic.
Jock signed him in June 1965 for £22,000, and his Celtic career started probably a full decade after it should have. His start was hesitant, but the League Cup was won in October, and throughout that winter of 1965-66, it was a matter of concern if Joe could go through a single game without scoring!
Joe McBride was an ideal team man, able to team up with Chalmers and Hughes (both of whom could have been seen as rivals for his place) to perfection, bringing out the best in them all, as Stein’s team began to really impress everyone. And like most good strikers, his goals came simply, as a result of tap-ins or in simply possessing the striker’s art of being in the right place at the right time.
Celtic fans had a new hero, a personality goal-scorer – a McMahon, a Quinn, a McGrory perhaps. “Have a Go, Joe” was the cry as the “Goal A Game Joe” tag came literally true for a while. Politically incorrect fans parodied an Ibrox anthem with:
“Side by Side with Joe McBride
We’ll kick down Derry’s Walls”
(or slightly more crudely, a suggestion that we were going to deliver to King William a kick in a somewhat tender place!)
The League was won after 12 years of disappointment. Only bad refereeing at Liverpool prevented Celtic from reaching the Cup Winners’ Cup Final, and bad luck similarly prevented Celtic from winning the Scottish Cup as well, but everyone agreed that this was a great Celtic side, especially with Joe McBride who had netted 41 domestic goals.
Scotland honours seemed to be beckoning as well, and if only Scotland had reached the World Cup Finals in England…!
1966-7 started brilliantly for McBride and Celtic as the world was impressed by a very accomplished team. The League Cup Final was won in October 1966 by a classic three card trick – a long cross ball from Bertie Auld, a head-down from Joe McBride and Bobby Lennox rushing in to release waves of ecstasy behind that King’s Park goal.
Progress was being made in Europe, McBride starred for the Scottish League and was twice capped for Scotland, and was scoring the goals in the League Championship with machine-like predictability and regularity.
But then it all went pear-shaped for Joe at Pittodrie on Christmas Eve. He limped off with a knee injury. It looked bad, and it was. He was out for a year, thus missing Lisbon and other goodies, but still with 33 goals finishing up as Scotland’s top scorer, even though he had played for only half the season!
Perhaps having an inkling of what was to happen to McBride, Stein had signed Willie Wallace from Hearts some two weeks previously, and this meant that even when Joe came back a year (exactly) later, his opportunities would be limited. Stein however still used Joe, mainly as a surprise weapon, notably against St. Etienne in October 1968 when the team was 0-2 down from the First Leg. Before a euphoric Parkhead, McBride played brilliantly, scoring one goals and being involved in the others as Celtic romped home 4-0.
Joe moved to Hibs in 1968 to replace Colin Stein who had gone to Rangers, but injury continued to dog him. He was well past 30 by this time, had a few moments of glory for the Edinburgh men (notably scoring the two goals that beat Celtic in September 1970) but never really recaptured his great days.
After being the unwitting centre of some not atypical Easter Road politics between Manager and Chairman, Joe moved to Dunfermline in December 1970 and later Clyde before finally retiring at the end of the 1972 season.
Joe then hit a crisis, not uncommon in footballers. He bought a pub and as he himself put it, “was his own best customer” until he cured himself. He was blessed with a strong family, and indeed his son Joe McBride junior played for Hibs, Dundee and Everton.
Joe is now a healthy, fit man in his late 60s, always very willing to come to Celtic functions and to talk about his career in a restrained and modest way. He is like Quinn and McGrory – “just like an ordinary man”.
His career however was a substantial one, and his contribution to Celtic, although cruelly foreshortened, was magnificent. It was a pity that we saw so little of this great Celt. Had we seen more, he would indeed have been the “second McGrory”.
David Potter
Celtic legend Joe McBride passes away
By: Joe Sullivan on 12 Jul, 2012 08:44 CELTIC legend, Joe McBride, sadly passed away late last night after his short battle with illness following a stroke.
Joe, of course, was a much valued member of the Lisbon Lions’ squad and his truly amazing goals-per-game ratio during Celtic’s greatest ever season was a key component of the team’s unrivalled success in 1966/67.
Despite an injury picked up on Christmas Eve 1966 keeping him out for the rest of the season, the striker had still scored 35 goals in the 26 games he had played up until that point.
That was the sort of striking acumen that had Joe only behind the great Jimmy McGrory in goal-scoring prowess or, to put it in more modern terms, his goal-scoring record on a game-to-game ratio was even better than that of Henrik Larsson.
Joe joined his Bhoyhood heroes from Motherwell on June 5, 1965 following spells with Kilmarnock, Wolves, Luton Town and Partick Thistle.
That injury picked up against Aberdeen on December 24, eventually saw him lose his place in the side and he moved to Hibernian on November 5, 1968 only for his goalscoring touch to return and haunt the Hoops when he played against them.
So much so that the great Jock Stein had to admit to the player himself that he probably let him go a bit early.
His relatively short stint at the club came in the Hoops’ greatest and most silver-laden period and in his 94 games he scored an amazing 86 goals.
Given that he challenged Jimmy McGrory for the title of Celtic’s most precocious striker, it’s no surprise that McGrory himself described Joe McBride as the best goalscorer he had seen at the club – no mean compliment from the best of all and a man who had been watching Celtic score goals for the best part of half-a-century.
Following his stint with Hibernian, Joe also had spells with Dunfermline and Clyde before retiring on April 29, 1972.
Joe won two league championships and two League Cups with Celtic as well as picking up two Scotland caps – in the second of those, against Northern Ireland, he lined up alongside five other Celtic team-mates in the Scotland side.
He will forever be known as Joe McBride of Celtic, though, and was a more than popular member of the squad of former players who still wore the club colours as part of the matchday hospitality team of legends who meet and greet the fans.
Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell said: “The passing of Joe McBride is tragic news.
“Joe was a very fine man, an absolute gentleman and someone who gave tremendous service to the club over a number of years.
“It was a privilege to know Joe and it was fantastic that someone who gave so much to Celtic was still involved with the club in a number of ways – he will truly be sadly missed by everyone at Celtic.
“The thoughts of everyone at the club are very much with Joe’s family at this very difficult time.”
Celtic manager Neil Lennon added: “The loss of Joe is terrible news. It was a pleasure to be in Joe’s company and on a personal level, Joe was someone who was always very supportive to myself.
“I know Joe Jnr well too and on behalf of the whole management and backroom team, and the players, we offer our sincere condolences to Joe’s family, we know this will be a very difficult time for them all.”
He will be sadly missed by all and the thoughts and prayers of everyone at Celtic Football Club and the extended Celtic family are with Joe’s family at this very sad time.
Tribute: A Lisbon goal was all that was missing for the prolific Joe McBride
Archie Macpherson 13 July 2012
Nature made Joe McBride a centre-forward.
The Herald
The coaching and the exhortations of a famous manager were secondary. He was blessed with square shoulders and a squat, powerful trunk, which even on the most cursory examination suggested he was specially made for that frenzied area, the six-yard box. A young bullock, full of running and graced with finesse. That is what comes to mind. Indeed, he seemed to have been formed from the same DNA of a famous predecessor, Jimmy McGrory. I never saw McGrory play, but when I met him as Celtic’s manager, in his habitually avuncular manner, pipe in mouth and never other than courteous, you could nevertheless sense why this burly figure was one of the great predators of his age. There are things you can’t disguise.
Thereafter, I could see McGrory in virtually all of McBride’s achievements. It was as if there existed an apostolic succession, easily validated by the statistics. While McGrory scored in virtually every game he played, McBride’s tally of 57 goals in 54 league games was as if he had touched the hem of the master. Indeed, in 1975 McGrory was unrestrained in his admiration of the player when he declared McBride was the best Celtic centre-forward he had seen play.
I wish I could claim I saw and recognised his talents before everybody else, because I was there at Celtic Park watching my team, Shettleston Juniors, in 1956 play an important Junior Cup tie, except that his name on the Town’s team sheet made little impact on me as the misery of defeat clouded my impression of that event. Immediately after that game he was approached by Malky MacDonald, the former Celtic player and then manager of Kilmarnock, to offer him terms. It is here we can illustrate the dilemma of young players who only ever want to sign for one club. For even though he was born within the shadow of Ibrox and would often watch Rangers as a boy, he only ever wanted to end up at Parkhead. But he did say before heading for Rugby Park: “I signed because I thought I might miss the boat as a senior.”
I watched him at Fir Park when he came back from disappointment in English football and a spell with Partick Thistle. He was simply Motherwell’s kind of player. His movement in dovetailing with others and that fleetness of foot around the box would suggest an exemplary team player, but it could not disguise the fact that he possessed the selfishness of all the great strikers in using those wiles to create space from which he could score and score and score. I witnessed some of the goals there as a young reporter and I confess that while I saw goals scored by him from all kinds of positions and strengths, little did I realise that two goals in particular, among the 69 in his first two seasons, would seal his fate.
They came in the Scottish Cup semi-final with Celtic in 1965 in their 2-2 draw. McBride was really the only threat to Celtic that day and, although they were beaten in the replay and Jock Stein went on to win his first trophy, for McBride it was mission accomplished, because he had got under the skin of the Celtic manager. Shortly after that McBride asked for a transfer. Knowing what I do know about the power of the Celtic manager, all he needed to have done was raise his eyebrow and McBride would have known he was a wanted man.
His arrival at Celtic Park came at a time when Stein had not made up his mind about Jimmy Johnstone’s future. But with a prolific penalty-box striker now in their midst, his wingers were to become the catalysts for much of the success following. McBride reacted to a rejuvenated Johnstone and the pace of Bobby Lennox on the other side like he had been granted a visa by defenders to get into their box to score at will. When so many rain in, 86 goals in 94 appearances, in major competitions, from head and foot, it is difficult to remember all of them. But one in which Celtic, twice behind at Dunfermline went on to win 5-4 with an equaliser by McBride that tore the net away, is fondly remembered among the legions.
The journeyman had become an aristocrat, requiring the accolade to end all accolades, of scoring a goal in Lisbon in 1967. His chronic knee condition put paid to that. All I saw of him that day was the back of his head as he sat with the other reserves in front of our commentary position. Beside him was John Hughes, who has never reconciled himself to the reason he was not selected. McBride, on the other hand, smothered any frustration over the cruel trick nature played on him, sufficiently satisfied overall to have realised his childhood dream to wear the hoops.
That he would leave Celtic Park in 1968 and move to Hibernian to become their record European scorer and make people think Stein had erred in such a transaction, endeared him to those who, knowing of his love of Parkhead, saw in him that other side, a thoroughbred professional proving that chasing and controlling a ball were even more important than which jersey you wore.
That is why Joe McBride seemed so much at home in his later years, at Celtic Park, touring the supporters’ boxes, a smile emerging from his florid, cheery countenance, to accompany vivid, witty tales. To our immense satisfaction he relived the past as well as he played it.
Sportspeople pay tribute to the sports stars who died in 2012
The Guardian 28 Dec 2012
Alex Ferguson on Joe McBride
Scotland footballer; would-be member of Celtic’s Lisbon Lions squad, joint top scorer with Alex Ferguson in Scottish League, 1965-66, died 11 July, aged 74
Joe was my first hero. I idolised him as a boy. He lived on the next close to me in Govan. I remember going to watch him play for St Gerards secondary school at Ibrox in a Scottish Cup final, and he was taking a corner kick. I was at the corner flag with my mates and he was taking it with his right foot – his left foot was marginally better, and I shouted: ‘Joe!’ And he turned round and he looked at me. I said: ‘You’re using your right foot!’ I don’t know why I did it! And he looked at me as if I had horns in my head and my mates are like: ‘What the **** are you doing?’ And he hooked the ball in.
I used to play with him as a kid in kickabouts, we loved it. He was always a goalscorer. We used to play in what was called the pen, at the local works, every Sunday. You would have to queue up for a game, it was about 20-a-side, and he was a goalscorer then too. He would score about 20 goals on a Sunday.
He was a natural goalscorer, two-footed, quick off the mark, and a really good finisher. He was the first of our group who went into professional football. He was a terrific guy.
As we grew up he went to Kilmarnock and then he was a traveller, to Wolves and Luton Town. Even then moving around was normal. In England it was full of Scottish players.
It wasn’t until Joe came back and played with Partick Thistle that the contact was there again between us because I was with St Johnstone by that time. I remember the 1965-66 season, when I was at Dunfermline and he was at Celtic [when Ferguson and McBride ended as joint-top scorers on 31 league goals]. When you’re top of the goalscoring chart you want to finish first. I actually got 45 goals that season in 51 games in total.
His great season was the next, 1966, when he scored something like 38 goals but then got his serious knee injury just before Christmas. Unfortunately he missed out on the European Cup final because of that. Celtic signed Willie Wallace as a replacement because they knew Joe would be out for a long time.
The thing I always remember was meeting him in February or March 1967, when I knew he was out injured, and I think I said to him: ‘You probably would have scored about 50 goals without the injury.’
He had an absolutely fantastic career. His scoring record is a great legacy [226 goals in 383 league games, third highest postwar], but that’s what he was: he was always a goalscorer. He was my first hero, my brother and I both idolised him.
It was a shock when he passed away. I kept in touch with young Joe [McBride’s son, also a footballer]. It was sad because he was a really genuine guy, a really nice man
Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United’s manager was talking exclusively to Jamie Jackson.
