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Personal
Fullname: Francis McCarron
aka: Frank McCarron
Born: 1 Oct 1943
Died: 4 Nov 2021
Birthplace: Kinning Park
Signed: 28 May 1962
Left: May 1967 (free); Aug 1967 (Carlisle Utd)
Position: Centre-half
Debut: Celtic 2-0 Hibernian, League, 6 April 1963
Internationals: none
Biog
Frank McCarron was a Scotland schoolboy international skipper when he was signed by Celtic in May 1962. He was previously with Lourdes School Cardonald, and farmed out to Parkhead Juniors in 1962.
The Kinning Park youngster made his only first team competitive appearance in a 2-0 league victory at home to Hibernian on April 6 1963, mainly due to the absence of Billy McNeill who was away playing for Scotland at Wembley. Reports say that he was ill at ease deputising for Billy McNeill finding it difficult to handle the tricky Hibs player Joe Baker, and was let off with almost conceding a goal to Joe Baker after an error early on but thankfully for him Joe Baker didn’t capitalise on this.
With the likes of Billy McNeill and John Clark in the first team it was always going to be tough for Frank to make a breakthrough. As Celtic grew in strength with the arrival of Jock Stein as the new Celtic manager, it was a challenge too far.
Still he was part of the close party that came together that pushed Celtic to the magnificent domestic treble & European Cup in season 1966/67.
In season 1965-66, Frank was in the side for the second leg of the Second XI Cup Final win over Motherwell. He also played in both legs of the Reseve League Cup Final defeat to Hibernian, Season 1966-67, he played in both legs of the Reserve League Cup Final success over Aberdeen.
He took Jim Craig’s place on the ‘formation tour’ of Bermuda & North America in 1966, and after a bout of sunburn on Bermuda, made his tour debut in Kerny, New Jersey in the second half against the NJ All Stars, a match Celtic won 6-0. Frank came on for Billy McNeill in the second half v Hamilton Primo in Ontario exactly one year before Lisbon, and played 14 mins then sustained the tackle injury that was to end his chances of playing again on the trip and also ended his prospects of a first-team breakthrough.
Frank McCarron was apparently photographed quite a lot in shorts on the US tour at the start of the 1966/67 season, probably why he ended up with heat stroke, that along with sneaking out the hotel to play golf, despite Jock Stein telling him not to.
In the end he left Parkhead for English second tier side Carlisle in August 1967 after failing to make a further first team appearance for Celtic. He had a front row seat to that dream season at Celtic, but sadly no walk-on part.
Sadly his football career was brought to an end soon afterwards when he suffered a serious leg break v Millwall at the Den on Easter Monday 1968. The fracture was so serious as to require complicated surgery and put a premature end to Frank McCarron’s career. He was freed in April 1969.
His son played for Montrose against Celtic in the Scottish Cup in January 1992.
He passed away after a long life in November 2021.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1962-67 | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | 1 |
| Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
Honours with Celtic
none
Pictures
Article
Former Celt Frank McCarron passes away
By Celtic Football Club
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2021/november/09/former-celt-frank-mccarron-passes-away/
Everyone at Celtic Park was saddened to hear of the passing of former player, Frank McCarron who died on Thursday, November 4 at the age of 78.
As a centre-half, Frank joined Celtic straight from Lourdes Secondary School in May 1962 after captaining the Scotland Schoolboys’ Under-18 side against England.
While Billy McNeill was away with the Scotland squad at Wembley, Frank made his one and only appearance for the Celtic first team in a 2-0 win over Hibernian on April 6, 1963.
Frank also travelled on the pre-season tour of North America in 1966 prior to Celtic’s clean-sweep season of 1966/67 before moving to join Carlisle United in August, 1967.
The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Celtic Park are with the McCarron family at this sad time.