| B | Player Pics | A-Z of Players |
Personal
Fullname: Joseph Bailie
aka: Joe Bailie, Joe Bailley
Born: 26 February 1929
Died: 23 March 1966
Birthplace: Dumfries
Signed: 15 December 1945
Left: 1 November 1954 (to Wolverhampton Wanderers)
Position: Defender (left side)
Debut: Queen of the South 3-1 Celtic, League 14 Sep 1946
Internationals: n/a
International Caps: n/a
Biog
Having signed for Celtic in 1945 from Glasgow junior club St Roch’s, Joe Baillie made his debut on 14th September 1946 in a 3-1 league defeat at Queen of the South.
It was to be another 18 months before he was to force his way back into the team, but once he did he slowly began to establish himself as a first team regular at left-half, and he forged a fine partnership with the great Bobby Evans.
The immediate years after the end of World War II were lean times for Celtic and success was hard to come by but when it finally arrived in the shape of Scottish Cup glory in 1951. Joe Baillie played an admirable part in that run.
Joe Baillie had put in some stirling performances on the left flank as Celtic battled to a final date with Motherwell. In a tense match Celtic won by a solitary goal in which Joe Baillie made a significant contribution. With about 14 minutes gone, Joe Baillie superbly broke up a dangerous Motherwell attack. His long sweeping ball then released John McPhail who coolly finished to score the only goal of the game.
A few months later Baillie was also part of the Celtic team which was to win the St Mungo Cup – a competition organised to mark the Festival of Britain – by defeating Aberdeen 2-1 at Hampden on August 1st.
Those few months in 1951 were to be the peak of Joe Baillie’s Celtic career, and in season 1951-52 he finally managed to get his first (and only) Celtic goal, in a 4-1 win over Forfar in the League Cup, scoring from a corner.
His run in the first team mostly came to an end after a 0-0 draw with Airdrie in the League in Nov 1952, pulling out during the match after injury with torn ligaments.
He then slowly slipped out of contention for a first team slot following this ligament damage. In the glorious double winning 1953-54 season, he was sadly to only play a little part, two games with just one in the league (2-0 loss away to Hamilton).
He moved south to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1954.
A lack of honours should not disguise the fact that Joe Baillie was a fine player and in total he made 151 appearances for Celtic and netted one goal. He played for Celtic during a very difficult time for the club and in society as a whole. It has to be admired that he stuck with Celtic throughout this era, when Celtic were even at one point close to relegation.
He died tragically young in March 1966 aged just 37, being found drowned in the River Kelvin when his car crashed through the parapet of a bridge.
Note: Joe Baillie was rejected for National Service due to cartilage problems but he did his bit for the war effort as a ‘Bevin Boy‘. Indeed during his later seasons at Parkhead he combined his playing career with shifts down the mine at Twechar.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1945-54 | 107 | 13 | 31 | n/a | 151 |
| Goals: | 0 | 0 | 1 | – | 1 |
Honours with Celtic
St Mungo Cup
Pictures
Notes
- Date of birth confirmed via CGS forum: http://celticgraves.com/topic/9267470/1/
