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CELTIC LEGEND – STEVIE CHALMERS

By David Potter (from KeepTheFaith website)

David W Potter reminisces about the Celtic Legend, Stevie Chalmers, Celtic's fourth top goal-scorer in history and the man that scored the most important goal in the Club's history.

David writes:

STEVE CHALMERS

There could never be a nicer fellow than Steve Chalmers. Naturally a quiet, unassuming man, seeming occasionally to lack the “devil” that professional footballers need to possess, Steve was often looked upon as a Kelly Kid who would never quite make it. He had his good days, and he had his shockers, but as with almost everyone else, things changed dramatically and permanently when Jock Stein came to Celtic. It was Steve Chalmers who scored the goal, which won the day in Lisbon.

Yet a little over four years earlier in 1963, one recalls a dreadful game at Tannadice Park which Celtic lost 0-3 to an incredulous home side. But Dundee United fans' amazement at the result against a team who were in the Scottish Cup Final (it was the Saturday after the honourable 1-1 draw with Rangers and four days before the humiliating Replay) was nothing in comparison to their utter shock at the vitriol, hatred and foul mouthed abuse hurled at Steve Chalmers by some who claimed to be Celtic supporters.

True, he was playing badly. For some reason he was being tried on the left wing where he was anything but at home, and the forward line simply was not functioning. As often happens when someone is having a shocker, the ball kept coming to him and he was continually losing it, being robbed, misdirecting a pass and even sometimes running the ball out of play. This in no way excused the behaviour of the boo boys, and one would like to have seen their reaction at Lisbon. I would like to think that some of them apologised.

Steve was born in 1936. His father David Chalmers had played alongside Jimmy McGrory for Clydebank, and from an early age, young Steve revealed a penchant for the game. His career suffered a set back and indeed his life was endangered when he took meningitis, but he recovered well enough to play for the traditional Rangers nursery of Ashfield before joining Celtic in 1959, at the age of 23 possibly on the old side to be a true Kelly Kid.

For as long as Jock Stein was in charge of the youngsters, things were tolerably sane, but when Jock moved to Dunfermline, things became chaotic and haphazard. There was no real development programme and youngsters were pitched into the first team long before they were ready. Team selections were crazy and inconsistent, League points were habitually lost to weaker teams, and Cup Finals were reached only for the team to collapse badly in the Final.

Yet Chalmers maintained his dignity through all this. He always was well dressed and a perfect role model for youngsters, rarely in trouble with referees or authorities and capable of some fine performances. He was even on the fringe of the Scotland team, often in the squad, but it would be some time before he could oust the likes of Alan Gilzean and Ian St. John. He did however distinguish himself in a few games for the Scottish League team.

It would be fair to say the Stevie reached his peak in 1964 before Jock Stein arrived. He had a brilliant start to that season, scoring two great goals to beat Rangers in the rain at Parkhead in early September, then rescuing his team from a rather large hole against East Fife in the League Cup Quarter Final. The Fifers had beaten Celtic 2-0 at Methil in the First Leg, and humiliation beckoned until Stevie notched 5 at Parkhead in the Second Leg.

Form like this earned him his first of five Scotland caps in October 1964, but tragedy struck the Celtic side when they lost the League Cup Final to a lucky but clinical Rangers side. Chalmers thought he had the ball over the line early in the second half but referee Hugh Phillips was unimpressed by Chalmers' impassioned appeal, and the Kelly/McGrory regime never recovered from this debacle. The autumn and winter of that year saw dreadful times and even after the appointment of Jock Stein in January 1965, recovery was far from certain.

Chalmers was now on the right wing as Jimmy Johnstone (having been sent off on New Year's Day at Ibrox) was temporarily out of favour and John Hughes was in the centre. And Stevie played his part in the capture of the Scottish Cup in 1965, as the glory days were launched. Bertie Auld was now there in the forward line, and Stevie and Bertie, two entirely different characters, reacted well to each other

Chalmers might have seen the arrival of Joe McBride and Willie Wallace and the re-invention of Jimmy Johnstone in the early Stein years as some sort of threat to his place. But Stein was far too impressed by Chalmers' dedication and commitment to the Cause to allow Stevie to become disheartened. Chalmers was of course used to the chopping and changing of a forward line. It had happened all his Parkhead life, but the difference here was that there was some thought behind it. Stein would often say “Horses for Courses”. There was seldom a more willing horse than Steve Chalmers – and Jock would normally find a place for him in an important game like a European match or a Cup Final.

Chalmers won a League medal in 1966 and then reached one of the peaks of an already remarkable career when he scored for Scotland against Brazil in a game that Brazil had arranged as a World Cup warm-up. It was a fine goal too, early in the game, and much admired by Pele and the other Brazilian legends.

The Lisbon year of 1967 was of course marked by Stevie's winning goal, that marvellous touch-on of Murdoch's powerful drive. But he is also due a great deal of credit for scoring the first goal against Vojvodina and for running his socks off in Prague as the only forward in that nerve-wracking Semi Final. Considering that he was 30 by that time, the amount of running he put in was remarkable. And this was as well as winning a Scottish domestic Treble!

He won League medals in 1968 and 1969, and played his part in that glorious April of 1969 when the team won all three Scottish trophies. It was he who scored the fourth goal in the rout of Rangers in the Scottish Cup Final, something that paid them back for 1963 and other horror stories of Chalmers' early career.

Stevie had the misfortune to break his leg in the League Cup Final win over St.Johnstone in October 1969, and seldom played again for Celtic, joining Morton in September 1971, and beginning more and more to enjoy his round of golf. In later years, he would become the Celtic Pools organiser and would visit the house of anyone who might wish to become an Agent. Many a fan volunteered for this job, simply because it involved a knock on your door from the man who scored the winning goal in Lisbon.

Stevie's son Paul played a few games for the Club in the mid-1980s, but never reached the heights of his illustrious father. Indeed they would have been difficult to reach, for Steve Chalmers scored 241 goals for the Club, something that entitles him to be mentioned in the same breath as Jimmy McGrory, Bobby Lennox, Henrik Larsson and Jimmy Quinn. That says it all, really.

Interview: Stevie Chalmers, Celtic legend

The Scotsman

By AIDAN SMITH
Published on Saturday 15 September 2012 00:00

A COUPLE of years ago, en route to another football rendezvous, my Glasgow taxi driver wanted to know why I wasn’t interviewing his friend from the golf club, an ex-player with a unique story to tell, though the cabby had to concede that Stevie Chalmers probably wouldn’t want to tell it, seeing as he was such a modest fellow.

“A shame,” he said, “because some of the other Lisbon Lions have had more than one book published and yet Stevie scored the goal that won the European Cup. Think about that; it’s probably something we’ll never see a Scottish team do again.” I asked the cabby for Chalmers’ phone number, hoping I might get the chance to meet him one day, and now I do.

Chalmers lives in Troon, the prim and perjink and pampas grass-resplendent little Ayrshire town dominated by his other great love. The golfers are all wearing woolly hats today as protection against the stiff breeze but the Celtic legend, still sporting a fine head of hair at 76, doesn’t need one. He’s waiting for me at the train station, his VW parked in a prime spot. “The taxi boys don’t normally let you stop here but, ach, they saw it was me,” he says. Don’t go thinking, though, that Chalmers lords his fitba’ fame around these parts. As we’ve established, he’s not that kind of guy.

“I wasn’t going to write a book,” he continues as rain pitter-pats on the roof of the small conservatory to the rear of his bungalow and his wife Sadie fetches tea. He doesn’t say what changed his mind but you get the feeling that changing it back again and not lending his name to The Winning Touch wouldn’t have been a tragedy for him. The memoirs, ghostwritten, have been serialised in a tabloid and Chalmers is perturbed by the headline on the very latest extracts: “I hated Jock for Celts axe.” He winces. “I would never say I hated anyone.” The offending word does appear in the book, in the chapter on the sad end to his Hoops career in 1971 when he was moved on to Morton, but it’s clear from the rest of the text that his relationship with the Big Jock wasn’t straightforward and of course neither was winning European Cups.

At one point in the book Chalmers says: “I did not find him [Stein] to be the most supportive of people.” Four pages later comes the revelation: “He never spoke to me at length about anything.” But six pages after that there’s a description of the manager’s revolutionary approach to team-talks and how, through, detailed analysis of the opposition on the tactics board, each player left the briefings with a “mini-movie” in their heads of how the upcoming game was going to unfold.

Chalmers was never the type to mump and moan and bang on the manager’s door so, he reckons, was easier to drop than others. The only time he was hugged by Stein was after a lonely and extremely bruising shift as the solitary striker away to Dukla Prague, the 
semi-final tie that sent Celtic to Lisbon. Jock was the boss “and that was that,” the book confirms. He could make players do exactly what he wanted. On the rare occasions they didn’t, and they were sat beside him on the bench, he’d point to those playing in their places and 
rubbish the new men. “He was so cute it was incredible,” says Chalmers now. Just one hug and yet “he knew better than anyone what was good for me”. To sum up: a genius.

We’ll return to the Stein Years but let’s go back to the very start for the old centre-forward because he almost didn’t see Lisbon or anything of his glorious 1960s when he was Celtic’s pre-eminent goalgrabber. At the age of 20, then playing for Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, he was struck down by tuberculosis meningitis. “I didn’t know what it was, or what it meant for me.” Tuberculosis bacteria had entered the fluid surrounding his brain and spinal cord and ironically Chalmers was holed up in the Belvidere hospital a goal-kick from Parkhead where he’d 
really wanted to be.

“I was getting lumbar punctures: kneeling on the bed, a nurse holding me in position while a doctor went in with his syringe,” he recalls. “Boy, that was tough, although in the early days I still didn’t think my condition was too serious. Then I noticed how my fellow patients kept disappearing. The curtains would be dragged right round their beds before they were wheeled away. I wasn’t allowed to do very much which for a young sportsman was hard. When no one was looking I’d drop my legs over the side of the bed to try and get them moving. I’d like to think my good health and fitness helped me. I know that Dr Peter McKenzie helped me. He was the head consultant at the Belvidere and after I’d made a full recovery he let me see a film he’d made of my treatment which he was going to show round Canada and the United States. He told me that no one with tuberculosis meningitis had been walking out of the hospital alive. I suppose I was his star patient.”

Chalmers’ idol, in football and in life, was his father David. “I worshipped him and wanted to emulate him. He played alongside [future Celtic legend] Jimmy McGrory at Clydebank in the 1920s and was capped for Scotland as a Junior.” Born four years before the outbreak of war but not restricted by it, he’d practice heading against the walls of his bomb shelter whenever the Luftwaffe threatened Glasgow. The family’s tenement flat overlooking Glasgow’s Alexandra Parade came with a rope, to be used for canal rescues. “I couldn’t swim so I avoided that canal. Being the baby of the family, I suppose my father was quite protective of me. He was a quiet man by nature but he’d take me on long walks and tell me stories about Jimmy McGrory and we always had a ball with us. He also told me how important it was to avoid trouble and I’d like to think I’ve always heeded his words.”

Chalmers’ time in Paradise, 12 years all told, has two drastically different phases: before Stein and after. Pre-Big Jock was a strange interlude; he labels it “eccentric”. “We were a big club with a big support but we were run like a small business. On match-days the rumour was that Desmond White, the secretary, would take a quick look across the terraces and mutter the first figure that came into his head – 23,000, say – and that would be recorded as the official attendance.” Even though McGrory was the manager, it was chairman Bob Kelly who picked the team. And when Chalmers was first to arrive for training – “I reckoned I had to work harder than the other guys because of my illness” – and he’d try to sneak in some ball-work in the gymnasium, the heavy sphere would be snatched from him and locked away. “You’ll see enough of it on Saturday,” he was told.

When training properly got under way, two balls would be used. “But if one was punted over the stand you’d be struggling,” he continues. “Under Jock, though, everybody had a ball. That made us feel more professional. Celtic at that time needed a revolution and we couldn’t have had a better man for it. The board knew that they weren’t to bother him; he’d run the team his way. And he was as anxious as we were to win something. Just winning the Old Firm game would have been a start.”

Chalmers had scored on his Old Firm debut, the 1960 Scottish Cup final, and would be congratulated for the goal in a letter from Dr McKenzie, a Rangers fan, hailing him as “a triumph of modern medicine” – but Celtic were beaten in the replay and got into a losing habit in the fixture. So when he netted a hat-trick for Stein in the 1966 Ne’er Day game, the Hoops coming from behind to win 5-1, he was delighted and thought the boss would be, too.

“What manager wouldn’t throw you up in the air, catch you and give you a cuddle? But Jock just glowered at me!” he laughs. “Then he told me he wouldn’t have picked me as man of the match, that Yogi [John Hughes] deserved it. Maybe he did that for my own good, in case I got a big head. I’d like to think I wouldn’t. But I do understand Jock’s motives much better now when maybe I didn’t at the time.”

Did Stein have favourites? “All managers do. I don’t think I was one of them but he held Billy [McNeill] in great regard. He had a special relationship with Wee Jinky [Jimmy Johnstone] as well although there were times he could have killed him! I remember how he used to gather us round for a talk and as he was speaking Jimmy would be playing keepy-uppy at the back and then the wee man would dribble round him. Jimmy wasn’t being deliberately disruptive; he just needed to be playing with a ball the whole time. No one else would have gotten away with that.”

Did any of the players speak at these meetings or dare challenge Stein? “Well, if anyone did it would probably be Bertie [Auld] and maybe Tam Gemmell was second-bravest. I don’t think I ever spoke. I knew my place!” And Chalmers’ place on 25 May, 1967 – the glorious conclusion to a season where before every match Stein had urged “Go out and entertain these people” and Celtic had won every trophy available to them – was bang on the six-yard line making a brilliant nuisance of himself in front of Inter Milan’s fine 
goalkeeper Giuliano Sarti for the strike which would win the European Cup.

Chalmers suffered disappointments in football, not least in the dark blue, and although he was happy to win a Junior cap like his dear old dad, five senior appearances for Scotland is a small return for such a prolific centre-forward. On international trips he roomed with Denis Law and as the squad broke up the Lawman always thanked him in front of the others for being such a good butler – but he scored in his first two appearances only to be omitted by the selectors; he netted our first-ever goal against Brazil but was dropped for the next game; and he was down as 12th man for the “unofficial champions of the world” win over England until Celtic team-mate Willie Wallace nicked his place. These are familiar tales, though. Chalmers knows many were similarly frustrated and he’s careful not to complain too much. For he will 
always have Lisbon and what happened in the 84th minute.

Long before then, Chalmers had been everywhere a poacher shouldn’t be: right-half and even right-back as he and Bobby Lennox deferred to the thunderous shooting of Gemmell, Auld and Bobby Murdoch. “We will attack and keep on attacking until we win this game,” had been Stein’s promise. But, watching on fuzzy black-and-white TV as a boy, your correspondent was convinced Murdoch had scored the winner.

“Do you know we practiced getting these wee nicks in training? Balls would be fired across, deliberately miscued, and Yogi, Willie and myself and, before he got injured, poor Joe McBride would try and steer them in. I even remember Jock swinging his big left leg at a couple. Against Inter, I’d been all over the pitch – we all had – and their defenders were great markers but they were getting tired. I knew what Bobby Murdoch was going to do – pile it in – and I’d made up my mind what I was going to do, too. I waited on the blind side of their sweeper and nipped in front of him at the very last moment.”

Chalmers still gets asked about the 84th minute. Every matchday at Parkhead, he’ll drive up with the Saltcoats-based Lennox for hospitality duties. A hoary argument over why Chalmers didn’t pass to his chum for the last goal in another final will be re-enacted on the journey and they’ll count the Bentleys in the players’ car park before meeting up with the other £45-a-week immortals. “Bertie always wants to hug you; some of the guys just shake hands. And one of us will aye remark on how we’re shrinking and getting that bit closer to the ground.” Chalmers has his own chair, which given he was perpetual motion that famous day seems fitting, and it’s the guests who do the rounds, all of them keen to know: “How did you feel scoring it … what like was it?”

The unassuming hero smiles. “One of the players who came after me, George McCluskey, will shout at them for a laugh: ‘Look at you lot, queuing up. What’s he done? He only scored one goal!’” And some of the liggers will be quite bold, daring to suggest that Murdoch’s shot hit off his right instep, that he knew very little about it. But Stevie Chalmers knew a lot about that goal and his manager knew even more. What did Stein say to him after the final whistle, freed from the embraces of Bill Shankly and dozens of delirious fans? “Nothing. He never mentioned the goal. But I didn’t expect him to, and nor was I especially upset about that. I was the centre-forward; it was my job.”

I was at gates to Paradise… but not in way I had dreamed

Stevie Chalmers on his six-month fight for life
By STEVIE CHALMERS, , The Sun
Published: 09th September 2012

EVEN when the ambulance screeched to a halt outside our house and the orderlies came panting up the stairs, I still didn’t think there was anything seriously wrong.

I was a young and very fit man. One so active in sport that, at 20 years old, I was still trying to decide whether I ought to pursue a career in top-level football or in professional golf.

It was unfathomable to me there could be any serious problem with my health.

But that illusion was soon utterly destroyed.

I was rushed from my home in Balornock to Belvidere Hospital, a stone’s throw from Celtic Park.

It had long been a private ambition of mine for there to be a special place reserved for me at Parkhead. But not in a hospital ward for the terminally ill.

The chance to enter Paradise had just drawn a good deal closer — but not in the way I wished.

I’d been playing Junior football for Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, happily awaiting my chance of being snapped up by a senior professional club, when I became ill.

It had seemed, initially, to be nothing more than a mild feeling of not being quite right in myself.

But, just to err on the side of caution, the doctor came out to see me and he immediately had me whisked into hospital.

At Belvidere they diagnosed me with TBM — tuberculosis meningitis — an extremely rare condition.

I didn’t know what it was exactly or what it meant for me, although I knew it was serious.

I know now that it means that tuberculosis bacteria have entered the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

I was given intensive treatment, including lumbar punctures three or four times a week.

It was only after I’d been in the ward for a few weeks the reality of my situation struck me fully.

Too many of my fellow patients were passing away for me to hide from the truth any longer.

There were, in that ward, some people slightly younger than myself, some children, who had been stricken with polio, and older people who had contracted tuberculosis.

Often I witnessed members of the medical staff gathering anxiously around somebody’s bed before the curtain was drawn solemnly all the way round.

Then the lifeless body of the patient in question would be wheeled out of the ward.

It also seemed ominous that I had been set down in ward 13.

From being impatient to be released from that old hospital, it soon got to the stage where I was happy simply to be alive.

My greatest emotion soon became extreme frustration as I was prevented from going outside the ward to walk about. It was as if we were condemned, cut off from society.

This was exceptionally hard on a young sportsman whose entire life had been based on athletic activity.

I wasn’t allowed to do very much at all but, when nobody was looking, I would put my legs over the side of the bed and get them moving. I didn’t want to get stiff, and if anyone came along I would quickly have to get my legs back up on to the bed and under the sheets. I do feel the high levels of good health and strength I’d built up before I became ill helped me endure both the illness and the severity of the necessary treatment.

Seeing those other poor people succumb to their various conditions encouraged me to fight even harder to make sure I left the ward alive and well.

I was inside that hospital for six dreary months. I spent my 21st birthday in the Belvidere.

Eventually it appeared as though I was clear of the illness and I was transferred to a nursing home in Touch, near Stirling. I spent six weeks there in a big, old house, convalescing in a quiet atmosphere. I felt my health returning very gradually.

Dr Peter McKenzie, a physician who specialised in infectious diseases, was the man who had overseen my progress in his role as the head consultant at Belvidere Hospital. I was his star patient, as it were.

It had been a fight for life and the closeness of my brush with mortality was only brought home to me fully when I was informed I was the first of his patients to walk out of Belvidere alive. That is how close I came to feeling the hand of death on my shoulder.

Of course, several years later I realised a dream by joining Celtic.

I steadily established myself as a first-team player and I had scored seven goals in 13 league appearances for the club by early April 1960, when we faced Rangers at Hampden Park in a Scottish Cup semi-final.

It was my first taste of the Old Firm fixture.

I managed to open the scoring but Jimmy Millar equalised for Rangers and at the end the deadlock remained.

Before the replay I received a very nice letter from Dr McKenzie.

It read: “Dear Stephen, Allow me to congratulate you on your wonderful performance on Saturday.

“I can assure you I was very proud to read of your great success, as you are undoubtedly a triumph of modern medicine.

“Had your illness occurred only 10 years ago, Celtic would not have had their right winger there to score such a brilliant goal.

“Even as a Rangers supporter I will be delighted to see you collect a Scottish Cup medal.”

Sadly, despite his very kind wishes, we lost the replay 4-1.

Adapted by DEREK McGREGOR

Goal of my dreams put Inter out of their misery

WINNING MENTALITY … Stevie Chalmers scores against Inter Milan
By DEREK McGREGOR, The Sun
Published: 09th September 2012

IN the wake of the European Cup Final Jock Stein never, ever took me aside and expressed gratitude or special appreciation for the goal that I had scored.

Not that I was looking for it or felt particularly upset that it never happened.

That was just Jock.

As centre-forward my job in the team was to score goals and that was what I had done on the day.

From Jock’s point of view there was probably no need to draw any special attention to the fact I had been the one who had scored.

I had been, as he probably saw it, simply doing my work.

That goal against Inter Milan has brought me nothing but happiness.

It meant a lot to my family too in the immediate aftermath. My brothers and sisters would go into work and people would congratulate them on my action.

My only tinge of regret is that my father never got to see it. He had passed away shortly before we got to the final in Lisbon.

I’ve been asked many times how I felt after I’d scored that goal in Lisbon.

The answer is EXHAUSTED.

I could feel cramp coming on after an afternoon pounding the pitch at the National Stadium in that sapping heat.

But the goal pepped me up somewhat and enabled me to see through the final five minutes.

After my goal, we knew we had won the European Cup.

Anyone watching that final closely would see right from the start that the Celtic players were taking up unexpected positions. It was Jock’s intention to outmanoeuvre the Italians by coming up with the unexpected.

Once we were on the field we had to adjust to the development of the game and work out for ourselves the best way to continue to bedazzle the Inter players.

We were all tuned into the idea. I felt strongly that this was our big chance and that we might never get this chance again.

During the first half, I didn’t get the ball as much as I expected, especially in a match in which we had so much possession and were continually going forward.

I was being marked by Gianfranco Bedin, but by moving around I was taking him into stupid places and leaving a gap in their defence into which one of our players could take the ball.

As the match wound towards its end, though, I’d had enough of veering here and there away from my position and not really getting on the ball very much.

I decided the time was right for me to get back where I belonged.

Having unsettled and confused the Italians by straying from my position for so long, perhaps the last place they now expected me to pop up was in the heart of their penalty area.

All afternoon I had been making runs to free up space for other people and in the 85th minute — as Tommy Gemmell played Bobby Murdoch in for a shot at goal — I had the favour returned, beautifully.

As the ball left Bobby’s foot, I had an inkling it was not going to be on target.

I nipped in and hit the ball, first time, with the instep of my right boot and it went to the left of Giuliano Sarti, leaving him standing, frozen.

It didn’t immediately hit me just how important that goal was when I scored it. You don’t want to think about it too much until the game’s finished.

But when my goal went in it was almost as though the Inter players were relieved it would soon be all over. They had been run off their feet by us. It had been the complete team performance from Celtic. Well, apart from Jim Craig’s slip in giving away the penalty. But we’ll say no more about that.

There were some terrific individual performances from our players on the day in Lisbon.

But we won the European Cup as a team.

For us it was the match of our lives — a match we had to win.

This game meant an awful lot more to us than it did to the Italians.

Prior to every match that season, Jock had told us that it could turn out to be an extraordinary season for us. His words gathered weight as the season rolled on and we had won everything else in sight — Scottish League, Scottish Cup and League Cup.

So by the time we got to Lisbon we really believed anything was possible for us.

Without Jock we would not have reached the final.

The goal Tommy Gemmell scored in the 63rd minute was the perfect equaliser. Everything about it was just wonderful.

And once the Inter goal had been breached, it was only a matter of time until it happened again. There was so much glorious confusion and chaos afterwards, so much singing and shouting in the dressing room, that we didn’t even know Billy McNeill was away up to get the cup.

Once he had returned to the dressing room it was filled with alcoholic beverages and we all had a refreshing sip.

Jock, who was tee-total, refrained. He later celebrated with a cup of tea.

Jimmy McGrory was a wonderful person, a manager who was always very kind to me and for whom I had enormous affection.

But I felt the same surge of excitement as everyone else at the club when I heard in January, 1965, that Jock would be leaving Hibernian and returning to Celtic as manager. We knew things would improve under him — it was simply a question of how far and how fast.

That is not to say that my progress under him was serene and smooth.

One of my most notable achievements with Jock at the helm arrived ten months after he had taken charge, when we came up against Rangers at Celtic Park in the derby match that would usher in the New Year of 1966.

I was delighted with my hat-trick in a 5-1 win. It makes me one of only three Celtic players to have scored a hat-trick in an Old Firm league match, putting me alongside greats Jimmy Quinn and Malky MacDonald.

When I came into the dressing room after the match I have to say that I was pretty pleased with myself. And it must have shown.

I thought the manager would be absolutely delighted for me. But instead I received a glower from Jock, who quickly attempted to puncture any self-satisfaction that I might be feeling.

‘Just to let you know,’ he said in his quietly forceful fashion, ‘I wouldn’t have picked you as the man of the match. I thought Yogi Hughes had a great game, out on the wing’.

In all the years I played under him as Celtic manager, I did not find Jock to be the most supportive of people.

But the greatest effect he had was to transform us from perennial losers into winners.

I’m glad wee Billy put the boot into Pele.. it made sure that I got his shirt

WHAT A SIGNING … Stevie Chalmers scored against Brazil stars and bagged special souvenir from Pele
By DEREK McGREGOR, The Sun
Published: 08th September 2012

IT’S a great thing to have your name still recognised for playing and scoring against Brazil.

After all, they haven’t lost too many goals to Scottish teams.

And getting the shirt of the legendary Pele made it even more special for me.

David Narey, with his wonderful goal against them at the World Cup in 1982, and John Collins, with a penalty in 1998, are the only other Scots who have put the ball behind a Brazilian goalkeeper.

It was a wonderful occasion, with a huge Saturday-evening Hampden Park crowd appreciative of our efforts against the world champions. Brazil also fielded players of the calibre of Jairzinho, Bellini, Gerson and Amarildo.

But it was clear to me, on a professional level, that the samba stars were saving themselves to a certain extent.

Our players had really wanted to put on a show against the No1 team in the world, not long after we’d lost 1-0 to Portugal.

But the Brazilians had a bigger prize in sight — the 1966 World Cup finals down in England.

Pele was a strong fellow, stronger than you might realise given how gracefully and lithely he moved across a football pitch.

But at Hampden he would try to keep out of tackles and the heftier challenges. He clearly didn’t want to suffer any injuries as he looked forward to the World Cup.

Billy Bremner, though, did everything to try to stop Pele destroying us.

He was right on top of him, trying to knock him out of his stride.

The Brazilians later complained about the ‘rough handling’ Pele had received from Bremner.

But I was quite happy that they had been up in arms about Billy’s treatment of the world’s pre-eminent footballer. Had Billy been a bit gentler, played it more like a friendly, I might not have found myself with Pele’s shirt.

I was thrilled once I discovered that I had been selected by John Prentice to play in the game, and excited to be playing against such a team and finding out for myself whether they were just as good as they had looked on television.

Before the match, we went out on to the park for a warm-up and the Brazilians were kicking in at goal.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Pele.

I said to Jim Baxter: ‘Look at Pele. Isn’t he brilliant?’

Jim replied, in his lilting, broad Fife accent, totally cocksure: ‘Never mind Pele… wait until you see ME.’

Baxter was as good as his word that day. He strolled through the game. He was super. And within a minute of the start I was in dreamland.

Baxter pinged a beautiful ball in my direction and, feeling fresh and eager, I got round Fidelis, the right-back, and, slightly off balance, got good contact on the ball with my right foot and clipped a shot past Gilmar, the Brazil goalkeeper, from just outside the six-yard box.

He had no chance of saving it and the ball nestled in the net.

My immediate sensation was one of almost uncontainable delight at scoring for my country in front of a wonderfully large Hampden Park crowd.

Sadly, Servilio equalised for Brazil after quarter of an hour’s play.

The game finished 1-1, with great credit to Scotland.

Bremner had clearly come to the conclusion that the only way to stop Pele was to injure him, which was not a very nice way to go about things.

So when the final whistle blew and Billy made a beeline straight for Pele to exchange jerseys, Pele waved our fiery redhead away and instead turned around in MY direction and offered to swap with me instead.

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Pele’s jersey is one of my favourite souvenirs of my time in football, even though I was never one to go looking for jerseys from big-name opponents at the end of a match.

He didn’t speak very much English so he didn’t say anything significant to me as we exchanged shirts.

But I was just so happy to wait for him to peel the jersey over his head and say thank you.

It may seem strange, but even though we were about to face two of the most accomplished teams to participate in the 1966 World Cup, in the shape of Portugal and Brazil, some Scottish players had opted to have a couple of extra weeks on the beach rather than perform for their country.

I would never have taken that option.

Nor was I craving a holiday myself, even after a lengthy, demanding season and a long tour across the Pond with Celtic that had followed on immediately from our winning the Scottish League Championship and also reaching both domestic cup finals and the semis of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup.

Brazil saw the match with Scotland as assimilation for playing in British conditions and for meeting the type of northern European opposition – especially England themselves – that might be encountered in the World Cup finals.

I remain proud of our performance.

Denis Law was my room-mate while on international duty and Denis would kid on: ‘Hey you, my boots need brought down.’

It was all just joking and keeping everyone together.

Denis was actually very good to me – at the end of each trip he would generously make a point of thanking me in front of everyone else…

For having been such a good BUTLER to him.

When Ian McColl left the post of Scotland manager and Jock Stein took over from him, on a part-time basis, during the second half of 1965, my chances of further Scotland caps may have seemed, from the outside, to have brightened considerably.

But Jock would overlook me for Scotland entirely during that period.

Supersnub

By ROBERT MARTIN, The Sun
Published: 10th March 2011

STEVIE CHALMERS revealed Pele sought him out to hand him his famous No10 Brazil shirt — because he DIDN’T want Billy Bremner to get his hands on it!

The Lisbon Lion put John Prentice’s Scotland side ahead in the first minute in the 1-1 draw with the then world champions back in June 1966.

Some 45 years on Chalmers admits the Samba superstar’s actions at the end of the Hampden clash are as vivid to him as the goal he scored.

Bremner tracked Pele for the entire game and when the full-time whistle blew headed straight for the world’s greatest player to ask for his jersey.

Pele, brassed off by Bremner’s bruising treatment, REFUSED and turned to Chalmers instead.

Chalmers said: “I was lucky enough to get Pele’s jersey and I still have it.

“Billy wanted the shirt, and Pele knew he wanted it as well.

“Billy had kicked lumps out of Pele during the game, so when he asked him for his shirt he said no.

“I was close by at this stage and he turned and gave it to me. I was absolutely delighted.

“Afterwards we were all having a wee refreshment together, and Pele was in the corner, not wanting to make himself an attraction.

“I wanted to go across and get him to sign it, but I didn’t have the heart.

“It was still wonderful to get it, and a great honour to play against Brazil. They were the world champions at the time and it was a big, big thing to play in that game.

“I was never one for asking for jerseys or keeping them, but I’ve NEVER been tempted to part with that shirt.

“I have a big family and they all appreciate these things.”

Chalmers, now 74, was back at Hampden yesterday to promote the forthcoming friendly between the two countries at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium later this month.

He admits his goal against the Brazilians in 1966 was the highlight of the five Scotland caps he won.

He recalled: “Jim Baxter knocked the ball to me and it was quite a good shot which swerved away from the keeper. It was a great start because you don’t want a hammering from these teams.

“Brazil were a very good side at the time and they were getting ready for the 1966 World Cup.

“They were on a tour to learn about other sides and the style of football they played.

“When I heard we were going to be playing them there was a tremendous feeling of excitement.

“It will be the same for the boys who are picked for this game.

“They will really appreciate it, because you don’t get a chance like this very often. They will all remember playing against Brazil and I certainly do.”

Stevie Chalmers: Modest member of the pride

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/13073537.Stevie_Chalmers__Modest_member_of_the_pride/

18 Sep 2012 / Richard Wilson, Sports writer

An impromptu tour of the Celtic Park boardroom inevitably leads Stevie Chalmers to the trophy cabinet.

"There it is," he says, as he stands in front of the European Cup. To Chalmers, the silence that follows does not need to be filled with gratuitous remarks. He would, by his nature, consider any triumphant words an act of self-indulgence.

His modest nature must feel at times that the feats of his career have to be tolerated. His regular visits to Celtic Park are taken up by endless reminiscing. There tend to be queues of people waiting to return him to the 1960s, as if nostalgia is the only mood he provokes. Chalmers is happy to ransack his memories, though, even if it is to take the opportunity to downplay his own importance to Celtic's history.

For a time, he did not even take note of his standing among the club's strikers. The records are second nature to him now, not least because they are constantly used to introduce him. He is Celtic's fourth top scorer of all time, and averaged a goal every two games for the club. Yet in truth, one goal was enough to endear Chalmers to every generation of the Celtic support.

He is often asked about the strike that won the European Cup in 1967, mostly by fans who wonder if he was aware of his foot diverting Bobby Murdoch's shot and sending the ball beyond Giuliano Sarti, the Internazionale goalkeeper. On first impression the finish can seem fortunate, but like much of Celtic's display in Lisbon, it had been meticulously planned by Jock Stein. The manager often drilled his strikers in training to take up positions inside the penalty area to take advantage of shots from long range. "Jock was the whole answer to our great run," Chalmers said firmly. "You can't doubt that."

Like the rest of the Lisbon Lions, he must constantly relive that triumph. The subject will seem poignant at Celtic Park tomorrow night, when the club hosts Benfica in the Champions League. After the draw for the group stages, some sharp-witted Celtic supporters pointed out that fate had been cruel to Spartak Moscow in pitching them in against three former winners of the trophy. History provides clubs with their sense of identity and esteem, but the contemporary game has encouraged an elite to develop, and only Barcelona of the four teams in Group G can be thought of as genuine contenders.

That scenario saddens Chalmers. During his career, Celtic reached the final again in 1970, losing to Feyenoord, as well as twice contesting the semi-finals of the Cup-Winners' Cup. Six days after Celtic's glory in Lisbon, Rangers lost to Bayern Munich, after extra-time, in the final of the Cup-Winners Cup, the tournament they eventually won in 1972. Scottish clubs, then, considered themselves among Europe's leading teams, but the old order has been disrupted.

"It's a real different set up from what we had," said Chalmers of the Champions League group stages. "I don't know if I would like the way it is, with plenty of money and good crowds because they're all diving around for tickets, or if I would prefer it the way we played it. There is so much football on television, and you're seeing spectacular goals, free-kicks all the time, it's a different game altogether now.

"I suppose you would like to play in it, as a forward, because the better the football and the better the team, the easier it is. If you played for a good team, you would appreciate it. There are so many players moving about now, though, that they start to know each other, whatever teams they play for. It's completely different. There weren't as many moves in our time. Anybody who's sensible might say, 'how did you not get to one of those teams like Barcelona?'"

Chalmers was devoted to Celtic, although there was little prospect of moving abroad in those days anyway. In his recently published autobiography, The Winning Touch, he tells of his eventual departure to Morton in 1971, and the dismay of being sold by Stein. The Celtic manager was capable of great insight, and there was a formidable understanding of psychology, but he was also a schemer.

In the book, Chalmers is self-aware enough to recognise that he never stood up to Stein, or was never prepared to answer back, unlike some of his colleagues. Despite being told he was leaving, he didn't challenge the move. Stein could be a stern figure, even as he was urging his players to be entertainers, but he would have recognised the resolve in Chalmers. The striker did not need the same mollycoddling as Jimmy Johnstone, for instance, but nor was there the warmth of Stein's relationship with Billy McNeill, or his admiration for Bobby Murdoch.

"I had a bad period in the early 60s, and I was nearly getting chased off," Chalmers recalls. "But once Jock took over, he wanted me to stay. You can say he didn't fancy this player or that player, but you have to do that as a manager. He got on well with the players and they got on well with him. I had played more as a midfielder, but Jock decided that I was pacy enough to play centre-forward.

"Jock was more than just a manager or just a trainer, he wanted to know everybody in the team. He got in with all of us, he would have functions that you would take your wife with you to, and it got everybody moving as one pack. He took us on a five-week tour to America. None of us would ever have been able to go on holiday there, and he worked it so well. That's what pulled us together."

The Champions League is a source of glamour for Celtic, but the intrigue that it provides is of greater value. The form of Neil Lennon's side in the Clydesdale Bank Premiere League has been subdued, and one theory is that the absence of Rangers has dulled the competitive pressure. Chalmers relished the Old Firm encounters, and he is the last player to score a hat trick in a league game between the two sides. He, too, misses the presence of the rivalry this season, and wonders how it will affect his old club.

"It's not going to do anything for Celtic," he says. "It's a hard situation. I'm worried about how the teams will survive without the [Old Firm] games. I can't see any way that it's going to be good. They needed to be punished, but [the SPL clubs are] punishing themselves, because they needed Rangers."

The great achievements of Chalmers' career are also among the most triumphant moments of Celtic's history. Other players left more glaring memories, but the quiet accumulation of distinction is in keeping with his character. "I got what I deserved," he says. "Football was a right good job for me."

The Winning Touch, by Stevie Chalmers, is published by Headline, price £19.99.

Happy 81st Birthday to Stevie Chalmers

By: Paul Cuddihy on 26 Dec, 2016 13:01WHILE Christmas Day is the main focus of festive celebrations, in the Chalmers household, Boxing Day is just as special, and today Stevie Chalmers celebrates his 81st birthday.The Celtic legend is one of our greatest ever goalscorers and the man who scored the most important goal in the club’s history, and the whole Celtic Family wishes Stevie a very happy birthday.Stevie scored 231 goals for Celtic during a 12-year career with the club, making him the fourth top goalscorer of all-time. Only Henrik Larsson (242), Bobby Lennox (277) and Jimmy McGrory (468) have scored more goals for Celtic.Yet that trio of legends can’t claim to have score the single most important goal in Celtic’s history. Stevie Chalmers can. It came on Thursday, May 25, 1967 at the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon. With just five minutes of the European Cup final remaining, Chalmers knocked home a Bobby Murdoch shot into the Inter Milan net to give Celtic a 2-1 victory and ensuring they became the first club from Northern Europe to lift the prestigious trophy.It was the crowning glory for the club, the manager, the group of players he assembled and, of course, for the supporters who, just two years before, had seen their side finish eighth in the league. It also ensured that Stevie Chalmers’ name will forever be remembered by Celtic fans.‘It didn’t immediately hit me just how important that goal was when I scored it,’ Chalmers admitted in his autobiography, The Winning Touch. ‘You don’t want to think about it too much until the game’s finished.’If Lisbon was the pinnacle, then there were many other highlights for the forward who had made his debut as far back as 1959. He netted a league hat-trick against Rangers, the last Celt to do so up to 2015; only Bobby Lennox in the Glasgow Cup and Harry Hood in the League Cup have matched that feat. Chalmers also scored in the 1969 Scottish Cup final, hit five goals in a game against Hamilton, when Lennox also scored five that night, and was top scorer in four seasons.Many supporters have, down through the years, visited the famous stadium in Lisbon where history was made, standing on the spot where Chalmers connected with the ball, or re-enacting that moment. Only one man did it for real, and it accorded him legendary status.PRELUDE TO PARADISELike so many that had come before him, Stevie Chalmers’ pathway to Paradise came via the Garngad. As the area had produced the great Jimmy McGrory, Chalmers had a lot to live up to but soon caught the eye of Celtic after a fruitful junior career during which he turned out for the likes of Kirkintilloch Rob Roy and Ashfield. His arrival at Celtic in the February of 1959, coincided with the emergence of youngsters such as Billy McNeill and John Clark who would soon be joined by the likes of Jimmy Johnstone, John Hughes and Tommy Gemmell, a group who were given the moniker of the Kelly Kids after the then Celtic chairman Robert Kelly, and would form the spine of Celtic’s most successful ever team.Recalling his pre-Celtic years, Chalmers said: ‘An early memory that I have of Celtic which immediately comes to mind is as a junior player at Rob Roy. One of our league games had just finished and they announced over the tannoy that the result from the League Cup final was Rangers 1 Celtic 7. There was a stunned silence and I could hardly believe it myself. I was a Celtic supporter, but the club I was playing for couldn’t be described as ‘Celtic-minded’ so I think the result shocked a few people that day. I still remember that announcement as clear as day and the looks on a few people’s faces. That was in 1957 and two years later, I had joined the club myself.’DEBUT BHOYStevie Chalmers’ first start would see him take to the field against Partick Thistle in the spring of 1959 where the 23-year-old’s tireless running soon lit up the Celtic support. Described as a raw talent in the first team, he had all the attributes of a world-class striker, such as the ability to set up goals as well as score them. Indeed, this attribute and understanding of the game, allowed him to bring other players into the game – a skill that would be greatly utilised following the arrival of Jock Stein.In his autobiography, Chalmers admitted: ‘It’s a funny thing, but it was not until my second game for Celtic, which took place six months after my debut, that I felt as if I truly arrived. A lot of that was because it was an away match, against Fife side Raith Rovers at Starks Park … Travelling on the bus alongside several Celtic greats of the 1950s, such as Bobby Evansm Bertie Peacock and Neilly Mochan, with them all having me on about different things and having a great laugh, albeit at my expense, made me feel great. It made me feel as though I was among people who really wanted me to be there.‘I also scored two goals, which always helps, in a 3-0 win. I enjoyed that game a lot more than my debut. I felt as though I was much more integrated into the scene, and the team. It felt, to me, like my first real start at Celtic Park.’HIGHLIGHTSThe absolute highlight for Stevie Chalmers, along with his team-mates, came on May 25, 1967, with the European Cup triumph in Lisbon. He won a total of 15 trophies with Celtic, and was in the team which lifted the Scottish Cup in 1965, the club’s first trophy under Jock Stein. He scored 231 goals for the club, and he was the last player to net a league hat-trick against Rangers, the treble coming on January 3, 1966 in a 5-1 derby demolition. He was also part of the Celtic team which swept their Glasgow rivals aside in the 1969 Scottish Cup final to secure a domestic treble. Yet, for the striker, it always comes right back to Lisbon and that goal.Reflecting on the events of May 1967, Chalmers said: ‘That goal has brought me nothing but happiness; it has had nothing other than good effects for me. It meant a lot to my family too in the immediate aftermath; my brothers and sisters would go into work and people would congratulate them on my action. My only tinge of regret is that my father never got to see it; he had passed away shortly before we got to the final in Lisbon. It would have been lovely for him to see that.’LOW POINTSThe 12 years Stevie Chalmers spent at Paradise can be characterised around the central figure of Jock Stein. Prior to the manager’s arrival he and Celtic had struggled to turn their ability on the field into trophies, with Chalmers often cutting a lonesome figure up front. Chalmers would remark how frustrating it was to see Celtic run like a ‘small business’ during this time, with often only two footballs provided for training. There were disappointing league campaigns, poor cup runs and occasional final defeats. That would only change with the arrival of Stein in 1965. The lowest point of Chalmers’ time at Paradise was the broken leg sustained in the 1969 League Cup final against St Johnstone – an injury that all but ended his Celtic career.BOWING OUTLike so many of the Lisbon Lions, Chalmers’ time at Celtic would come to a gradual end as the emergence of the Quality Street Gang soon challenged the first-team regulars at Paradise. As he battled back from a broken leg, the striker would have to contend with competition from the likes of Vic Davidson, Lou Macari, and a young Kenny Dalglish for a striking starting berth. In typical fashion though, Chalmers the hero of Lisbon would sign off from the Bhoys in typical goal-scoring form against Clyde in a league encounter at Celtic Park in May 1971. It was the Lions’ last stand as they defeated their neighbours 6-1.Recalling that occasion, Chalmers said: ‘Celtic Park was packed that day – Jock’s announcement of the final collective appearance had doubled the crowd for what had otherwise been something of a dead rubber … We were 5-1 ahead and the game was coursing towards its conclusion when Tommy McCulloch, the Clyde goalkeeper, saved my shot from inside the six-yard box but failed to gather the ball. I followed up to put the rebound into the net. It was surely fitting that the scorer of the winner in Lisbon should also net the final goal for the Lions … I had scored in what proved to be my final league match for Celtic, even if I did not know it at the time.’BLUE AND WHITE HOOPSStevie Chalmers would attempt to continue his football career as he left Celtic by taking up a player/coach position with Morton before finally hanging up his boots at Partick Thistle. During his time at Cappielow, he was reunited with his former Lisbon Lions team-mate, John Clark.He said: ‘When Jock sent me down to Greenock to play with Morton, I was taking all the training with John Clark and we had to play as well, but I realised then I couldn’t keep myself fit while I was trying to keep other people fit. I couldn’t do the two at once and it came back on me. It seemed hard, but the hardest thing was leaving Celtic in the first place. No disrespect to Morton, but leaving Celtic Park to go to Cappielow was hard for me.’FAMILY TRADITIONStevie Chalmers’ first steps on his pathway to Paradise were influenced by father, David, who was his idol. Having started his career at Celtic but not made a first-team appearance, David Chalmers would go on to turn out for Clydebank. It was during this time that he would take to the field alongside Jimmy McGrory, who was on loan at the club, allowing the young Chalmers to be brought up with countless stories about the skills of the Celtic legend.He recalled: ‘My Father, David, was a professional footballer and he, very quietly, was always there to help me. He taught me how to kick the ball and trap the ball and I always remember that he used to take me up to Springburn Park and would place the ball and try and hit the crossbar. He was quite accurate at it and he encouraged me to practice and do the same. He played for Clydebank, back when they were more of a prominent senior team and he actually played alongside Jimmy McGrory. My Dad was a major influence on my career and I had always wanted to play football, I never really wanted to do anything else.’FROM BARROWFIELD TO LISBONThe winning goal in Lisbon may have seemed, to some observers, an opportunistic chance by a striker inside the box. It was not. Instead, it was the result of countless hours of practice on Celtic’s training ground, as Bobby Lennox explained: ‘Stevie scoring the winning goal in the European Cup final is my outstanding memory of him. It was the type of goal he had scored a thousand times in training, and while it might have looked as though Stevie just luckily got his toe to it, it was no surprise to any of us that Stevie had been the one to put the ball in the net. He was expert at knowing just how to get into the right spot and get that vital touch on a ball – that was the result of years of practice.’HAT-TRICK HEROThere have been very few players to have netted a hat-trick in a derby match against Rangers, and each treble is remembered in its own right. When Stevie Chalmers achieved it on January 3, 1966, it was the first hat-trick by a Celt against the Ibrox club since Malky MacDonald did so in 1938.Stevie Chalmers said of his derby treble: “Scoring a hat-trick is great for a striker but managing it against Rangers was a wee bit special and I’m amazed that it hasn’t been repeated since then. I know there’s been a couple in cup competitions – wee Bobby in the Glasgow Cup and then Harry in the League Cup – but it’s been a long time in the league. It’s something that really stands out because it has been so long and I’m quite surprised that Henrik Larsson never managed it.’