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Fullname: Samuel Wilson
aka: Sammy Wilson, Sam Wilson
Born:16 December 1931
Died: 8 Nov 2014
Birthplace: Glasgow
Signed: May 1957 (free transfer)
Left: Free 1959; July 1959 (to Millwall)
Position: Inside-left (midfield)
Debut: East Fife 1-4 Celtic, League Cup, 14 Aug 1957
Internationals: none
Biog
After being released by St Mirren he was snapped up by the Bhoys in May 1957 on a free transfer, he would make his debut in a 4-1 League Cup victory at East Fife on August 14th. He played right-half in that tie but would soon be switched to inside left where he formed an excellent partnership with Billy McPhail.
An inventive player capable of creating and scoring goals he seemed to have found the perfect foil in Billy McPhail. Sammy Wilson and Billy McPhail both netted in a 3-2 victory over Rangers on September 21st as Celtic claimed there first league victory at Ibrox for 22 years.
With Billy McPhail beside him, Sammy Wilson was a constant menace to defenders and on 19th October 1957 the pair would inspire one of the most fondly remembered victories in Celtic history as the Bhoys destroyed Rangers 7-1 in the final of the League Cup (‘Hampden in the Sun‘). Billy McPhail would net a famous hat-trick but it was Sammy Wilson who set the ball rolling with the opening goal on 22 minutes. In doing so he set in motion a Celtic onslaught which will be remembered forever by Celtic supporters. It wasn’t just the final in which he had made his mark, with Sammy Wilson having scored seven goals in the entire run to the title victory.
He was a regular scorer for Celtic, and towards the end of the 1957/58 season he was a new great goal scoring hero for Celtic, with an incredible 32 goals in 44 games that season. Celtic finished third in the league that season, let down by too many dropped points from drawn games, however Hearts were rampant and won the title by a large margin with an incredible 132 goals scored in their league challenge.
Sadly for Sammy Wilson and Celtic, Billy McPhail was forced to retire in August 1958 due to a knee injury. With his perfect partner gone, Sammy Wilson simply never looked the same player reflected in his lower goal scoring rate in season 1958/59 compared to the previous season, with just 4 goals in 14 league games compared to 23 goals in 34 games in the previous season.
Celtic slumped to sixth in the league title challenge, the loss of the Billy McPhail dynamic was continuing the poor luck for Celtic, and Sammy Wilson sufferred for this.
He may have struggled for goals through much of the 1958/59 season, but there were some high points such as scoring four goals in a match, in an 8-1 victory over Cowdenbeath in the League Cup, but that skewed his tally for the season to 15 goals in 27 games. He was dropped from the Celtic first team for around a 2-3 month period from early November 1958 to late January 1959, but even on his return his goal scoring return was not impressive, and his goals were more sporadic than consistently scored through this season.
He scored a double in his penultimate appearance for Celtic, in a 3-0 victory over Hibs in the league, but his final match appearance was a humiliating 4-0 loss to St Mirren in the league.
He was released in the summer of 1959 moving on to join Millwall in the lower reaches of the English Football League where he played 23 games and scored 11 goals in the 1959/60 season.
Sammy Wilson surprisingly in the summer of 1960, having spent only one season in England, moved back to Scotland to continue his professional football career, albeit on a part time basis. He signed up with Highland Football League Club, Ross County F.C. in the north of Scotland, where he spent many seasons, then finally signing for his last professional club, Brora Rangers FC, again in the Highland Football League, but this time in the far north of Scotland.
An interesting point is that he had to combine playing for Celtic with training to be a motor mechanic. Working one Sunday in four to make up for playing football, a far cry from the modern first team footballer at Celtic.
Sammy Wilson hit an incredible 46 goals in 70 appearances for Celtic and will forever be remembered as a fabled hero of that glorious day in the Hampden sunshine.
He passed away in Nov 2014.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1957-59 | 48 | 8 | 14 | – | 70 |
| Goals | 26 | 7 | 13 | – | 46 |
Honours with Celtic
League Cup
Pictures
Links
7-1 GOAL HERO, SAMMY WILSON, PASSES AWAY
By: Joe Sullivan on 10 Nov, 2014 15:21
Celticfc.net
EVERYONE at Celtic Park was saddened to hear of the death of Sammy Wilson at the weekend.
Sammy was the scorer of the first goal in the 7-1 League Cup final win over Rangers in 1957.
He passed away on Saturday at the age of 83 and following scoring 46 goals in 70 Celtic games between 1957 and 1959, he moved down south before returning to Scotland and significantly raising the profile of the Highland League in spotting players there.
As recently as the Inverness Caley Thistle match on November 1, we had former Celt Roddy MacDonald featured in the matchday programme and he was singing the praises of the man who delivered him to Celtic.
MacDonald helped blaze a trail for aspiring footballers from the Highlands – and he believes he has Celtic’s Hampden hero Sammy Wilson to thank for making it possible for him and many others.
Few players were picked up by the professional clubs in his part of the country prior to his era but the arrival of Wilson in the area opened up a pathway to the big time.
After finishing his career in the Highlands at Brora Rangers, Wilson stayed in the region, coaching youngsters and managing a number of local teams. He also became a talent-spotter for the professional clubs.
Having quickly identified MacDonald as someone capable of making it in the big time, Wilson brought the stopper to Brora Rangers and deployed him up front. He believed goals would garner greater attention on his young protégé and so it proved.
Wilson secured MacDonald a trial at Celtic and his performances prompted Jock Stein and Sean Fallon to head up the A9 and visit the family home to secure his signature.
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MacDonald said: “Just prior to coming down to Celtic, it was really difficult for any player of potential to get noticed in the Highlands. I was fortunate Sammy Wilson came up when I was 14-15 and he started doing some coaching for the youth players in the area.
“He was coaching at Ross County’s ground on a Sunday mornings for all the young ones and we used to show up there. He started up a couple of teams and I ended up playing for him in the local team. He then set up Easter Ross, winning the league and cup, before progressing on to Brora, where he took me to play as a centre-forward.
He added: “If Sammy hadn’t been up there, it would have been impossible for me to get picked up or noticed. He had a great career and was a cracking player. He played for Celtic for a few years, including the 7-1 game when Celtic beat Rangers.
“He even played for the Easter Ross team that I played in and you could still see he had great ability. He had the contacts and it was a case of he would see how I was developing and then he would make people aware down the road. I had a few trials with teams but that was all to give me experience as I believe he had Celtic lined up to take me down when the time was right. I don’t think I would have got my move to Celtic if it wasn’t for him.”
Sammy Wilson aso proved to be an influence on other players. MacDonald said: “I know when I was younger there was nobody else up there with his experience, who was giving youth a chance and to attract bigger clubs down south to look at players but he had plenty of contacts that way.
“Eventually players did get noticed and picked up. There was Eric Black and Bryan Gunn but you also had Donald Park who was brought up in Fort William and played in the Highland League.
“Sammy Wilson helped open doors. You felt there was chance if you had skill, ability and the potential to do well. And it did give people a lot of encouragement when myself and other players were getting an opportunity.
“It gave everybody a lift – we weren’t just a backdrop somewhere that never got noticed. Today, players are getting a chance up there. If they play for the local sides then they can get played against the big teams from down south and if they do well, they can take that as a stepping stone.”
The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Celtic Park are with the family and friends of Sammy Wilson at this sad time.
Obituary: Sammy Wilson, footballer
http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-sammy-wilson-footballer-1-3614574
by MARTIN HANNAN
Updated on the 24 November 2014
Born: 16 December, 1931, in Uddingston, Lanarkshire. Died: 8 November, 2014, in Uddingston, aged 82
With the death of Sammy Wilson at the age of 82, Celtic Football Club is mourning the last of one of its most famous XIs, the victors in the Scottish League Cup Final of 1957.
With the passing of Bobby Collins in January this year, Wilson had become the last surviving member of the team that famously beat Rangers 7-1 on 19 October, 1957. It was the club’s record score against their old rivals, and remains the highest score recorded in an English or Scottish cup final, though not, as is often reported, a British record, as higher winning scores were achieved in the early years of the Irish and Welsh Cups.
Wilson was the scorer of the first goal in that final, and, in all, he played 70 matches for the Parkhead club, scoring 46 goals, a remarkable return for a player who was not an out-and-out striker.
He was also instrumental in Celtic signing his fellow townsman Jimmy Johnstone, voted the club’s greatest-ever player, who would become Wilson’s friend for life.
Born into a family of nine in Uddingston, the small dormitory town in Lanarkshire not far from the East End of Glasgow, Wilson was educated at St John the Baptist Primary before moving to a brief secondary education before an apprenticeship as a car mechanic which would be a mainstay during his non-football life.
His youthful footballing talents took him to Renfrew Juniors, where he made his debut at just 17. Starting out as an industrious midfielder, he made an impact locally, so that Paisley club St Mirren, then managed by Bobby Rankin, swooped on their near neighbours to sign Wilson as a professional at 19.
In all he spent six years at Love Street, playing 52 competitive matches for the Buddies, and scoring ten goals. With the number of his first team games falling, he was released by manager Willie Reid in May, 1957.
Wilson was promptly signed by then Celtic manager Jimmy McGrory, primarily as cover for more established stars in a team that had largely under-achieved since winning the League and Cup double of 1954. But any side with the likes of Bobby Collins, Willie Fernie, Bertie Peacock and the irrepressible legend that was Charlie Tully was always going to be hard to break into.
McGrory gave Wilson his chance, however, particularly in the League Cup which at that time was played at the start of the season and was completed before the Scottish Cup got under way.
He made his debut for Celtic in the 4-1 League Cup win over East Fife on 14 August, 1957, playing at right half. The key moment in Wilson’s career came when McGrory – though some say it was the idea of dictatorial chairman Robert Kelly – switched him to playing at inside left alongside centre forward Billy McPhail. The two men struck up an immediate and fruitful partnership, and they were soon rattling in the goals as Celtic progressed to their second successive League Cup final, Wilson notching six goals in all.
By then, Wilson was employed part-time as a car mechanic, and came to an arrangement with his employer that he would work one in four Sundays so that he could get Saturday afternoons off to play for Celtic – a far cry from the modern player’s lot.
Fans used to seeing Old Firm finals as a matter of course in subsequent decades may be amazed to learn that it was the first time Celtic had played Rangers in the final of either major domestic trophy since 1928, albeit that the League Cup had only been going since season 1946-47.
Celtic were determined to defend the Cup they had won for the first time the previous year against Partick Thistle, and they attacked Rangers from the first whistle. They had already hit the crossbar and post when Wilson got his moment of glory after 22 minutes.
A cross into the Rangers penalty area was met by McPhail, who nodded the ball down to his striking partner, Wilson volleying past goalkeeper George Niven and full-backs Bobby Shearer and Eric Caldow on the line with a lovely right-foot shot. The floodgates opened, and Celtic rampaged to their most hallowed victory over Rangers.
Sadly for him, Wilson’s career at Celtic was effectively doomed the following year when McPhail suffered a serious injury that stopped him playing. By then he had made a massive contribution to Celtic’s future, acting on a local teacher’s recommendation and suggesting Jimmy Johnstone from Viewpark, Uddingston, as a youngster to be watched, which he duly was.
Celtic released Wilson on a free transfer and he went down south to Millwall to try his luck, scoring 11 goals in 23 games for them. Moves to Northampton Town and Mansfield Town followed before he returned to Scotland in 1961, playing for Ross County in the Highland League.
After finishing his career at Brora Rangers, Wilson stayed north coaching youngsters for Ross County and Brora and managing a number of local teams. He made his home in Invergordon and also became a talent-spotter for the professional clubs, with Brora’s Roddy MacDonald, who signed for Celtic, his best-known recommendation.
Wilson, who had no children, was predeceased by his wife but is survived by his sister Elizabeth. His funeral took place on 17 November at St John the Baptist’s Church in Uddingston, where he attended daily Mass until the day before he died.
Fittingly, it is the same church that hosted the funeral of his great friend Jimmy Johnstone in 2006.