Celtic football legend Joe McBride dies after stroke

Thursday 12 July 2012

Celtic legend Joe McBride, 74, died last night in Glasgow Royal Infirmary, just days after suffering a stroke at his home in Glasgow.

The former fans’ favourite didn’t recover after he fell ill at his Glasgow home at the weekend.

He was part of the Lisbon Lions squad that lifted the European Cup, but didn’t play in the final against Inter Milan after picking up a serious injury. He later played for Hibs, where he scored 86 goals in just 96 games.

Last night, former Lisbon Lion Tommy Gemmell led the tributes to his old teammate, saying: “This has come as a terrible shock. Joe was a great lad and we had some great moments together. “He was a real Celtic great who could so easily have been a player in the team that won the European Cup in 1967. “Joe had scored over 30 goals before he received an awful injury against Aberdeen just before the turn of the year and that ruled him out for the rest of the season. “I scored our first-ever European Cup goal during that campaign and Joe scored the other as we beat Zurich 2-0 at Parkhead. Then came his injury setback and that sidelined him for the remaining months of the campaign. There is little doubt he would have had his part to play in Lisbon. “It was easy to see why the Celtic supporters took to him. He was one of their own and a real man’s man in the dressing room and out on the pitch. “Our thoughts go out to his family at this dreadful time.” McBride started his career with Kilmarnock Amateurs before joining Junior side Shettleston Town. He moved to Kirkintilloch Rob Roy before stepping up to the seniors with Kilmarnock. The prolific goalscorer went south to Wolverhampton Wanderers then on to Luton Town before coming back to Scotland with Partick Thistle. He signed for Motherwell and scored two goals against Jock Stein’s Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final in 1965 that finished 2-2. The Parkhead side won 3-0 in the replay, but McBride had done enough in the first game to impress the legendary Celtic manager. He made history by becoming Stein’s first signing for the club when he was bought from Motherwell for £25,000 in April 1965. Of missing the famous final in Lisbon, McBride later said: “I had been like Pele up until that injury, just scoring goals for fun. In fact, when I first broke down and was having treatment at the ground, all the directors turned up to see how I was. “Even when I came out of the hospital after my operation Big Jock [Stein] said to me, ‘The semi-final’s a good few weeks away yet, 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.” McBride – who was born in Glasgow – just few hundred yards from Rangers’ Ibrox Stadium in Govan – left for Hibs in December 1968, and became their top goalscorer in both the 1968–69 and 1969–70 seasons. Playing in an age when Scotland was blessed with top-class talent on the football pitch, McBride won just two full caps for the national team and represented his country four times at Scottish League level. His son, also named Joe, enjoyed a career as a footballer and played for Everton and Hibs. Funeral details will be announced by his family later. In pictures: Joe McBride

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Celtic football legend Joe McBride dies after stroke

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