Patsy Gallcher

Anyone looking at Patsy Gallacher, standing tall at five feet, seven inches, and weighing in at nine stone, ten pounds, would have dismissed his chances of making it in the tough, physical world of association football.

Indeed, some might have worried that he would survive just one appearance on a pitch. Yet, he would play 464 times for Celtic, scoring 192 goals, and his career, which began with the Hoops in November 1911 when he was just 18-years-old, would go on until he retired as a Falkirk player in 1932. He had just turned 39 two weeks prior to that.

The Bhoy from Donegal was the creative genius that Willie Maley injected into the team and who inspired Celtic to four league titles in a row between 1914-17. He was also at the core of all of Celtic’s subsequent triumphs up to the 1925 Scottish Cup triumph, which is known to this day as ‘The Patsy Gallacher Final’.

The 1925 Scottish Cup triumph, is known to this day as ‘The Patsy Gallacher Final'.

After a season when he only played one game due to a knee injury, Celtic called time on what had been such a fruitful relationship, but they could have got a few more seasons, and good ones at that, from the talented Irishman.

PRELUDE TO PARADISE
Patsy Gallacher was born in the Milford Poor House in Ramelton, County Donegal in March 1891, and just three years later the family moved to Scotland. He started his career in Scottish football with Renfrew St James and Clydebank Juniors, and it was there that his talented wing-play was spotted by Celtic and Willie Maley moved quickly to bring him to Celtic Park in October 1911. Any thoughts, some reportedly voiced from legendary centre-forward Jimmy Quinn, that Gallacher’s small frame would render him unsuitable to the physical nature of the Scottish game were quickly dispelled from his first outing in the Hoops, as the Irishman became a huge favourite with his skills and trickery.

DEBUT BHOY
On December 2, 1911, Celtic welcomed St Mirren on league duty with the 18-year-old Gallacher replacing Paddy Travers in the side, Travers himself had replaced the injured Jimmy McMenemy six games earlier. In Gallacher’s first showing, the Hoops won 3-1 in front of a 12,000 crowd with the goals coming from Andy Donaldson, Peter Johnstone and Willie Loney. The following week he scored his first goal for the club in a 4-1 win over Queen’s Park at Hampden – that wouldn’t be his last goal at the National Stadium. Gallacher made nine league appearances over the rest of that season, mainly when McMenemy was out of the side. However, both appeared together in the semi-final and final of the Scottish Cup, each of the games played at Ibrox, and both scored in the 2-0 final win over Clyde, to retain the trophy. It was Patsy Gallacher’s first success as a Celt, but it would certainly not be his last.

HIGHLIGHTS
His first and last medals for the club came in the Scottish Cup and he scored in both finals, in 1912 and 1925. The latter, which kick-started Celtic’s comeback in a 2-1 win over Dundee, will go down in history as one of the best cup final goals of all time, anywhere in the world. Over the course of his 15-year Celtic career, he added another two Scottish Cup triumphs – in 1914 and 1923 – to bring his overall tally to four. Gallacher also won a total of six championships with Celtic. He was an integral part of the four-in-a-row run between 1914 and 1917, and was a virtual ever-present in seasons 1918/19 and 1921/22 as Celtic were again crowned champions of Scotland. The 1921/22 triumph, coming 10 years after he had signed for Celtic, must have been especially sweet for Gallacher. It also turned out to be the last league title he won during his Celtic career. Celtic would win the title in 1926, but Gallacher played a solitary game that season, ruled out for the campaign through injury.

"So long as there is a Celtic the name of Patsy Gallacher will be revered, and his sons and their families can rightly be proud of that."
Robert Kelly, Celtic Chairman

BOWING OUT
Having inspired Celtic to glory in the 1925 Scottish Cup final, the following season was another successful one for the club as they regained the league title for the first time since 1922. Yet, it was a personal disaster for Patsy Gallagher. He made one appearance that season, in a league game at Broomfield against Airdrie on October 3, 1925, with Jimmy McGrory scoring Celtic’s solitary goal in a 5-1 thrashing against the side who would prove to be their nearest title challengers that season.

Gallacher’s knee injury effectively ruled him out for the season, and so the 23,000 who packed into Broomfield had the privilege of seeing the legendary player in the green and white Hoops for the last time. They were not to know that, of course, but neither was Gallacher, who was as surprised as the Celtic supporters when the club called time on his Celtic career.

SOMERSAULT
There are few, if any, footballers who are synonymous with a cup final in the same way that Patsy Gallacher is with the 1925 Scottish Cup final. Celtic were trailing Dundee by a goal when Gallacher produced a moment of magic that has gone down in football folklore. It is one of those moments which supporters of today bemoan the lack of video footage, because it would surely have been a great goal to enjoy over and over again.

Newspaper reports of the time, however, still manager to paint a vivid picture, with one describing it thus: ‘He jinked, jouked, hurdled, swerved, dribbled, jumped, fell, got up, ran on, jinked again, stumbled, jouked once more, went over his wilkies with the ball still grasped between his feet and suddenly, he was over the line, him and the ball, past an astonished Jock Britton, and Hampden to the last 75,000th man was rising in starry-eyed tribute to a genius in bootlaces.’

‘Hampden to the last 75,000th man was rising in starry-eyed tribute to a genius in bootlaces.’

FAMILY CONNECTIONS
Patsy Gallacher played with Falkirk until 1932, retiring at the age of 39. Those last three years of his playing career, were even more difficult for him, having to bring up his six children after his wife, Mary, died while giving birth to their sixth child. Two of his sons would go on to play professional football – Willie with Celtic and Tommy with Dundee – and the two brothers would face each other in April 1948 in what was a vital game for Celtic. The Hoops travelled to Dens Park with the threat of relegation looming over their heads, and knowing that a victory against Dundee was vital. In the event, a Jock Weir hat-trick gave Celtic a 3-2 victory and top-flight football was assured for Celtic. Patsy Gallacher, watching his sons from the Dens Park stand, would have been pleased too, since, in his heart, he was always a Celt. The Gallacher football legacy continued in the 1980s and ‘90s with Patsy’s grandson, Kevin, starring for Dundee United, Blackburn Rovers and Scotland.

464 CELTIC CAREER APPEARANCES
League: 432, Scottish Cup: 32

192 CELTIC CAREER GOALS
League: 186, Scottish Cup: 6

10 CELTIC CAREER MAJOR HONOURS
League Titles: 6, Scottish Cup: 4