Hoops History: The Immortal John ‘Jock’ Stein

This week’s Hoops History takes a look into arguably the best manager to ever do it at Parkhead, John “Jock” Stein.

Seeing football as an escape from the local coal mining work in Lanarkshire, Stein joined local youth club Blantyre Victoria in 1940. He moved to Albion Rovers two years later, making his first senior team playing appearance for them in a friendly against Celtic that ended in a four-all draw.

As a centre half, he would play for Albion Rovers for the next eight years. During the second world war, he worked as a coal miner during the week, playing for the club on weekends, making the most of his appearances.

He would move to Welsh non-league club Llanelli Town, becoming a professional footballer for the first time and able to leave the coal mines behind.  He would only be with the club for about a year before moving to Celtic for £1,200 in order to return to his native Scotland.

Stein would play for the Hoops for six seasons, with 106 appearances to his name and two goals to boot. In his first season there, the club would finish eighth in the Scottish League but were able to win the British Coronation Cup over clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United, and Hibs.

He would go on to captain the squad the next season, leading the side to their first league title since 1938, and their first Scottish Cup victory in 40 years. Retiring as a player in 1957, Jock immediately began coaching the Hoops’ reserve side. Despite his success that year, including winning the Reserve Cup, he would move on to manage fellow Scottish-side Dunfermline in March 1960.

The side was in dire condition at his appointment, being just two points out of last place in the league, with no wins in the previous four months. He would lead the club to six straight victories, and developing the club into a domestic force, winning the Scottish Cup the next season in a final against his former club. While there he lead the side to victory in just under half of their matches, avoiding losses in 67% of their matches over four seasons.

The 1964 season would see him move to Hibernian, arguably a much larger club at the time that had seen success in years prior. He would only manage Hibs for one year, leaving the club to return to his former side in Glasgow after the 1965 season taking over for Jimmy McGrory.

He would be just the fourth manager in the club’s close to 80-year history at this point, as well as its first Protestant manager. This first season would see the club struggle in league play, finishing eighth when all was said and done, but managing to win their first Scottish Cup in a decade.

In just his second season, the club would win the league for the first time in 12 seasons, as well as the Scottish League Cup, along with an incredible European run where they finished as semi-finalists in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.

The following season would see arguably the best performance ever put on by the Parkhead club, as they completed a historic quintuple, the only one done in Europe. The league competition was still a tight race, as the club squeaked by Rangers with a three-point lead. Captained by Billy McNeill, the Lisbon Lions are widely considered one of the best teams in European football history.

Celtic’s 1969 campaign would see their second treble in just three seasons, also finishing as quarter-finalists in European Cup play. The club would win nine straight league titles under Jock Stein from 1966 to 1974, an astonishing feat that may only be bested when this year’s squad under Neil Lennon completes the historic tenth-in-a-row.

In 1975, Stein would be injured in a serious car crash, leaving Sean Fallon as caretaker manager for much of the 1975-1976 campaign, where the club would place second in league play and runners up in the League Cup. 1977 would see the club return to its earlier form under Stein, winning the league and League Cup double once again. He would depart the club after struggling in the 1978 season, having earned his place among the legends of Parkhead.

In total, he would be responsible for 503 victories, ten league titles, eight Scottish Cups, six League Cups, and a European Cup victory. The club found three points in 70% of his matches, and avoided loss in 86% of them, an incredible feat over 14 seasons. Many legendary players would wear the hoops under Stein’s tenure, including Joe McBride, Bobby Lennox, and Kenny Dalglish just to name a few.

After leaving Glasgow, Stein would manage English-side Leeds United. He would, however, only manage the side for ten matches over a 44-day period before resigning to take the reins of the Scottish national team after Ally MacLeod’s departure.

He would oversee the side in their 1982 World Cup campaign, after a dominant qualifying which saw the team only drop one match. However, the club struggled in Group Play, finishing third on goal difference behind Brazil and the Soviet Union, failing to advance to the second round after a gutting 2-2 draw with the Soviets.

In the quest for Scotland’s 1986 World Cup qualification, the side was seeing success under Stein at first, with wins over Iceland and Spain. He would go on to describe the victory over Spain as:

"“the most satisfying since I became [Scotland] manager… we scored three goals against a quality team that came to defend”"

After these early victories, the side struggled, losing their return tie to Spain and a 1-0 loss to Wales. The second match against the Welsh team will forever live in Scotland fans’ minds. After a late 1-1 penalty to secure a qualification play-off match, manager Jock Stein would suffer a heart attack on the sideline, dying shortly thereafter in the medical room of the stadium in Cardiff at 62 years old.

He is widely remembered as one of the legends of European football and was an integral part of molding another arguable legend of European managing, Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United. Sir Alex speaks to Jock’s personality and legend in a video from 2015 below: