Bogan, Tommy

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Fullname: Thomas Bogan
aka: Tommy Bogan
Born: 18 May 1920
Died: 23 Sep 1993
Birthplace: Glasgow
Signed: 1 February 1946 (from Hibernian)
Left: 30 Sep 1948 (to Preston NE)
Position: Outside-Right
Debut: Celtic 0-1 Hibernian, Regional League, 2 Feb 1946
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: 1 game (needs confirmed if official cap or not)

Biog

Midfielder Tommy Bogan moved from Hibernian to his home city of Glasgow to sign for Celtic in 1946. On paper it was quite a capture as after signing for Hibernian in 1943, he was to score 42 goals in only 66 appearances for their club.

“The player with the greatest burst of speed I ever encountered was Tommy Bogan. He could gather a ball and sweep past you almost in one movement.” – Davie Shaw (Hibernian player), 11 June 1955

Prior to Celtic, he was capped for Scotland v England at Hampden in 1945 (‘wartime cap‘), however he twisted his knee when he somersaulted over Frank Swift in a lightning quick first minute attack and was carried off to be replaced by Leslie Johnstone who scored for Scotland in the match. England won the match 6-1 with goals from across the England team including the great Stanley Matthews, so might answer for why Tommy Bogan never won another international cap again. He has possibly the shortest international career of any Scotland player, in total 1 minute of play.

Once he had arrived at Celtic, coincidentally, he made his debut against his old club Hibs just the day after he signed, and Celtic duly lost. Not a great start to lose against the team you just left, but Celtic were performing poorly in the post-war period (whilst Hibs were on in golden era) and this was likely a result to highlight to Tommy Bogan just what he was to arrived at.

His best season for Celtic was 1947-48, where his great play made him popular in what was actually a poor season for the club. It was said that:

“Celtic supporters have taken Bogan to their hearts“.

During his time at a sadly struggling Celtic he made 55 appearances and scored 9 goals, a fair return. He was never content at Celtic and was to bemoan that he could never understand why he left Hibs. This must be taken in light of that Celtic were appalling post-war. Celtic just avoided relegation at the end of season 1947-48 whilst Hibs won the league that season, and had been close to winning the league the season before (2pts behind Rangers). Everything was going wrong for him but Hibs didn’t seem to be negatively affected by his move away.

One pithy quote from Tommy Bogan seemed to sum up his attitude & opinion on the Celtic squad of the day:

Jimmy Hogan (new Celtic coach/trainer): “The good ship Celtic will set sail on Aug 14th [1948].”
Tommy Bogan: “There will be some passengers aboard this ship!”

His stay at the club ended a little over two seasons after arriving before moving south to Preston North End in 1948. It just wasn’t to be for Tommy Bogan at Celtic.

He played for Preston for one season, before moving to Manchester United in September 1949 (playing alongside ex-Celt Jimmy Delaney). However, it was apparent that Tommy Bogan had not adapted to the English game and moved back to Scotland to play for Aberdeen in March 1951.

Whilst with Aberdeen, he was in the Aberdeen side that lost 3-0 to Celtic in the quarter-finals as Celtic went on to the 1951 final and finally won the club’s first major senior trophy since the 1937-38 league title. Tommy Bogan also played in the St Mungo Cup, with the final at Hampden between Celtic and Aberdeen on 1 August 1951. An early injury to goalkeeper George Hunter hampered Celtic who were 2-0 down following goals by Harry Yorston and Tommy Bogan. But a double by Sean Fallon and one from Jimmy Walsh turned the tables in a 3-2 Hoops win. So again, Tommy Bogan lost out once more. A cynic could say this was unintentionally rubbing it all in.

A move back to England soon followed, with Tommy Bogan moving to Southampton after just four appearances for Aberdeen. Again, he struggled to fit in and he moved to Blackburn Rovers and then Macclesfield Town before retiring from professional football.

His subsequent career after leaving Glasgow shows that the admittedly poor Celtic environment wasn’t possibly the only problem in this case. He moved to a number of various clubs and each time remained for relatively short periods, and he didn’t seem to settle in for long anywhere.

The problem was therefore more probably to do with Tommy Bogan than with Celtic. However, with the poor state of Celtic (at team and board level) during the post-war years, no single player could have made a difference alone, and in effect Tommy Bogan was another player to lose out during that poor era at the club.

Having married Matt Busby’s niece, he remained in North Cheshire, working as a printer with the Daily Express and Manchester Evening News.

He passed away in 1993.

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

none

Pictures

• Player Pics

http://www.redcafe.net/threads/aberdeen-v-manchester-united.204876/page-2

Bogan began his career with Blantyre Celtic before signing for Hibernian. A quick and skilful winger, Bogan joined Celtic in February 1946 and it was during his stay at Parkhead that he was selected for the Scottish League side. Although he was a firm favourite at Celtic, he never really settled and he was the subject of a £3,500 move to Preston in July 1948. Matt Busby then took Bogan to Old Trafford a year later where he played in the first team before losing his place to Johnny Downie. That prompted Aberdeen boss Dave Halliday to take the winger to Pittodrie and he made his Dons debut in a Scottish Cup tie against former club Celtic in March 1951. After nine months at Aberdeen, Bogan was on the move again and he joined Southampton.

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