Clark, John – Misc Articles

Past Masters – John Clark

Make way for the old Lion…
Source: The Winning Zine
Dec 2007

Experience in the world of sport is usually gained by an individual who has endured a long-spanning career, perhaps participated in a high profile competition or world-class event, and if fortune has been on their side, they may have grasped a piece of silverware for the trophy cabinet.

Experienced is therefore a fitting adjective to describe In The Winning Zone’s ‘Past Master’ for December. Boasting almost fifty years’ participation at the highest level of sport in this country, John Clark has accumulated most of the rewards going in his chosen sport, and he played a major part in placing his team on the world footballing map.

His club office is a remarkable room. After an exchanging of handshakes, he abruptly apologises for the strong stench of leather that clogs up the air, wafting from the boxes of brand new footballs and columns of boots, which line the walls. Four colossal cupboards resemble the kind of high-security vaults that may be found in a bank. These cupboards are jammed full with what seems like an endless amount of shorts, socks, jerseys, jumpers and jackets.

After a quick guide of the surroundings, he offers a cup of tea. No longer than five minutes later a platter of tea and toast arrives at the door. As one of the best defenders in the country in his day, you can be sure that he hasn’t treated all the visitors who have come to his football club with the same hospitality throughout his football career.

A local lad hailing from North Lanarkshire, John Clark is best known as being one of the few Scottish owners of a European Cup medal, which he won as part of the legendary Celtic team who overcame Inter Milan in Lisbon on the 25th May 1967 to become the first British club to claim the trophy.

Following his retirement from football, Clark moved into the managerial side of the game, taking control of Cowdenbeath, Stranraer and Clyde, before returning to Celtic to take up his current role as kit man. Now at sixty-six years-old, he still bursts with as much energy at the club he supported as a youngster as he did when he was a player all those years ago, back in the heart of the action.Clark explains that football was his only vice as a youngster. Due to the fact that there was no frequent bus service from North Lanarkshire to Glasgow, Clark was unable to attend many first-class football matches, especially to watch Celtic, his boyhood team.

“When you were young in my time it was either boxing or football. I came from a mining village called Chapelhall. Football was at the centre of my life when I was growing up, I played for as many hours as daylight would allow. I started playing at my local school and then my local boys club Larkhall Thistle.”

At seventeen years of age, many teenagers have yet to begin planning their lives or career paths. In 1958, a seventeen-year-old John Clark was approached by the same club that employed his boyhood heroes to sign him as a player. “I was fortunate enough that Celtic approached me to sign for the club. I was seventeen at the time and I felt as though I had won the pools!” exclaims the living legend.

However, as is the case in life, signing on the dotted line did not mean Clark was ensured a place amongst the 11 men who emerged from the tunnel at Celtic park week-after-week. “At the beginning when I moved to a big club like Celtic it was hard. There were a lot of good players of my own age along with some professional players at international level, so I had to put the work in and eventually I made it into the team.”

Lucky enough to be taken under the wing of one of this country’s greatest ever managers, Jock Stein, Clark believes that the successes of arguably the most outstanding Celtic team of all time are down to the advanced tactical nature of his biggest influence. According to the kit man, it was special relationship that started at youth level, between Jock Stein and his players, which helped to bring about such unprecedented success.

“The person who influenced me most was Jock Stein. Before he left Celtic to go to Dunfermline and Hibs he was in charge of youth and reserve football at Celtic. He had a knowledge of the youth players in the team before he left and when he came back in 1965, we had experienced and progressed in first team football while he had progressed as a manager”Indeed, Clark believes that along with a sense of unity within a team who had originated from within a 30-mile radius of the club, the successes of the famous Celtic team were down to the coaching ability and awareness of Stein.

“Jock Stein was a thinking man.” Clark recollects, “He was miles ahead of the situation at the time. I see training situations out on the training pitch now; Jock Stein was doing the same thing forty years ago. They have broken it all down into programmes whereas we would do it in block. The man was ahead of himself.

He went to Italy to study some training methods and eventually people were coming to Celtic park to study Jock’s training techniques.”

Handed the role of sweeper by Stein, Clark played a pivotal role in the backbone of the Celtic line-up. A large amount of defensive responsibility lay on his shoulders in the lead up to their European Cup victory in 1967.

A tour to North America, the first of its kind for Celtic, in the summer of 1966 played a crucial role in the gelling of the team. Clark believes that the tour played a central role in the outstanding season the team had when they returned. “Naturally when you are away for 6 weeks, the team bonded. There was a sense of togetherness within the team. It was the start of big things for Celtic.”

The tour also gave Jock Stein the chance to perfect his Celtic team, and the manager’s thinking paid off. During the 1966-1967 season, Celtic won the League championship, Scottish Cup, League Cup, Glasgow Cup, and of course the European Cup in a distinctive year for the Glasgow club. Not only did they have a clean-sweep of victories on home soil, they also won the most sought-after trophy in European club football.

“I remember it was a really warm day. The whole setting was ideal, it was just as if a film was being made, we were going to win and everything was just right” Clark recollects of the infamous summers day in Lisbon.

“There was a fantastic crowd all around the stadium when we came out, the whole arena looked as if it was bedecked in green and white. Celtic played really well that day. If people are being honest about it, the Inter Milan goalkeeper saved them from getting a real punishment with regards to goals”

The 1966-67 season brought an abundance of silverware to John Clark, but it also brought his first International cap. In the early summer, before a Celtic tour to America, Clark pulled on the navy blue jersey for the first time in his career. Aged 25, Clark was arguably at the peak of his career.

And it was a special occasion for the defender, against one of the best teams in the world, featuring one of the most outstanding footballers of all time “My first international was against a Brazil team which featured Pelé – he was the king. The fact I was playing against him almost took my mind off the game, but I managed to stay focused and we drew 1-1” he recalls.

The pinnacle of a somewhat outstanding playing career for Clark obviously involves lifting the European Cup in 1967, but while reminiscing, he places his life into perspective. Although he may have achieved the pinnacle of European football, he stands by the elation of being accepted into top-flight football as a teenager as an overwhelming feeling.

“If the highlight of your career when you’re a footballer is to win, then it was the 1967 European Cup victory. But when you’re a young boy and the opportunity arises to play for a club you have always supported then that’s a big thing as well.”

John Clark has played against the best, worked alongside the best, and been managed by the best. But how does a sportsperson with so many years of experience and success translate winning? “The drive to be successful,” he ponders. “If you want to be a success at any level you need to strive towards goals. You need to make sacrifices”

His passion for the sport is evident from his occupations, which have all been based around football. “Next year, if all goes to plan, I will have been 50 years in football. In some way or another it has been connected with Celtic”

It has connotations of a romantic tale. A boy who was approached to sign for the club he adored. He was a teenager who matured into a Celtic team that has been carved into the annals of Scottish and European football.

Forty years later he is a man with fond memories of a euphoric playing career, and he is still infatuated with the sport.

Having experienced one of Scotland’s greatest sporting club successes, John Clark progressed from a boy with an ambition, to a man, one of only eleven, who can call himself a Lisbon Lion.

© Copyright In The Winning Zone, MMVII, All Rights Reserved

Celtic lion John Clark opens heart on men behind 20-year final jinx

Celtic’s legendary kit man

4-4-2 magazine

John Clark’s Golden Years at Celtic

Source: Celticfc.net

By: Mark Henderson on 22 Mar, 2011 11:01

IT was on a Thursday night, October 1958 that John Clark’s connection with Celtic began. Deep inside the bowels of Celtic Park, between the boot room and the green room, the lifelong Hoops supporter signed for the club in the company of then reserve coach, Jock Stein.

Since that moment, Clark has spent the greater part of 53 years in the service of Celtic. Only the likes of Willie Maley can boast a longer association with the club.

During a success-laden 13 years as a player, he made over 300 appearances for the Hoops. And his partnership with Billy McNeill in central-defence was the cornerstone of the greatest ever Celtic side, which dominated domestic football and won the European Cup in 1967.

After calling time on his playing career, Clark returned to Celtic several times, working in nearly every backroom role, including assistant manager, coach and his current position, kitman.

This month, the Celtic great turned 70. Typically, he spent it on Celtic duty, travelling to and from the postponed match in Inverness – although he did eventually celebrate belatedly with his family.

To mark the occasion, the View sat down with the Celtic great at Lennoxtown for an exclusive interview, reflecting on some of his many highlights as a player and on the backroom staff.

You signed for Celtic in 1958 and have retained a connection with the club for the best part of 50 years as a player, coach, assistant manager and now kitman. Does that make you feel proud?
It turned out to be a good day but I never imagined I would still be here. Football is not the most secure job, as you could be good but people might not fancy you as a player and you could move on. Still, being here at this time in your life makes you feel very grateful and I am still fortunate that I am still able to do a job.

Celtic have been a huge part of your life for so many years. What does the club mean to you?
It’s printed all over my forehead here and down my back! I have had a great association with the club and been very fortunate that I have had good career in football and good relationships with people among the different jobs at the club. It’s a difficult one to answer. I think I have done every job at the club except manager: groundstaff, coaching, assistant manager and now kitman. I have had a great career. My life revolves around Celtic. Let’s say the two of us go together. The club has been brilliant to me but I think I have given a lot back to the club as well.

What was your earliest memory of watching Celtic?
The first major game I first saw Celtic was against Clyde at Hampden in the Scottish Cup final in 1955 – and Celtic lost the replay. When I left school, the first game I can always remember was Celtic against Manchester United at Celtic Park. It took place in the afternoon because it was in our pre-floodlight days . I had just got a job, I can’t remember what it was, and it was my first day at work and I asked if I could get away early. Luckily the guy was a Celtic supporter and let me away, as you wouldn’t get many people letting you away on your first day in the job. So I managed to go and watch the Busby Babes. And the year before I signed for Celtic I was on the Hampden terracing for the 7-1 game. Those are the games that stick out.

Do you still remember the day you joined your boyhood heroes from Larkhall Thistle? How did you feel?
Although Jimmy McGory was the manager, it was Jock Stein who gave me the form to sign. The places at Celtic Park are still the same. I signed it on a Thursday night standing at the door where the green room goes into the boot room. There was no-one with me so I just signed the form on my own. And every time I walk in there, I can say well that’s where it happened.

With the team battling silverware at present, are you looking forward to the final few months of the season?
I think we have a demanding finish to the end of the season and it’s just a case of being careful and staying focused on what we are doing and making sure we are ready for it. We have players now that have made the team good to watch. There is great atmosphere coming back into the terracing which is important as the support are a massive part of the club.

John gave hero Pele shirt shrift

By PHIL GORDON, The Sun
Published: 25th March 2011

JOHN CLARK spent 90 minutes rubbing shoulders with Pele but had no intention of asking the Brazilian legend for his famous No10 shirt.

For the former Celtic defender, Clark’s own dark blue jersey was a prize to ensure he remembered his Scotland debut in 1966.

The Lisbon Lion let his Hoops pal Stevie Chalmers — who netted Scotland’s goal in the 1-1 draw — swap shirts with Pele and put his Scotland one in a bin bag in his loft for safe keeping.

But that move came back to haunt Clark, when he opened up the bag after quitting the game to discover his treasured mementoes had turned to dust.

His first Scotland shirt, and others he’d traded with Europe’s stars during Celtic’s golden era, disintegrated due to a lack of air.

Clark said: “All that was left was a collection of collars.

“The shirts in those days were made of cotton, not like today’s kit which can last forever.

“I had put my Scotland top in the bin bag and tied it up tight and left it in the loft.

“When I finished playing about seven years later, I went up there to look at the shirts and found they had just wasted away.

“There were no air holes in the bag and I was told by someone in the trade a lack of oxygen disintegrated them.

“It was not just my Scotland top. All the jerseys I swapped with players after Celtic’s European games were there too.”

Clark was stunned when told he was going to face Brazil just before the world champs defended their crown at the 1966 finals in England.

He added: “Myself and Stevie were the only Celtic players in the squad.

“But we both started against Brazil and Stevie scored early on and I did OK.

“I was mostly marking Pele, and he was the biggest star in the world game then.

“I was proud of the fact I was playing for my country and that’s why I wanted to keep my Scotland shirt. So I let Stevie swap tops with Pele.”

THE CELTIC LEGEND OF JOHN ‘THE BRUSH’ CLARK

By David Potter (from KeepTheFaith website)

By David W Potter

John Clark is a grotesquely underestimated figure in Celtic’s history. Of all the Lisbon Lions, he is probably the one whom we would come up with last, a good deal below Johnstone and Murdoch, for example, and he certainly was the first to lose his place (in 1968 to the excellent Jim Brogan) after the triumph in Lisbon . Yet those of us who saw John Clark in action saw a master craftsman, and we would certainly never underestimate his value.

So much of the “underestimation” of John comes from his reserved and non-flamboyant nature (he was the very antithesis, for example, of Tommy Gemmell or Jimmy Johnstone or Bertie Auld) and his very position in the team where he was the sweeper-up (hence his nickname, “John The Brush”). Sweepers tend to be quiet and unobtrusive, and in such a fine team as Celtic were in those days, it was very easy for spectators to sing how dominant McNeill was in the air and on the ground and to forget that Billy’s rare mistakes were often covered for by “The Quiet Man”.

It is less easy to explain why he was sometimes called “Luggy”.

John was born in 1941 in Chapelhall and joined Celtic in October 1958 as a “Kelly Kid”. He made his first team debut at Arbroath about a year later in October 1959 when Bertie Peacock was away playing for Ireland . He impressed that day as Celtic won very comfortably, 5-0. It was not until spring 1961 however that he began to push his way into the first team, replacing the ageing Peacock. In a tense Scottish Cup Quarter Final replay, John scored the extra time winner for Celtic against Hibs at Easter Road (one of only three goals he scored in 318 appearances for the Club!) and as a result he was preferred (perhaps unwisely) to Peacock in the disastrous Scottish Cup Final and Replay against Jock Stein’s Dunfermline of that year.

From 1961 until the arrival of Stein, Clark played sporadically for Celtic, often out of position on the right side of the park, but more often one of the few signs of stability in an otherwise chaotic set up. He was out of favour in 1963 and thus missed the horrors of the Rangers Cup Finals of that year, but 1963-64 saw him coming into his own, although quite clearly on the wrong side of the Clark, McNeill and Kennedy half back line.

Like with many other players, the arrival of Stein in January 1965 was the moment Clark ‘s career took off. The team began to evolve to 4-2-4 from 2-3-5 and the defence became a “flat back four” of Craig, McNeill, Clark and Gemmell. In this role Clark was superb, always on hand, always there to help out, occasionally being seen to calm things down when Billy McNeill got a little flustered, and generally playing his part in the greatest football team that Scottish football has ever seen. Apart from his Lisbon heroics, he won Scottish League medals in 1966, 1967 and 1968, Scottish Cup medals in 1965 and 1967 and League Cup medals in 1965-6,1966-7,1967-8 and 1968-9.

Even when he had lost his place in the team, John Clark was never far away from the action – either on the bench or simply with the squad, talking to everyone, geeing them up and impressing everyone with his vast knowledge of European and world football. Stein was not unashamed to pick the brains of John Clark when research was necessary on some European opponent.

He won 4 International caps for Scotland , one of them against Brazil in 1966, and never played badly for his country.

In 1971, John Clark moved to Morton where he finished his playing career. He became a coach for Celtic in 1973, then when Billy McNeill became Manager of Aberdeen in 1977, Billy took John there as his Assistant before the irresistible call came for that management team from Celtic Park the following year.

John is thus rightly considered to be a part of the 1979 4-2 League win over Rangers and the development of talent like Charlie Nicholas and Tommy Burns. He has also been Manager of Cowdenbeath, Stranraer and Clyde , but perhaps he lacked the flair and charisma to be a Manager.

In recent years, he has been the Kit Manager at Celtic, a job that he seems very happy with. He is after all working for the Club that he loves and the Club that means so much to him, and in whose history he played such a glorious part.

The enduring class of Celtic’s ‘Gentleman John’

Graham Spiers
Sports Columnist.
Monday 16 March 2015

It is time to wish ‘Gentleman’ John Clark a belated happy birthday.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/the-enduring-class-of-celtics-gentleman-john.120806903

The Lisbon Lion turned 74 on Friday and can still be found at Lennoxtown most days, helping out with the Celtic kit and encouraging the club’s development squad. A life of success and tragedy has shaped Clark, though no-one quite knows where his unfailing modesty and courtesy spring from.

When Clark was 10 years old, and tearing around the environs of Airdrie like any wee kid in the 1950s, terrible news was wrought upon him.

“I remember the moment clearly, it was a Saturday morning, just a few days before Christmas,” he said. “These two policemen arrived at our door and I knew something was wrong. My father was a railwayman and he’d been away checking on faults down near Watford. My mother took one look at these policemen and said to me, ‘John, go outside and play, would you?’ I went outside and then heard my mother’s cries from inside the house.

“My dad had been killed by an onrushing train. He’d been working on the tracks and a signal was supposed to operate, but it never did. The train appeared from nowhere and killed him instantly. It left my mother a widow, with two young kids, and six months pregnant with another. I’ll never forget that day.”

Lisbon in 1967 and being made a king of European football was still 16 years away for Clark. From that tragic episode onwards, the wee Lanarkshire kid would scrap and survive the hard way. Maybe not so amazingly, Clark combined his gentleness of character with a tough-as-nails instinct to survive.

“My life became pretty hard,” he said. “The family earner was dead and I had to go out and get work. I got a job at a pit-head in Airdrie, and I took another job helping a local farmer sell eggs and potatoes around the area. There was no other option. My mother needed the money. My dad’s death taught me that life would be tough, and that I had to keep going.”

Further fate, of course, would turn John Clark from a Lanarkshire waif into European footballing royalty. In 1958 Jock Stein was in charge of Celtic’s reserves and he liked the look of the wee, squat, determined sweeper he’d seen playing for Larkhall Thistle. Clark was signed up for Celtic aged 17 and, nine years later, he became one of British football’s immortals.

The afternoon of May 25 1967, when Celtic beat Inter Milan 2-1 to win the European Cup, is a moment cherished and handed down by generations of Celtic supporters. Clark was sweeper beside Billy McNeill that day and, without fuss, calmly saw off various Inter forays.

“We were an incredibly confident bunch of guys,” he says. “We knew we could win it, we had no fear of anything. We just fancied ourselves rotten. Inter were meant to be the best club side in the world at the time but we thought we’d beat them. Even at half-time and 1-0 down, nobody panicked, no-one thought anything negative. Big Jock told us nothing remarkable, he said, ‘just keep playing, you’ll get there.’

“We were ultra-confident in our ability. We knew we had it in us. Looking back it sounds a wee bit like arrogance. But we never believed we’d be beaten that day in Lisbon.”

Clark was 26 at the time, but his Celtic career was soon to be cut short. In fact, checking the record books, it is shocking to see how soon he was displaced by the new, young talents coming through at Celtic Park.

“Not long after Lisbon – maybe 18 months later – I got a cartilage injury in my left knee which destroyed my career. Nowadays you come back from these things in five minutes, but not back then. I was out for nine months and when I came back my knee was never the same again.

“I remember the moment very clearly. Big Jock used to send us here, there and everywhere to play, and we were at the old Bayview playing against East Fife. The ball came to me in the box, I turned away with it, and this guy just came right through me, the full brunt of his weight on my knee.

“That was it for me. I was in and out of the team after that, but I was never the same again. The injury finished me.”

It is well-known in football how much John Clark deplored some of the fame and celebrity that came his way. His daughter, Marie, an adult education teacher, remembers how her modest father disliked the profile that came with his football career.

“My dad is fundamentally a shy man,” she says. “He never wanted the fame that came with playing for Celtic and was never comfortable with it. At Celtic there were guys like Billy [McNeill], Berti [Auld] and Jimmy Johnstone, but dad was not outgoing like these guys.

“I remember sometimes as a wee kid I’d be out with him and someone would want his autograph. Of course, he would give it, but it just wasn’t in his nature. In his day the press never attached themselves to my father because there was no story there. He was just a family man who did his training and then went home.”

Clark himself says: “I never wanted any of that [fame or celebrity]. It wasn’t me. I preferred being in the background. Big Jock used to say to me, ‘push yourself forward, be more up front.’ I just said, ‘no thanks’.

“But I’ve no complaints. I had a great career and I’ve got a great family. My life turned out to be very, very good.”

John Clark: Five games that changed my life

John Clark

http://www.celticfc.net/news/5565
By: Joe Sullivan on 13 Mar, 2017 15:31

LISBON LION, John Clark celebrates his 76th birthday today, Monday, March 13 and it goes without saying that everyone here at Celtic Park wishes him many happy returns.

One way of assessing a player’s career is to count his medals, and a brief glimpse at John Clark’s collection on display in the Paradise boardroom pays tribute to his service to Celtic Football Club.

Among the main honours from the 316 games he played for Celtic are three championship medals, three for the Scottish Cup, four for the League Cup and, of course, there is the pinnacle of the European Cup in 1967.

However, that is only part of the story as John Clark is still very much part of the fabric of the club nearly 58 years after he first joined as a fresh-faced teenager in 1958 and he has held a host of positions with the Hoops.

He was Billy McNeill’s partner in defence during the most successful period in the club’s history and, as one of the revered Lisbon Lions, he will forever hold a place in the hearts of the faithful as one of the club’s greatest ever players.

And when Cesar returned as manager, it was John who he turned to as his right-hand man to help steer the Hoops to more silverware as a new generation of supporters looked for success. Today he remains a popular presence at both Celtic Park and Lennoxtown, still enjoying every Hoops success because he is still as much a Celtic supporter as he was when he cheered on the players from the terracing in the 1950s.

Here we look at some highlights from his amazing career.

Amazingly, five was the paltry sum of Scotland caps that John Clark received for his efforts as the most successful sweeper in the Scottish game. Like the rest of the Lions, John discovered that talent and achievement at club level mattered little to national team selectors. However, players and supporters recognised his ability and years after marking Pele out of the game in a 1-1 draw with Brazil in 1966, the ‘world’s greatest player’ made a beeline for ‘Luggy’, stopping for a chat after spotting him in the lobby of a New York hotel.

There were three nicknames that John picked up in his more than 50 years at Celtic Park. The first is ‘The Brush’, the moniker that was given to him in the newspapers, for his ability to calmly sweep up at the back. The next was ‘Luggy’, the name that John doesn’t really like and was picked up after he ended up with a cauliflower ear after an accidental collision with Billy McNeill in training. The third is the one that he prefers to be known by and is best known as today, ‘Clarky’. As Clarky himself pointed out in an interview, he has been called a few other things over the years, mainly by his former assistant, Angie Thomson, but ‘none of them are printable!’

He won an impressive 11 medals during his years as a player at Celtic Park. Between 1958 and 1971 he won three league championships, three Scottish Cups, four League Cups and, of course, the European Cup in 1967. It should also be remembered that John has also played a significant role in the backdrop during other major triumphs, as a coach between 1973 and 1978, assistant manager between 1978 and 1983 before returning to the club as kit controller in 1997. All of his medals are on display in the Celtic boardroom. “I feel really honoured that they are on display there and that supporters are able to see them,” he said.

A total of four was the number of goals that the ‘prolific’ John Clark scored for Celtic – three in the green and white Hoops and one in the blue and white hoops of Morton. Raise this issue with Clarky today and he will rightly point out that he was a sweeper, more accustomed to stopping goals than foraging forward. And he’ll also tell you that he scored one of the strikes of the century! “I always say that I scored the best goal ever,” he said in a Celtic View interview. “It was in a Scottish Cup replay at Easter Road against Hibs and I beat a defender at the byline, cut in and poked the ball through Ronnie Simpson’s legs and said to him: ‘You couldn’t get any better than that could you!’” There was one other memorable strike, though, and when John returned in 1971 as a Morton player, he was among the Celtic goalscorers, netting an own goal in the 3-1 defeat.

Working as a player, coach and kit controller, John has now spent seven decades at the club. It is a remarkable, almost lifelong, association and one that Clark treasures. “I was a Celtic supporter, a Celtic player, it’s been my life,” he said in a matchday programme interview. “I get a lot of satisfaction when I think that I started my working life with Celtic and I’ll finish it with them. I’ve really enjoyed my life, when I look back I couldn’t ask for any more. I’ve been a really lucky guy. “

He played a total of 140 consecutive matches between April 1965 and September 1967. He did not miss a single match during that two-year period – the most successful period in the club’s history – playing in every friendly match for the club, including the North American Tour that preceded the clean sweep season of 1966/67, the head-to-head with Manchester United and the great Alfredo Di Stefano’s testimonial. The run also included four internationals with Scotland and continued until September 27, 1967, when he was rested for the League Cup quarter-final against Ayr United. John was back in the team for a league win over Stirling Albion three days later.

John’s final game for Celtic came on May 1, 1971 when Jock Stein gathered the Lisbon Lions together to take a final bow in front of 35,000 at Celtic Park. The late, great Ronnie Simpson couldn’t play due to his shoulder injury but he took to the pitch for the pre-match warm-up. Bertie Auld and Stevie Chalmers also played their final Celtic game that day as the Bhoys beat Clyde 6-1.

At the Celtic Player of the Year Awards in May 2004, which had been voted for by over 50,000 Celtic fans, Martin O’Neill presented John Clark with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to Celtic.

Aidan Smith’s Saturday Interview: Lisbon Lion John Clark remembers Pele, their clash at Hampden and a funny reunion in a New York elevator

He wasn’t Jinky the dribble demon or Lemon over on the other wing who left opponents spluttering in his vapor trail.
By Aidan Smith
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/aidan-smiths-saturday-interview-lisbon-lion-john-clark-remembers-pele-their-clash-at-hampden-and-a-funny-reunion-in-a-new-york-elevator-3977778
The great Pele didn’t shine when he played against Scotland at Hampden Park in 1966 and one of the reasons for that was the doughty defending of No 6 John Clark
The great Pele didn’t shine when he played against Scotland at Hampden Park in 1966 and one of the reasons for that was the doughty defending of No 6 John Clark

He wasn’t Caesar or Big Tam. Nor Wispy or Cairney, the full-back whose nickname came from a TV show. And he wasn’t Chopper or Ten-thirty or Faither, the mature-years goalie – none of these guys.

He wasn’t Stevie Chalmers, who scored the goal which won Celtic the European Cup, but even though you won’t hear this from his mouth he was vital to that triumph for the ages.

All of the aforementioned were either more flamboyant players or, when they retired, more flamboyant storytellers, waxing lyrical about 1967 in Lisbon. Some indeed were both. Or they got into trouble with the boss more or there was something funny about them, like they’d do anything to avoid getting on a plane or they kept their teeth in a bunnet. But John Clark was a Lion, too, and the rest of the pride, be they still getting a kick at the ball down here or up in the high stand, would affirm that most heartily.

I’ve met some modest football veterans in my time but Clark takes the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer. This is him talking about a game the summer before Lisbon: “I wasn’t nervous. Football’s about testing yourself against your opponent and that’s all I was thinking about, not his reputation or the fabulous goals I’d seen him score on TV. I was concentrating on what I had to do. If your job requires you to line up against the best player on the planet, you do it. That’s what I did at Hampden that night. I just got on with it.”

Just got on with it. With shackling double world champions Brazil and none other than Pele. Clark, when I catch up with him at home, makes this sound like a dauner to the shops in downtown Hamilton from where incidentally he’s just returned with his wife Eileen. He is not, though, saying it was easy. That’s definitely not his style.

The passing of Edson Arantes do Nascimento as the old year ended and his funeral this week has had Clark reflecting on the first-ever international between Scotland and Brazil on 25 June, 1966. Pele was 82 when he died, the age Clark will be come his next birthday in March. The old left-half is one of the few survivors of that friendly who can still remember it.

“Everyone is talking about Lionel Messi just now. The best in the world? That very much depends which generation you’re from. For me and I think all my team-mates that day it would be Pele. Even though we managed to keep him pretty quiet.”

The game, like one the previous week in Glasgow against Portugal, was a warm-up for the World Cup in England offered by envious non-qualifiers, a chance for Brazil to familiarise with British pitches and British tackling. Clark had been on the bench against Eusebio & Co but was then called up by manager John Prentice for his first cap.

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“Celtic had just come back from a tour of the United States and suddenly me wee Chalmers were in the Scotland team. I remember it was a lovely warm night with a rare crowd in the stadium [73,933]. Eileen was there and I’m sure some of my uncles were too. They’d kind of shared the father-figure duties after my own dad had been killed on the railways.”

John Clark Sr, an engineer, died in an accident on an English line when his eldest son was just ten. Suddenly in the Lanarkshire village of Chapelhall the lad had to assume breadwinner duties. “I had little brothers and a little sister while mum was expecting my other sister so I had to go out and find wee jobs. A local farmer let me sell his eggs and potatoes. I did all sorts to help bring a few bob into the house.”

Nowadays when a player scores a goal or a game is won he’ll extend his arms and gaze up to the heavens to commune with loved ones no longer around. In Clark’s day footballers kept their feelings very much to themselves but he says: “Of course I would have liked my father to have seen me make it in the game, to play for Celtic who were just about everybody’s team in our village and for my country. I don’t know if him not being there when I was growing up made me more determined to succeed but there wasn’t any other option.” Like facing up to Pele, he just got on with it.

The Scotland team were: Bobby Ferguson, John Greig, Leeds United’s Willie Bell, Billy Bremner, Ron McKinnon, Clarky, Alex Scott of Everton, Charlie Cooke, Chalmers, Jim Baxter and another debutant, Hibernian’s Peter Cormack, then just 19.

For Brazil, the great Garrincha was bound for his third World Cup but sat out Hampden. The youngest in their side was 21-year-old Jarzinho who would go on to score in every game of the 1970 tournament but of course it was the name of their No 10 from Santos, then 25, which stood out, as it did on every team-sheet.

Says Clark: “Like everyone else I’d watched the 1958 World Cup on the telly, Pele scoring that wonderful goal when he flipped it over the boy’s head and volleyed it into the net [the strike which announced him in football, against Sweden in the final]. But when Brazil came to Hampden wee Chalmers surprised them.”

Thirty-eight seconds – that was the time of his fellow Celt’s goal, missed by many still queueing to get into the ground. Truly this was a different era with short back and sides for Clark and his team-mates, black boots and white laces looped round the soles and no ink anywhere on the pale Scottish skin. Probably the only tattoos around in 1966 would have been found on the seafaring relatives of footballers, anchors or mermaids.

Clark does not build up his part, about this game or any other. You will find testimonies about how he marked Pele out of the contest; not strictly true, he says, there was huge help from Bremner. “Billy got in a strong tackle early in the game. I don’t think Pele liked it!” Clark did, though, tangle with him as play unfolded and Brazil hit back with an equaliser by Servilio, but you have to work hard to wheedle the admission that in these confrontations the Scot generally came out on top. “If I did really get the better of him then he didn’t do too badly otherwise, did he?”

Clark will reference Pele along with the other notables he played against with Celtic, among them Eusebio, Sandro Mazzola, Jimmy Greaves, Denis Law, Ian St John – “the cream of strikers,” he calls them. But make no mistake, Pele was the best, even if he didn’t show it that day. Brazil left Glasgow for England but their World Cup defence ended with exit at the group stages. “Pele was kicked all over the place by Portugal and Bulgaria, it was terrible.”

A buttercup yellow shirt would have been a fine souvenir of the 1-1 draw at Mount Florida – Cormack unfurled the strip he swapped with Gerson for me; the cotton is properly heavy – but Clark chose to keep his Scotland colours from that first appearance. There would only be three more: Wales away in the British Home Championship – “I won’t forget that one; it was the day after the Aberfan mining disaster” – then Northern Ireland and finally a friendly against the old USSR. Was he disappointed by the modest total? “Ach, I don’t know. Some say that Celtic players got a raw deal from Scotland and Bobby Murdoch for instance certainly deserved more caps. I was proud to represent my country on the occasions I did but didn’t think I was an inferior player to anyone else in my position at the time.” (From Clark, this is almost tantamount to outrageous boasting).

Certainly there were consolations to be found in club football. He helped Celtic to six titles, the League Cup five times and the Scottish Cup three. And don’t forget Lisbon. Clark can’t; the fans won’t let him. What for instance does Rod Stewart say to him when they meet? “‘Get oot o’ ma’ road!’ No, I’m joking. That sadly won’t ever be done again – a Scottish club winning the European Cup – at least not unless some big moneybags strikes oil someplace and buys a whole new team. Clubs everywhere are spending millions trying to win the trophy and failing. We did it just with guys, all Scots, from round and about and here and there.” (All but two of the 15-man squad were born within a ten-mile radius of Parkhead).

Clark signed for Celtic aged 17. “I felt as though I’d won the pools.” His first-team debut came at Arbroath’s Gayfield in 1959, the first goal in a Scottish Cup replay at Hibernian two years later. “If I say so myself it was pretty good. Pat Crerand played a short corner, I rounded Sammy Baird on the byline, then poked it through Ronnie Simpson’s legs. When Ronnie came to Celtic later I liked to remind him about it. Well, I did only ever manage to score for the club three times.”

He was much better known for his doughty defence, forming a rock-solid partnership with Billy McNeill. But any suggestion of telepathy between the pair is downplayed. “There wasn’t a strategy. ‘You take care of the headers, I’ll sweep up.’ We had to let the games, the situations, happen then deal with them as best we could.” What is not open to question, though, is that between April of 1965 and September ’67 Clark turned out in the hoops in 140 consecutive matches – an astonishing statistic. How many of today’s players are feeling a twinge in the groin just from reading that?

For the first of them new Parkhead manager Jock Stein selected him and clearly the boss had found a fellow upon whom he could depend. “I knew Jock from before when he’d been in charge of the reserves so was delighted when he came back to us. We got on well, although he was an absolute stickler for time-keeping. I remember Billy and I arriving early at St Enoch Square for the one o’clock bus to a game at Dumbarton so we took a wee stroll along Argyle Street. When we got back Jock was raging. ‘What the hell time do you call this?’ It was only a minute after one but we were never late for anything ever again.”

Clark, father to two and grandfather to three, is in with the bricks at Paradise. After playing he was a coach, an assistant manager and the kitman, and his involvement with the club continues today. It won’t come as much of a surprise to learn that he doesn’t mind being known as the quiet man among the immortals and the unsung hero. “I loved being a footballer, only wanted to do my best and got that chance at Celtic. I’ve had a great life.”

To what does he attribute its longevity? “Not drinking? But I don’t really know because it’s probably not advisable to scoff as much chocolate and as many sweets as I do. The great man above has been good to me.”

He acknowledges this at every passing of a team-mate or illustrious opponent: Bertie Auld in 2021, John Hughes last year and now Pele. There is one more story about Clark and the Black Pearl. It comes from 1981 when our man was McNeill’s No 2 and Celtic were in New York and suddenly Pele, on promotional duties for the POW movie Escape to Victory, was riding in their hotel elevator. He recognised Clark, remembered Hampden and that his old foe wore No 6 and they chatted about the game. Young Davie Provan, also in the lift, was completely awestruck. Then Pele reached his floor and bid them farewell. The doors closed, Clark turned to Provan with the latter’s jaw still on the floor, and said: “Do you know, I was just being polite. I’ve no flamin’ idea who that was!”