Before my first birthday, the man who was Celtic’s manager when I was born, left the job.
By the time I went to my first game, shortly after my 5th birthday, the same man was back in the dugout. Billy McNeil was in charge of Celtic for the second time when I went to my first ever match vs Dundee Utd in 1987.
While I had no idea of how big a part of Celtic’s history he was, I grew up to learn about big Billy McNeill.
He played for the club 789 times over an 18 year period. Billy McNeill then managed Celtic for just a few months short of 9 years.
For those of us who don’t have a calculator to hand, that’s almost 27 years of his working life. Add to that the huge number of trophies that he won as a player and manager and we can get a picture of how influential he was in our clubs history.
To put things into perspective, when Celtic recently celebrated our 125th anniversary, that means that Billy McNeill was a player or manager of Celtic for over 20% of our clubs existence.
While many of will talk about who our favourite Celtic man was and who is legendary, I doubt many will argue that Billy McNeill is up there with the best.
Really, the reason that I am writing this is to express my appreciation of Billy McNeill. I read the report, with great sadness, about his battle with dementia. Part of the report said that he may not even know what he achieved in football any more.
When I originally read the report, early on Sunday morning, I was genuinely upset for his family and it also shows how health can take any man or woman down no matter how great he or she is.
On top of what he achieved in football, it’s safe to say that he was a fantastic man as well. Have you ever heard of anyone who doesn’t have a good word to say about him ?
When I was a lot younger, I remember being spectacularly drunk after an ‘old firm’ game. I wont bore you with the full details of it, mainly because I can’t remember much of it.
The part I do know is that we beat Rangers, myself and my mate done a pub crawl along the Gallowgate and then ended up over in the south side. Where Billy McNeill happened to own and run a pub.
For the purpose of this story and licensing laws, I was most definitely over the age of 18 but when we went to the pub, it was my round and as I was trying to focus on whatever drink I wanted, the barman seemed vaguely familiar.
I ordered up my round and as he was bringing the drinks over, I almost fell over when I realised that Billy McNeill had just served me a drink.
I think I uttered an expletive and started waffling about how it was an honour to be served a drink by such a legendary guy. Billy McNeill served me a drink. I was probably acting in the same way that a teenage girl might act if she met her favourite pop star.
I spoke to him for a few minutes and even to this day, I am still amazed that he served me a drink. Does anyone think that in 20 – 30 years from now, a champions league winner will be working in a bar serving fans of the team that they played for?
I know that most fans will be able to share stories about Billy McNeill and that mine probably isn’t that a great story. I can’t really remember what he was saying when I had a few minutes to chat to him.
But even now, at 34 years old, I often bring up the fact that I met him in the pub and that I got served a drink.
For me, the fact that he was more than happy to interact with blazing drunk supporters says a huge amount about him. Take a minute to think about what he achieved in football then remember that he was working in a pub.
While most people reading this will probably have some personal experience of family or friends who have suffered from dementia and will know how horrible a condition it is, I felt that this was the right time to put down my thoughts on one of the greatest ever Celtic men.
Hail Ceser.