It seems appropriate that we kick off our series on one of football's most passionate rivalries on the weekend that saw the latest Old Firm clash in Glasgow between Celtic and Rangers.Today we have a brief history of Celtic. They come first for no other reason than the alphabet! Next time out we will be at Ibrox to look at the history of Rangers. Then we will look at some of the greatest ever Old Firm clashes and some of the events that have shaped one of the world's most intense rivalries. We will also look at the legends such as Celtic's Jock Stein, Jimmy Johnstone, and Rangers' Jim Baxter and John Grieg among many others.Inevitably any, all too brief, history of either Celtic or Rangers reads like a list of statistics. When you are writing of two such highly successful club sides as these, you just can't avoid it.
The formation of Glasgow Celtic Football Club on 6th November 1887 in St Mary's Church Hall in East Rose Street, Calton, was largely inspired by the example set by Edinburgh-based Hibernian FC. When a meeting was called to suggest a football club as a means of fundraising for the charity, The Poor Children's Dinner Table, the founders looked at what had already been achieved across in the capital city.Hibernian had also been formed largely out of the Irish immigrant population and had adopted a name and the colour green to illustrate their Irish origins. The name Celtic was suggested and adopted at the meeting and football club duly came into being. Since then, Celtic have largely represented the Catholic community of Glasgow.On the 28th May 1888 the club played it's first official match against Glasgow Rangers who had been formed back in 1873. Celtic was still in a state of development and borrowed eight Hibs players, winning the match 5-2. It proved to be Glasgow's very first Old Firm match.For the early games Celtic played in a white shirt with a green collar. On the chest of the shirt was a red Celtic cross symbol. Celtic reached their first Scottish Cup Final in their first full season as an active club. However they lost to Third Lanark 2-1. In 1890 the club switched to playing in green and white stripes in time for the formation of the Scottish Football Championship. The world famous hoops didn't appear until 1903. Their first Scottish Cup was won in 1892 when they beat Queen's Park 5-2 in the final. That year saw Celtic move to their new permanent home at Celtic Park. A first Championship arrived the next year in 1893. The league that year had a now familiar feel to it with Glasgow Rangers coming second showing an early indication of Glasgwegian dominance. The club would win a total of four Championships before the turn of the century as they quickly began to establish themselves as a major force in Scottish football. Titles in 1894, 1896, and 1898 completed their impressive start. The next title set off a period of near dominance and was won in the famous green and white hoops that we know today. They won six Championships on the trot from 1905 to 1910 inclusive. Glasgow did not dominate entirely and Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, and the now expired Third Lanark — also from Glasgow — won Championships. However, between 1905 and 1932 the title was won exclusively by the Old Firm with Celtic winning 13 and Rangers 14. Celtic won four on the trot in the war years between 1914-1917. It was Motherwell who broke the record in 1932 with Rangers finishing in second, ahead of Celtic in third. Celtic added two more titles during the thirties, in 1936 and 1938 with Rangers gaining the upper hand by winning five more. After the Second World War, it took Celtic eight seasons to add to their titles. In that time Rangers had won another four Championships and Hibs had gained three. The Scottish Cup Final at Hampden Park in 1937 between Celtic and Aberdeen was watched by an incredible 146,433. Celtic's League Championship triumph in 1954 was to be their last for 12 years. However they did win their first League Cup final when they beat Partick Thistle 3-1 in 1956 in a replay. The following year saw them retain the trophy by beating Rangers 7-1 in the final.Their relative lack of league success was to change dramatically when legendary manager Jock Stein, a non-Catholic, became the club's manager in 1965 following a spell with Hibernian. He marked his first season by winning the Scottish Cup, beating Dunfermline Athletic 3-2. It was Celtic's first in 11 years.Their title win in the 1965-66 season heralded their return in emphatic style. It was a season that also saw them reach the semi final of the European Cup Winners Cup, losing to Liverpool.The Stein inspired Celtic won nine Championships on the trot and became the first British side ever to lift the European Cup when they beat Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon in 1967. Of those nine Championships, Rangers finished second in six of them. Rangers finally regained the title in the 1974-75 season with Celtic in third behind Hibs. The rest of the '70s saw a near equal distribution with Celtic winning two, Rangers two, and Aberdeen adding a rare title in 1979-80. By the end of the '80s it was time for Rangers to dominate, and they equalled Celtic's nine in a row title wins by winning every Championship between 1989 and 1997. In all of that time, Celtic only finished runners-up on two occasions during a period that saw Aberdeen, Hearts, and Motherwell mounting a challenge to the Old Firm. Celtic stopped Rangers beating their record by adding a record tenth consecutive title by winning it in 1998 two points ahead of their rivals. Since 1985 the title has been won by either Celtic or Rangers with the hoops winning nine and ‘Gers winning 14. However the last three years have seen Celtic crowned as Champions. Overall Celtic have won 42 titles to Rangers' 51. Hearts, Aberdeen, and Hibs are next but way down, on four each. Such is the gap in Scottish football. Therefore, only 18 of the 111 Championships have been won outside of the Old Firm.During their history, Celtic have also won a total of 34 Scottish Cups against Rangers' total of 32. Queens Park are next on 10 (all of theirs coming prior to 1900) and Aberdeen, and Hearts are on seven apiece. The first Old Firm final came in 1893-94 which Rangers won 3-1 at Hampden Park. One notable final was the one played in the 1968-69 season during a period that saw Celtic dominate. Celtic beat Rangers 4-0 at Hampden in front of an incredible 132,000 spectators. Crowds of this size were also recorded in the following finals:Celtic 2 Aberdeen 1 – 1936-37 (147,365)Rangers 1 Morton 0 -1947-48 (133,750)Motherwell 4 Dundee 0 – 1951-52 (136,274)Hearts 3 Celtic 1 – 1955-56 (132,840)Rangers 1 Celtic 1 – 1962-63 (129,643)Celtic have won the double (league and cup) on 13 occasions. The first came way back in 1906-07 and the latest in 2006-07. They have also won 13 League Cups between 1957 and 2006. They have also reached this years final but no prizes for guessing who they will play. (Rangers.)However, it is in Europe that Celtic really carved their name in stone when they won the European Cup in 1967. They were runners up in the same competition in 1970 when they lost 2-1 in extra time to Holland's Feyenoord. To reach the final, Celtic had to overcome England's then-mighty Leeds United. Celtic won both legs with the second leg watched by 133,961 at Celtic Park.A further European Cup Semi Final was reached in 1974 but this time they lost 0-2 to Spain's Atletico Madrid.Their 1967 win, inspired by Jock Stein, came against the mighty Inter Milan a team crammed full of internationals, who had been dominating the Italian league for several years.The remarkable thing about Celtic's win was that all 11 players, the so-called Lisbon Lions, were born within a 30-mile radius of Celtic Park. That season, 1966-67, Celtic won every competition they entered: the League, Scottish Cup, Scottish League Cup, and the European Cup, thereby winning a quadruple of honours. In 2003, Celtic lost 3-2 to Porto in the final of the UEFA Cup in Seville. Led by manager Martin O'Neill, it heralded a return to the European stage for the club.They have also won the lesser known Glasgow Cup a total of 30 times.In 2006 Gordon Strachan took over from the highly successful Martin O'Neill as Celtic's manager and duly won the league title in his first season.Celtic play their home games at Celtic Park, also known as Parkhead. It has a current capacity of just over 60,000 making it the biggest club ground in Scotland. For a more in depth look at Celtic FC visit their official website.
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