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.
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