James Philip Craig (born 30 April 1943) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, who played as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. Most closely associated with

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

, he was a member of their ''

Lisbon Lions The Lisbon Lions is the nickname given to the Celtic F.C., Celtic team that won the UEFA Champions League, European Cup at the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal on 25 May 1967 European Cup Final, 1967, defeating Inter Milan 2–1. Name The ...

'' side which won the 1967 European Cup.

Playing career

A student at Glasgow's St Gerard's School, Craig was a

supporter as a child, with the first game he attended being the Saint Mungo Cup final in 1951. He was a Scotland schoolboy international, while his first senior side was the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

representative team which he played for while studying

dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the Human tooth, teeth, gums, and Human mouth, mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, dis ...

at the institution. He joined Celtic in 1963 on amateur terms so as to allow him to complete his studies, and having done so signed as a full professional in January 1965. Craig's abilities and style of play matched manager

Jock Stein John Stein (5 October 1922 – 10 September 1985) was a Scottish association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. He was the first manager of a club from a Northern European country to win the European Champio ...

's tactical philosophy and he soon displaced Willie O'Neill and Ian Young as Celtic's regular right back. Stein encouraged his fullbacks to overlap the side's midfield to provide additional support to the forwards, in the style of the modern ''wing-back'' role, and in Craig and left back Tommy Gemmell he found willing protagonists. During his tenure at

Parkhead Parkhead () is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet (place), hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road (now the Gallowgate and Tollcross Road) and Westmuir Street. Glasgow's Eastern Necro ...

, Craig collected 14 domestic honours (7 League titles, 4 Scottish Cups and 3 League Cups) as well as a

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

medal in 1967. He made 239 appearances for Celtic scoring 6 goals with his final match being the victorious 1972 Scottish Cup Final. He won one

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the Scotland national team. Craig left Celtic to live in South Africa in May 1972, where he played for Hellenic FC, however after six months he returned to Britain. He joined

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

, with the

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

side paying Celtic £10,000 compensation, as they had retained his registration. He retired from football in 1973, to concentrate his efforts upon his dentistry career.

Later years

In July 1974 he succeeded Shay Brennan as player-manager of Waterford United. However, in December, after one substitute appearance, Craig informed the club that he was unable to commit to the role due to a "domestic problem". In the 1980s Craig regularly appeared as a football pundit on the

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

programme '' Sportscene''. In 2001, he was made Honorary President of the ''Belfast Shamrock Celtic Supporters Club'', which subsequently changed its name to ''Jim Craig Celtic Supporters Club'' in 2011. Craig is now actively part of the Celtic community; he has hosted Channel67, an online streaming service which provides video streams and audio streams of every Celtic match. He regularly updates the ''Jim Craig CSC'' blog site.

Personal life

Originally from

Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

, his father supported local team Hibernian and the family was later to settle in Craigton, Glasgow. His son James Craig is a notable rugby player who was capped for the

Scotland national rugby union team The Scotland national rugby union team represents the Scottish Rugby Union in men's international rugby union. The team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship, where they are the current Doddie Weir Cup holders. They also participa ...

four times between 1997 and 2001.Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Scotland Rugby Miscellany'' (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ), p140

Honours

Celtic *

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. It was replaced by the Scottish Championship. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 in Scottish footb ...

(7): 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

(3): 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70 *

: 1966–67 **Runner-up 1969–70 *

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...

: 1967–68, 1969–70

References

External links

* *
Jim Craig CSC at ''Celtic Quick News''Football 50
blog series by Craig on the events of his career 50 years earlier {{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Jim 1943 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's youth international footballers Scotland men's international footballers Celtic F.C. players Hellenic F.C. players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Scottish Roman Catholics Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Waterford F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Scottish football managers Waterford F.C. managers League of Ireland managers Men's association football fullbacks Scottish dentists Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees UEFA Champions League–winning players Glasgow University F.C. players