Keeping It In The Celtic Family

Celtic legend, Dan McArthur’s cap heads back to Paradise thanks to his Stateside clan

- Joe Sullivan

There was a very special tour of Celtic Park taking place on Friday – not only was everyone taking the tour really ‘tourists’ in the true sense of the word as they had all made the trip over form the United States – they were all members of the McArthur family and descendants of Celtic’s first-ever goalkeeping hero, Dan McArthur.

There had been seven keepers at the club before McArthur, but he was the first Celtic keeper to break the 100-appearance mark, and the fact that he also won three Scotland caps and four Scottish League caps had a bearing on Friday’s special trip and visit.

For the McArthur family, who hail from Kearney in New Jersey, a hotbed of Scottish immigrants, had in their possession a Scottish League Cap from season 1895/96 won by their Great Grandfather, or, in the case of the younger members of the clan, their Great-Great-Grandfather.

And the McArthurs decided there was really only one home for the historic cap – Paradise – so they upped sticks and made the reverse trip across the Atlantic to present the cap to the club.

John McArthur took up the story saying: “Football was a big part of our lives growing up and the Thistle Football Club in Kearney was started out of the Scots American Association.

“Our Grandfather, Sam – Dan’s son – was the first McArthur to immigrate and he went over to the States in 1919, and he wound up in Kearney.