Yogi - Smarter Than The Average Bear

It was 54 years ago today that John ‘Yogi’ Hughes scored five against Aberdeen…while wearing some fancy footwear.

- Joe Sullivan

JOHN HUGHES always performed better when the going was heavy. Being able to get a good grip on the surface allowed him to bamboozle and power past defenders, before letting shots rip on target.

When the ground was solid, he wasn’t able to utilise his best attributes.

That remained the case until a chilly afternoon on January 30, 1965 when he borrowed a pair of Billy McNeill’s training shoes and wore them in the league match with Aberdeen. The result was 8-0 in Celtic’s favour, with the ‘sannies’ of Hughes bagging five goals.

With that hindrance overcome, ‘Yogi’ went on to score 188 goals for the Hoops, becoming the seventh highest scorer in the club’s history.

Those strikes, allied to an excellent close control and mean dribbling ability, made him a formidable weapon in the arsenal of the brilliant Celtic side which dominated Scottish football and conquered Europe in the latter part of the decade. Sannies or not, Hughes was a Celtic great.

He said of that day: “I just remember that I didn’t particularly like the rubber boots at the time. At that time the boots had wee pimples on them and always felt unsteady on my feet but at training I used to feel quite steady with these things on.

“So I asked if I could play with them and I should have patented it, shouldn’t I? It was great, I seemed to be a lot more sure-footed than other people and I think that was emphasised in that I scored five goals!”

Here we take a short look at his career.

Prelude to Paradise