Stevie Chalmers – In His Own Words

HIS 231 goals for Celtic included the most important goal in the club’s history, but you would never have known it when speaking to Stevie Chalmers.

The Hoops goalscoring legend was one of the game’s most unassuming and humble characters and, if you asked his Lisbon Lion team-mates, they would have told you Stevie never liked to brag about that European Cup-winning strike or his achievements as a player.

They were, however, numerous and in his 12-year tenure as a Celtic player, he won four league championships, three Scottish Cups, four League Cups and that treasured European gong.

Blessed with pace, goalscoring ability and a remarkable versatility, Stevie Chalmers is a true Celtic great and here, from a 2007 Celtic View interview, are Stevie’s own reflections on a remarkable career.

AN early memory that I have of Celtic which immediately comes to mind is as a Junior player at Kirkintilloch Rob Roy.

One of our league games had just finished and they announced over the tannoy that the result from the League Cup final was Rangers 1 Celtic 7. There was a stunned silence and I could hardly believe it myself. I was a Celtic supporter, but the club I was playing for couldn’t be described as ‘Celtic-minded’, so I think the result shocked a few people that day. I still remember that announcement as clear as day and the looks on a few people’s faces. That was in 1957 and two years later, I had joined the club myself.

THE highlight of my Celtic career has to be scoring the winning goal against Inter Milan in the European Cup final. I don’t think you can get a better highlight than that. You work every day from when you’re a kid, building yourself up to that kind of challenge and it was something I had dreamed of.