Happy 80th birthday, Bobby! | OneFootball

On August 30, 1943, one of Celtic’s greatest ever players, and the club’s second highest goalscorer of all-time was born.

And as Bobby Lennox celebrates his 80th birthday, the whole Celtic Family sends their best wishes to him and his family.

Here’s just a short summary of the extraordinary Celtic career of a great Celtic man…

SALTCOATS CELT

The title of Bobby Lennox’s book, Thirty Miles from Paradise. Bobby Lennox was, of course, the only member of the Lions side to come from outside of the city limits and he has remained a Saltcoats Bhoy to this day. In his book, Bobby describes an almost idyllic childhood beside the sea and, apart from his six-month spell with Houston Hurricane in 1978, he has stayed in the town his entire life, and, indeed, there is now a statue to the town’s most famous son. “I had a great upbringing,” he told the Celtic View. “We weren’t the richest family in the world, but I didn’t want for much, although all I really wanted was a ball at my feet anyway.”

GOAL MACHINE

Bobby Lennox scored an incredible 277 goals in his 586 appearances for the club, a tally second only to the legendary Jimmy McGrory. The tally tells you everything about his natural ability in front of goal and he should have had a lot more to his record, had he not been ruled wrongly offside on umpteen occasions! Lennox was a flying machine, a man built for speed and while he was at times punished for it by the officials, his pace was always utilised for the good of the team. Completely unselfish and tireless in his pursuit of the win, he was one of 11 ‘jersey players’ in the Lions’ starting XI, as his captain Billy McNeill said: “Bobby knows what wearing a Celtic jersey means”. Another of his team-mates, Bertie Auld, had another description: “Bobby would chase a paper bag on a windy day.”

CUP CAPERS

In 51 Scottish Cup appearances, Bobby Lennox hit an impressive 31 goals, actually winning the competition on no fewer than eight occasions. The wins also came in three different decades, with Lennox winning his first Scottish Cup medal in 1965 and his last in 1980. His favourite? The 1969 victory over Rangers, where Celtic ran out as under-dogs in front of an all-ticket crowd of 132,870. Expecting victory, Rangers had actually announced a post-match victory parade at Ibrox on the morning of the game. Lennox was on the scoresheet as Celtic demolished their stunned opponents in a comprehensive 4-0 hammering.

MAGNIFICENT 11

That’s the number of championship medals that Bobby holds from his two spells at Celtic Park. He played in every one of the victories in Celtic’s record-setting nine-in-a-row run under Jock Stein and then returned after his brief stay in Houston to play his part in a further two championships. Bobby Lennox is Celtic’s most decorated Celt with 25 major honours – 11 league titles, eight Scottish Cups, five League Cups and, of course, a European Cup medal.

CAP CAPERS

Today Lennox is recognised as one of Scottish football’s true greats, having been given his place in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame at Hampden despite a paltry cap haul. During a 19-year playing career that included European finals and a weighty haul of trophies, he was capped on just 10 occasions. Bobby remains typically magnanimous when asked about this low tally. What was all the more baffling was the fact that Lennox was on the losing Scotland side on just one occasion and was one of the heroes of the side that beat World Cup holders, England, at Wembley in 1967. Sadly, the rest of the Lions were similarly overlooked.

BIG YIN FOR THE WEE MEN

In 1976, Bobby and his close friend and away day room-mate, Jimmy Johnstone, shared a testimonial game against Manchester United. The English giants travelled north on May 17 that year for a meeting with a select side that included ‘Lemon’ and ‘Jinky’ and were duly hammered 4-0 in front of a near-capacity crowd. It’s no surprise that Lennox was on the scoresheet, with Kenny Dalglish scoring a hat-trick that night. The occasion was memorable for another reason, with a Manchester United select facing a group of Celtic ‘old Bhoys’ at half time. They were led out by the special referee, a certain Billy Connolly, who ran out wearing an old pair of wellies and a Rangers hat and shirt. The Celtic-supporting comedian was booed mercilessly throughout the mini-match, until he showed the cheering Jungle a red card!