Mourners gather for funeral of Celtic great Chalmers

Celtic fans made their way to Parkhead for the second time in less than a week to say an emotional goodbye to another Lisbon Lion, Stevie Chalmers.

The funeral mass of the man who scored the club’s most important goal took place at St Mary’s Church in Calton, where Celtic Football Club was first established during a meeting in 1887.

Chalmers, who netted the winner in the 1967 European Cup final against Inter Milan in Portugal, died last week aged 83, days after Lions’ captain Billy McNeill, whose funeral took place in Glasgow last Friday.

Both had been suffering from dementia in recent years.

On a cold and wet afternoon, several thousand fans applauded when the funeral cortege passed through the grounds of Celtic Park before going to a private cremation. Tributes to Billy McNeill were still evident amid a tide of mostly green and white.

Before the funeral mass Jim Craig, who also played in the famous 2-1 win in Portugal, spoke of a testing time for everyone connected to Celtic as his thoughts went out to Chalmers’ wife, Sadie, and her family.

The former full-back said: “It has been a difficult week to lose another team-mate. Stevie was a very popular guy with everybody, fans and players alike, and at this time our thoughts are with Sadie and the family.

“We hope the public in general will remember him greatly as they will with that goal in Lisbon.

“First and foremost, he was a nice guy, great fun to be with and we all enjoyed his company and he worked hard for Celtic both as a player and later in his job there as well.”

Other Lisbon Lions, Bertie Auld, Bobby Lennox and John Clark joined Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell, chairman Ian Bankier and other members of the Parkhead board in attendance, along with interim boss Neil Lennon and the Hoops squad.

Some more of the great and the good from Celtic’s history were also present including former managers Martin O’Neill and Davie Hay and former captains of the club, Danny McGrain, Roy Aitken and Tom Boyd.

Also among the mourners were Chalmers’ former Celtic team-mates John Hughes and John Fallon as well as Sir Alex Ferguson and another former Rangers player, keeper Peter McCloy.

McCloy, who became a golfing buddy of the Hoops striker, said: “He was a great player, one of those like a Duracell battery, he kept on running all day.

“A great team man. More importantly, he was a lovely man. We played a lot of golf together and he beat me at that too.”

Glasgow-born Chalmers, who played for Celtic between 1959 and 1971 before spells at  Morton and Partick Thistle, scored 231 goals for the Hoops in total, putting him fourth in the all-time scorers list behind Jimmy McGrory, Henrik Larsson and Lennox.