A TRIBUTE TO A GREAT CELTIC MAN

Pat Woods (1946-2025)

Legendary boxing writer, Nat Fleischer, founder of ‘The Ring’ magazine, once stated that ‘among the greats there is no greatest’.

However, this week saw the sad passing of Celtic historian Pat Woods, whose body of work and research on the club he loved, contradicts this view, as he was undoubtedly the most outstanding, influential and authoritative writer on the rich, inspiring fabric that is the Celtic story.

Born in Bangor, North Wales in 1946 and raised close to Celtic Park on Shettleston Road, Pat was educated at the Marist St Mungo’s Academy and spent his professional life with distinction in the city’s library service.

As a youngster, attending matches home and away with his father he became a fervent and loyal supporter of the club, cheering boyhood heroes, Stein, Evans, Peacock, Collins and the ‘Clown Prince of Paradise’, the inimitable Charlie Tully.

He endured the barren years of the ‘Kelly Kids’ era in the early 1960s and then the wonderful successes following Stein’s return to Celtic Park. His ‘annus mirabilis’ was, of course, Lisbon 1967, travelling to the city on the River Tagus on a 10-day return rail journey to witness a Celtic triumph, which in his own words, ‘captivated a continent’.

In the years that followed, Pat supported the team at home and abroad and began what was to be a distinguished writing career in 1986.

His work, including the magisterial The Glory and the Dream, Dreams and Songs to Sing and outstanding collaborations with Tom Campbell, Kevin McCarra and Lisbon Lion Jim Craig, provided unerringly accurate, vivid and entertaining narratives to a wide and appreciative public.

Pat’s writing captured the drama and colour of occasions, ‘glorious victories and honourable defeats’ and always conveyed the passion of Celtic supporters which he reflected, ‘shone like a beacon’.

As one commentator has observed, ‘he elevated Celtic’s literary tradition to place it at the zenith among football clubs’.

Pat’s contribution to Celtic was recognised in 2017, when the club honoured him with a Special Recognition Award to acknowledge a lifetime of outstanding work marked with his own special ‘charism’.

With typical generosity, he gifted to the club an unmatched 46-volume archive of extremely rare, printed and pictorial material from international sources, documenting Celtic’s 1967 European Cup victory. A life’s work and legacy which will encourage, inspire and inform those who seek to follow his path.

In tribute, distinguished journalist Andrew Smith has described Pat as a ‘special man’.

Indeed, he was special. In his integrity, his humility, his creativity, intelligence and unfailing kindness. A quiet man, but nevertheless, a giant and iconic figure in the history of the club and a man who enriched the lives of all who knew him.

TERRY DICK

Condolences after the passing of Celtic writer & historian, Pat Woods