Lion honour
One of Rutherglen’s favourite footballing sons is set to be honoured by the town. A plaque will be unveiled at the town hall on Friday in memory of Bobby Murdoch. Bobby was a member of the famous Lisbon Lions Celtic team who won the European Cup in 1967
One of the Rutherglen’s favourite footballing sons is set to be honoured by the town.
Bobby Murdoch is widely regarded as the finest player ever to come from the Royal Burgh and was a member of the Celtic team who won the European Cup in 1967 against Inter Milan in Lisbon. The Reformer approached South Lanarkshire Council after we were contacted by a reader who felt the town should do something to honour the Lisbon Lion. And a plaque will now be unveiled at Rutherglen Town Hall at 10am on Friday as a tribute to the former St Columbkille’s pupil. During his time at Celtic, Bobby also won eight league medals, four Scottish Cup honours and five League cup gongs. After leaving Celtic, he made almost 100 appearances for Middlesborough. He also played 12 times for Scotland at a time international caps were harder to come by, scoring six goals in the process. Sadly, he died in 2001. Representatives of Celtic will be there along with members of Bobby’s family and organisers of the Bobby Murdoch Memorial Tournament, an annual event that raises money for the Kilbryde Hospice. Also there will be TV broadcasting legend Archie MacPherson and Bobby’ s childhood friend, Lord McAvoy. Bobby’s widow, Kathleen told the Reformer: “It’s really nice nice, we’re all really pleased.
“Everyone knows Bobby as a Lisbon Lion but to his sons he was just their dad so we’re very proud.
“He was a Rutherglen boy. People always say he was born in Bothwell but he was born in his gran’s house in Burnhill.”
The ceremony will take place just a few weeks after the 50th anniversary of the start of Celtic’s run to European glory.
Looking back on that time, Kathleen said: “They were winning everything at home, so they were obviously playing really well, but I’m not going to say I thought they would win the European Cup.
“The year before Jock Stein had taken them to America and they were away a few weeks again in 1966. That was when he moulded the team together. They came back and just went on and on.
“We did it with 11 Scotsman. Even Manchester United the year after had Scots and Irish in their team.”
He was a Rutherglen boy… he was born in his gran’s house in Burnhill Wife Kathleen