Memories of a football legend
Tributes have been paid to a Celtic and Clyde footballing g reat who was well known in the Rutherglen area.
Harry Hood, who died on Sunday aged 74 from cancer, starred in two spells at Clyde – including helping the Bully Wee to a third place finish in the league in 1967 – before moving to the Glasgow giants in 1969.
The popular player also worked as a PE teacher at St Columbkille’s Primary before he joined Celtic. And after retirement Mr Hood moved into the hospitality sector, successfully owning several pubs including the Croft bar, while he also lived for a spell in the Burnside area.
Harry’s daughter Siobhan Edwards this week praised the Marie Curie nurses and NHS staff who cared for her father during his final hours.
She said: “Dad was first diagnosed with bowel cancer five years ago, then it was his liver and then it was his lung.
“He was successful in beating all those cancers. In January this year the cancer returned and we all hoped in our hearts that he was going to beat it, as he was such a fighter.
“But after his first round of chemotherapy, this time he became too weak and wasn’t able to beat it. We were able to spend time with dad as a family and make so many memories with him.”
Siobhan continued: “The Marie Curie nurses are absolute angels. The strength these people have and the support they offer to families going through this is incredible, and is something we will be forever grateful for.
“As a family, we have been touched by the outpouring of messages we have had from people and just how much dad touched people’s lives. We’ve had messages from all over the world to the punters he used to talk to in his pubs. It’s been hard to take in.”
Harry enjoyed a glittering football career, starting his career with Clyde in 1962.
He helped them win promotion in 1963/64, netting ng 37 times that at season, and d after a fast start rt to the following g campaign he e was sold to o Sunderland, , where he e s c o re d the e winner against t Manchester r United in n an early y appearance.
How e v e r things did not go to plan at Roker Park, and he rejoined the Bully Wee in October 1966, where he was the club’s top scorer two seasons running.
That earned him a move to Celtic for £40,000, where he starred until 1976.
Highlights included scoring a famous hat-trick against Rangers in 1973, a feat no Celtic player managed again until 2016.
While playing for the Hoops he lifted six Scottish League titles, three Scottish Cups and two League Cups.
A statement from the club said: “A Celtic great, Harry made 310 appearances for the Hoops between 1969 and 1976, scoring a very impressive 123 goals.
“Celtic were blessed with exceptional, world- class strikers at that time, having won the European Cup two years previously, but Harry Hood offered something different to the rest.
“He had skill, poise and a touch of real class. When given a chance in front of goal, he rarely panicked. The supporters loved him and were happy to immortalise another hero in a varied repertoire of songs.”
After his footballing career ended in 1979 Mr Hood moved into the pub trade, and earned three lifetime achievement awards at the Scottish Entertainment and Hospitality Awards in the course of a successful career.
In 2012 he was inducted into the Clyde Hall of Fame.
Har ry passed away peacefully on Sunday morning, surrounded by family at his home in Bothwell.
He was a beloved husband to Kathleen, loving father to Lisa, Siobhan and Nicholas and grandfatherther to five.