He never walked alone: Final tributes at Gemmell funeral
Thousands of fans line up for Lisbon Lion’s last journey from Celtic Park
IT was Lord Haughey, the former Celtic director, who summed up what everyone – family, friends, old colleagues – was feeling as Celtic said an emotional farewell to one of its own. He simply said: “RIP, legend.”
Daldowie Crematorium was crowded for yesterday’s funeral service of former Parkhead full-back Tommy Gemmell, who died on March 2, aged 73, after a long illness. The diminishing band of Lisbon Lions was there. Willie Henderson, the great Rangers winger, and a close friend of Gemmell’s, helped carry the coffin in from the hearse.
The cortege had earlier visited Celtic Park, where thousands of fans paid their last respects. The hour-long service, led by a humanist celebrant, Linda Britton, was live-streamed on Celtic’s YouTube channel.
After the coffin was borne in, to the accompaniment of Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World, Jim Craig, the other full-back in Celtic’s 1967 European Cup in Lisbon, recalled the Gemmell he knew.
He and Gemmell had been roommates on Celtic trips or on training visits to Seamill. “However, this could have its problems. Tam had many good qualities but he also could have his little idiosyncrasies as well. One of these was his ability to disappear – or, more correctly, his inability to be where he was supposed to be at a given time,” said Craig.
He then recalled one foreign trip when they went down for breakfast together, only for Jock Stein to suddenly demand to know Gemmell’s whereabouts. I was thinking to myself,” Craig said, “that we had left the room at the same time, we had come down in the lift at the same time, and I saw him in the foyer as well. Since then, I don’t know.
“Over the years, Tam could be accused of being noisy, argumentative, flamboyant – he had the flashy suits, and a car with the Colonel Bogey horn – and even cocky, but he also delivered. His scoring record – an excellent one for a full-back – and his ability to drive home a penalty, [were] a great bonus.” Probably Gemmell’s most famous goal was his great equaliser against Inter Milan in that European final. To laughter, Craig added: “Although with great modesty, might I point out he received such a perfect pass along the 18-yard line his granny could have knocked one in.”
Craig said the last few years of his friend’s life had been tough. “That once-powerful frame began to weaken and Tam was eventually confined to his bed, a situation such a strong athlete must have found really difficult to cope with. Yet, as his strength waned, I never heard him complain.Thankfully, the way he dealt with whatever came his way was a lesson to us all.”
Alex Gordon, a close friend, said Gemmell “played his football as he lived his life, with a smile on his face, and he lived life to the full. He always had time for fans who wanted to chat to him.” Lord Haughey conveyed the thanks of Gemmell’s widow, Mary, to Celtic, the directors of Rangers and Henderson. Gemmell, he added, had spent most of his final 18 months in various hospitals. Twelve weeks ago, “at her wit’s end with the uncertainty as to where Tommy would be treated”, Mary reached out to Celtic, and chief executive Peter Lawwell asked Haughey if he knew of any “decent nursing homes that could take Tommy”.
It was thus he was moved into the 3 Bridges Nursing Home, near Hampden, scene of so many of his greatest triumphs. “Tommy spent the last 12 weeks of his wonderful life there,” Haughey added, “and the reason Mary has asked me to tell this story: she says the last 12 weeks of Tommy’s life [have] been the best and the most comfortable he’s been the last seven years.”