sport news Jock Stein book sheds new light on Celtic's legendary manager trends now
There is history in Archie Macpherson. It is in his voice, in his words and at his fingertips. Stretching into his ninth decade, it also lies at his feet.
Or, more specifically, underneath his feet. 'The pit is directly under us,' he says as we walk through a wood in Bothwell en route for a coffee.
The comment is apposite. Macpherson knows the lie of the land, particularly in respect of Scottish sporting history.
Archie Macpherson pictured with his biography of legendary manager Jock Stein. His latest book, Touching Greatness, recalls encounters with Stein, Sir Alex Ferguson and others
His latest book, Touching Greatness, recalls jousts with Sir Alex Ferguson, a night with Jackie Paterson, how Bill McLaren could have been a football commentator, and a wistful encounter with Jim Baxter amid much else.
Jock Stein, though, inhabits the book like a powerful ghost. Macpherson was his biographer, friend and colleague on commentary and on trips.
The centenary of the birth of Stein occurs on Wednesday (October 5). Macpherson, typically, has found something new to say about the greatest Scottish manager.
'Harry Steele lived across the road,' says MacPherson, pointing to a row of houses.
'He was a friend of Jock's and I talked to him about Stein working in the Bothwell pit. That's the thread of the chapter I was placing him in. I was examining the mining past of such as Stein, Busby and Shankly which was crucial to their character in terms of working together, camaraderie.'.
He discovered something 'totally fresh'.
'I wrote to Bothwell Historical Society looking for the geography of the pit. They then sent me a piece a miner had written about Stein breaking his leg in an underground accident. I had never heard of that.
'I had researched, with the help of an excellent researcher, the history of Stein for my biography but this never came up.'
Retired broadcaster Macpherson stands next to a replica coal hutch to commemorate coal workers in Bothwell, South Lanarkshire
The miner wrote: 'One day we were waiting in the lye when an oncost laddie came rushing along, breathless and gasped and told us there had been an accident.
'A rake (a quantity of coal in a wagon) had run away and was off the road with big Jock under it. The way was blocked and only the smallest of men like me could squeeze through.
'We found the roadsman beside the agonised Jock and we managed to lift the hutch and pull Jock clear. The fireman arrived and organised a stretcher party to lift him up the pit where it was found his leg was badly broken.
'That should have been the end of Jock's football career, but he was a determined chap.'
Macpherson believes this may have contributed to Stein being one-footed on the park.
He also believes he may have found the genetic link to Stein's legendary temper.
A report in the Glasgow Weekly Mail gave the details of a rammy during a game on May 24, 1909, in the Burnbank and District League, between Earnock Rovers and Blantyre Victoria.
George Stein, miner, struck an opponent who had fouled him. He was ordered off and Stein challenged the ref, 'struck him a severe blow, knocked him down and rendered him unconscious'.
The father of Stein was subsequently fined thirty shillings with the alternative of 21 days' imprisonment. It is almost certain that the fine was paid.
All this was new to Macpherson but he finds himself reflecting on Stein on an almost daily basis.
Stein pictured playing football with schoolboys during a training session on the beach between Seamill and Saltcoats
'This book came about because of the characters that loom in my mind. Some of whom, like Stein, would keep me awake at night thinking about my relationships with them.'
Macpherson was at Lisbon in 1967, he was at the World Cup in 1982 when Stein managed Scotland, he was at the Big Man's side when the pair did supporters' or sponsors' events.
What is the memory that regularly comes back to him? 'It's funny, curious. There is one specific memory. It strange that this should be the one to stick out after all our time together.'
He then recalls a 'nightmare' trip to San Francisco in May, 1982, en route to scouting New Zealand, one of Scotland's opponents in the forthcoming World Cup.
'We were exhausted and immediately went to our rooms. I switched on the television and Dan Rather was reporting on the sinking of the Belgrano. I suddenly heard my door being bashed, kicked.
'I opened it and Stein rushed past past me. He roared: 'We are going hame. Maggie will nuke them'.'
Stein, of course, was anticipating further action by Thatcher, then British Prime Minister, in the Falklands conflict against Argentina.
Stein and Bobby Murdoch celebrate Celtic's famous European Cup triumph in Lisbon in 1967
Macpherson is sanguine about the manager's motives. 'I believe he simply did not want to go to New Zealand and pounced on this as an excuse.' Macpherson convinced him to continue the itinerary.
'I said to him that the president of the San Francisco Celtic Supporters' Club was coming the next day to give us a tour of the city. Surely, he couldn't let him down?'
Order was restored.
