Career
1967-1987
432 League apps (+7 as sub), 4 goals
Scotland caps: 62

Position
Defence: Right Back/Full Back

Date of Birth
Monday, 1st May 1950

Place of Birth
Finnieston, Scotland

Debut
Saturday, 29th August 1970 in a 2-0 win at home to Morton (Aged: 20)




Daniel Fergus McGrain (born May 1, 1950)

McGrain is arguably one of the greatest full backs ever to have played football and was selected for Celtic's all-time greatest XI. He is a member of the Scotland Football Hall of Fame, having won 62 caps.

He joined the club in 1967 and played until 1987, amassing 657 games for Celtic.

He could play either right or left back, and was equally as effective.
He was one of the "Quality Street" gang, who were at Celtic Park at the end of the Lisbon Lions era. Other "members" were Kenny Dalglish, Lou Macari, David Hay, George Connelly, Vic Davidson, etc

He fractured his skull in 1972, and in 1974, he was diagnosed as suffering from diabetes but was able to continue playing top-level football. He played for Scotland in the 1974 World Cup, missed the 1978 World Cup because of a serious ankle injury, and was captain of Scotland at the 1982 World Cup.

McGrain supported Rangers as a boy. He wrote two autobiographies, one when his career was at its peak and another shortly after he retired. In both, McGrain told how he had been spotted by a Rangers scout when he was still a boy, but they refused to sign him, assuming he was Catholic because of his name.

Rangers loss, Celtic's gain.

Danny received the MBE in 1983.





Quotes And Tributes

Early Celtic Memories
McGrain cannot recall his precise Celtic debut, but he remembers an early first team experience in August 1970 when he replaced Harry Hood in a League Cup tie against Dundee United at Tannadice.

He revealed: "I came on for Harry at half-time and Bobby Murdoch played a pass to give me an early touch to calm any nerves. But I allowed the ball to run under my foot and it went out for a throw-in.

"But, thankfully, Bobby didn't give me a hard time. He could see I was nervous and told me it was OK. His encouragement boosted my confidence."


In July 1967, when, together with Kenny Dalglish, his great friend, he dared to ask Stein if they could go full-time at the club. The pair were miserable as respectively a trainee mechanical engineer and an apprentice joiner. "Football was the easy option. Kenny and I thought the real world was too hard."

McGrain and Kenny Dalglish, two of the most outstanding members of Celtic's "Quality Street" gang, had accompanied the squad to Milan for the European Cup final against Feyenoord as kit boys.

Danny on The Manager
"Mr Stein was an imposing figure. I was in awe when I first met Mr Stein, and I thought I was all through my playing career.

"He meant something to every player. Whether or not they liked him as a person he was loved for what he did for their careers.

"How big an influence was he? How long is a piece of string? He was a nice man. A nice, nice man. You don't remember the things your dad did to you that were bad. You remember the nice things like Christmas or your birthday. Maybe Mr Stein could give you stick, but it was forgotten outside the dressing room. He taught me so much. He hurried things up for me."

McGrain had been signed from Queen's Park Strollers on the recommendation of Jock Stein's assistant, Sean Fallon.

"But it was Sean who wanted to sign me and Kenny and I owe him a lot. To this day whenever I meet Sean I want to thank him."

Commenting on the 4-2 game
"At the start of the season it looked as if I didn't have a football future. I suffered an ankle injury which kept me out of the World Cup and I was told I wouldn't play again. Now I was the skipper of the title winners; it was some turn-around."


Best Moment With Celtic
It's difficult to pick one moment from all that time, but beating St Mirren 5-0 at Love Street to win the championship in 1986 was a great moment.

Worst
When Mr Stein left, he was missed around the club and there was a void left by his absence.

Favourite Away Ground
I loved the whole atmosphere and the love/hate thing at Ibrox. There was more blood and thunder in those days, but that was more acceptable then.

Favourite Goal Scored
Mine were quite forgettable. My biggest was probably against Partick Thistle in the Glasgow Cup, when I scored the winner to take us to the final!

"My bottle just went in the box. I just couldn't score."

Discipline
McGrain, despite the ferocity of his talking, was not a dirty player. He received only one red card in his career of 650 games for Celtic and 62 for Scotland. It came against Aberdeen at Celtic Park on October 9, 1982, for two fouls on Peter Weir. The second was worthy of a yellow card, the first was not. "I was late for the second one, unfortunately I only realised that when I was in mid-air. It's always like that when you are late."

Tackling is a "lost art"
"You can't tackle now and I do see more young guys copying professional players by feigning injury. We used to laugh at the Italians for doing it, now we copy them."

"My tackling was good because my timing was good. Okay, not every tackle was inch-perfect, but I never went in to hurt anybody."

Injuries and Illness
He sustained a fractured skull after a clash with Doug Somner at Brockville on March 25, 1972, and then there was the discovery that he suffered from diabetes after the 1974 World Cup.

"The fracture wasn't that severe," says McGrain, touching his forehead. "Wee Louie (Macari) didn't want to go on because it was a cold day at Brockville, but I said I felt okay and then I collapsed as I tried to leave the dressing room. I woke up in an ambulance on my way to hospital."

After an anxious three months when double vision persisted, McGrain's rehabilitation started sitting at home heading a balloon and was completed when Bertie Miller, of Aberdeen, blootered him with ball at the beginning of the 1972-73 season.

It was the searing heat of Frankfurt, Scotland's base at the 1974 World Cup, that made McGrain realise he was again seriously ill. He lost two stones in weight during the tournament and his nights were spent on a depressing cycle of drinking pints of orange juice and then going to the toilet. On his return, his wife, Laraine, insisted that he visited the doctor and he was diagnosed diabetic. If Scotland had progressed, as they came agonisingly close to doing, he could have suffered a diabetic coma.

Later injuries, such as a broken leg and the mysterious ankle injury which he sustained when he and John Blackley clattered into each other at Celtic Park in 1977.
The ankle problem, finally cured by acupuncture, meant McGrain missed Argentina, but he played against New Zealand and the USSR in Spain four years later.

Danny Versus . . .
Jairzinho, who had scored in every game of the 1970 finals and tormented Giacinto Facchetti, the legendary Italian left-back, in Brazil's 4-1 final victory, hardly got a kick when he faced McGrain in Scotland's 0-0 draw with the world champions.

Jairzinho, he insists, "wasn't the same player" he had gaped at on television four years previously and was hardly as troublesome as Arthur Graham, of Aberdeen. "You would be allowed one hard tackle at the start of the game, but Arthur could take it and when you had the ball he would tackle you. Davie Cooper was tough to pin down, but if you tackled him hard he would drift back deeper where he was less dangerous. Arthur just kept coming."

Teammates on Danny
Billy McNeill, "a real cruel tackler at times".


Tommy Burns still winces at the memory of their Celtic training sessions together. "He came through you like a ton of bricks. There was never any going through the motions for Danny. He was consistently phenomenal, the greatest player I played with."

Jim Craig: after I got married, I picked up Danny at Canniesburn Toll. Evan Williams, our goalkeeper, used to live out that way too and he would give Danny lifts as well. One day we decided to play a trick on him. Evan drove past Danny and said: 'Don't worry, Jim will be along in a minute'. Then I drove past and shouted: 'Evan will pick you up today, Danny'. We watched from behind some bushes as he looked around frantically for a taxi."

Jim McLean on Danny
Stein had just told McGrain, who had captained the Scots to a 5-2 win in the opening game against New Zealand, he was being dropped.

Liverpool skipper Graeme Souness was handed the armband at the expense of his vastly-experienced colleague, then 32 and a veteran of the 1974 World Cup.

Ultimately McGrain would win the last of his 62 caps in the final game against the USSR in Malaga, a 2-2 draw, but it was not unreasonable to believe he feared he'd already played his last game when Stein read out the team.

McLean said: "A lot of players at international level do have big egos but Danny's reaction that day was the act of a true professional.

"He must have been shattered when Jock announced the starting 11 in a team meeting a few hours before the game.

"But as soon as Jock finished listing the team and addressing the squad Danny was the first player on his feet to roar encouragement to the others.

"I'd never seen that side of Danny. He was not an out-and-out motivator because he preferred to set his examples quietly and was enormously respected by the rest of the players as a result.

"Football is a team game but we're still all selfish at times and in that situation every player was sitting nervously, hoping he'd be picked.

"Danny was a fixture in the side and must have been so disappointed not to be listed.

"But his first thought was for the team and I will never forget his reaction.

Ally Dawson on Danny
The one [game v Celtic] that stands out for me was the second game I played after I returned from a fractured skull. I made my comeback in an Anglo-Scottish Cup tie against Chesterfield and then it was straight into a match against Celtic. We won that game 1-0 at Ibrox.

But what sticks out in my mind was that after that match Danny McGrain made a point of coming up to me to ask how I was. He had suffered a fractured skull himself and wished me all the best with my recovery. That speaks volumes.

Hugh McIlvanney on Danny
When great racehorse trainers talk about the best thoroughbreds, they emphasise not only talent but attitude. In addition to the obvious qualities of pace and skill that Danny brought to football, there was the priceless asset of his approach to the game. He encountered all kinds of problems through injury and diffictilties with his health, but nothing could prevent him from being prodigious on the field.

Anybody who saw him at his best had the unmistakeable impression of watching a great player, probably one who had no superior anywhere in the world

Danny Leaves Celtic as a Player

Football: McGrain departs
Times, The (London, England)
May 14, 1987


The Scottish international full back, Danny McGrain has been given a free transfer by Celtic, ending a 20-year association with the club. McGrain said that the news provided him with the 'worst day of my life'. McGrain is the most capped player in Celtic's history, having appeared for Scotland 62 times.

Awards
Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1977
Member of Celtic all-time XI
Member of Scotland Hall of Fame
Captain of Scotland 1982 World Cup

Biographies
Celtic: My Team, Danny McGrain 1978, ISBN 0-285-62369-9
In Sunshine And In Shadow, Danny McGrain and Hugh Keevins, 1987, ISBN 0-85976-191-6

KDS Debate
How Good Was He?

Pictures
Picture Gallery

Career