Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | James Philip Craig | ||
Date of birth | 30 April 1943 | ||
Place of birth | Glasgow, Scotland | ||
Playing position | Right Back | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
Glasgow University | |||
1965–1972 | Celtic | 147 | (1) |
1972 | Hellenic FC | 16 | (1) |
1972–1974 | Sheffield Wednesday | 6 | (0) |
1974–1975 | Waterford | 1 | (0) |
National team | |||
1967 | Scotland | 1 | (0) |
Teams managed | |||
1974 | Waterford United | ||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
James "Jim" Philip Craig (born 7 May 1943 in Glasgow) is a retired footballer who played as a right back. Most closely associated with Celtic, he was a member of their Lisbon Lions side which won the 1967 European Cup.
A student at Glasgow's St Gerard's School, Craig's first senior side was the University of Glasgow representative side, which he played for while studying dentistry at the institution. He joined Celtic in 1963, on amateur terms, so as to allow him to complete his studies and having done so, signed as a full professional in January 1965.
Craig's abilities and style of play matched manager Jock Stein's tactical philosophy and he soon displaced Willie O'Neill and Ian Young as Celtic's regular right back. Stein encouraged his fullbacks to overlap the side's midfield to provide additional support to the forwards, in the style of the modern wing-back role, and in Craig and left back Tommy Gemmell he found willing protagonists.
During his tenure at Parkhead, Craig collected 14 domestic honours as well as a European Cup medal in 1967. He made 231 appearances for Celtic scoring 6 goals. He won one cap for the Scotland national side.
Craig left Celtic to live in South Africa in May 1972, where he played for Hellenic FC, however after 6 months he returned to Britain. He joined Sheffield Wednesday, with the South Yorkshire side paying Celtic £10,000 compensation, as they had retained his registration. He retired from football in 1973, to concentrate his efforts upon his dentistry career.