One of the defining moments in Ridley Scott’s Oscar winning movie Gladiator comes when the rest of the slaves find out that The Spaniard is actually the former Roman general Maxmimus, whose famed skills in battle are known far and wide.
Maxmimus has just faced the Emperor for the first time since the night he was condemned to death, along with his family.
Standing in the arena, in front of all of Rome, he has vowed his revenge.
Now he sits with his new men, worried that the assasins will come before he has a chance to take it.
Audience members who wondered why Commodus hadn’t executed him already get their answer courtesy of Juba, the Numidian, who has become Maximus’ closest friend.
“You have a great name,” Juba tells him. “He must kill your name before he kills you.”
Today is the 30th anniversary of the death of Jock Stein.
On that famous night in Lisbon, when Bill Shankly walked into the dressing room and said to the big man, “Jock, you’re immortal,” he knew exactly what he was talking about.
He, too, was talking about the name.
It doesn’t matter how much time passes; Jock will be here, with us, forevermore.
His achievements are beyond reach, eternal, woven into the fabric of Celtic.
From the stand that bears his name, to the statue of him which adorns our front entrance, his presence fills our club, and to an extent even towers over it.
But it towers over others too, and that’s why a number of people have made it their business to try and tarnish his memory, even on a day like this.
I posted here on Jock earlier in the week, and I can add no more than that, and to the numerous flowery tributes and expressions of love that are already out there.
Indeed, some of them are so wonderful there’s really nothing more I’d like to say than what they already have.
People from all over football worshiped this man, and not just for what he achieved in the game, which was substantial and all the more so because of where our club is from.
No, they respected him and loved him because Jock was also a tremendous human being; warm, compassionate, open and honest.
He was the very pinnacle of decency in a sport filled with giant egos and petty jealousies.
There are people in Scotland, those who thrive on division and hate, who cannot bring themselves to appreciate the man, or to look objectively at what he achieved, without rancour or bitterness. They are the lowest of the low, and over the last few years they’ve tried to make their voices heard in an effort to attack his memory.
They don’t even try to hide what they are about; they don’t care the world at large thinks of them as loathsome personalities.
Only the hate matters. Only their twisted logic applies.
They cannot erase Stein’s monumental achievements.
They are what make him immortal.
That statue of him outside Celtic Park, holding the greatest football trophy of them all … it is what drives their evil campaign and as they can never remove that image from history all that’s left is to destroy the reputation of the man himself.
They are, quite literally, trying to kill the name in the vain hope that, in some way, it will lessen the immense pride we have in the things he did, or erase our affection for the man himself.
It will do neither.
The spineless scum who continue to wage this campaign – always at a distance – remind the world with their every action that they crawled out of a sewer. They are slamming the memory of a man who, in the darkest hour in the history of Rangers, help tend to the wounded, and who paid fulsome respect to the dead afterwards.
Writing in The Celtic View, shortly after the Ibrox Disaster, he said “This terrible tragedy must help to curb the bigotry and bitterness of Old Firm matches. When human life is at stake this kind of hatred seems sordid and little. Fans of both sides will never forget this disaster.”
Those who wish to continue defiling the great man’s name would do well to heed those remarks, but that would be asking more of them than they are capable.
For Jock’s comments were very human, and those people don’t qualify as such.
Jock is not here to defend himself, of course.
Taken from us, 30 years ago today, the task of protecting his memory, and assuring his legacy, falls upon those of us who are. If it were not so these cowards would not dare speak ill of him, fearing the enormous legal consequences which would ensue.
We cannot sue on his behalf, which is a great pity.
All we can do is continue that which we do already; promoting his legend, his greatness and cherishing his memory … and letting the world know that these are the reasons for the attacks on his character and on that great name.
Every great man or woman in history, in whatever field, has been the target of attacks and smears. This is what accomplishment and immortality do to some folk; they believe that by attaching themselves to it, even in a negative sense, they too can become immortal.
They are wrong.
30 years or 50 years. 100 years or into the next millennium … people will be talking about the achievements of this great, this magnificent, man.
If these abhorrent trash are talked about at all it will be with something approaching pity that they were too emotionally stunted, too corrupt in their own souls, to be other than they are.
He will continue to tower over them, now and for all time.
Rest in Peace Jock Stein.
We will never forget you and your legend will never die.
They will never kill the name.
Hear hear total agree, jock is the greatest Celt of all. Hail hail
I couldn’t agree more with you.
Big Jock’s statue at the top of the Celtic Way is something special as is the man himself. A God-like figure at the top of the Way to greet the Celtic support young and old.
Nice tribute to a great man that achieved more in the game than any other Scottish Manager. What a shame you then utterly and abjectly defile your fine tribute by going on the type of rant that would have had him shaking his head in despair.
And so the cycle of hatred continues….