If you’ve been watching Celtic, the chances are that you’ve seen the players do the Huddle.
It’s a common practice before games when the starting XI group together for one last time before kick off to unite the fans at Celtic Park.
First introduced in 1995, it’s an important tradition for all players as captains past and present deliver one final team talk.
Why do Celtic do the Huddle?
On 23 July 1995, a Celtic XI facing Kickers Emden in a pre-season friendly created an iconic scene that will be replicated for the rest of time.
A team featuring: Pat Bonner, Lee Martin, Tosh McKinlay, Malky Mackay, Tony Mowbray, Peter Grant, Brian McLaughlin, Rudi Vata, Pierre Van Hooijdonk, Andy Walker and John Collins all huddled together in a show of unity.
It was Mowbray, who later went on to become a Celtic manager, who came up with the idea after he took the captain’s armband due to the absence of Paul McStay on the day.
Still done to this day, Mowbray considers it to be his lasting legacy at Celtic, telling the club website: “Every player likes to leave something that people can remember them by and maybe the Huddle is mine at Celtic.
“I’m delighted to see it’s still going strong, because it’s a brilliant way of uniting the players and the fans. It’s in the fabric of Celtic now.”
Peter Grant admitted he had reservations about the Huddle
If Celtic weren’t to do the Huddle now, there would be genuine outrage.
However, Peter Grant admitted in 2021 that he initially wasn’t keen on doing so.
Speaking to The Celtic Way, he said: “We were on the team bus one day and Tony Mowbray suggested we do the huddle. I was initially sceptical as I was a Celtic supporter born-and-bred and I am not a gimmick person.
“I tell you right now if I thought the huddle was going to be a gimmick there is not a hope in hell’s chance that I would have done it.
“I did not want the huddle to be a mark of disrespect or ever become a laughing stock, it has gone on to be anything but.”
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