John Divers (8 March 1940 – 23 September 2014) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played for

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

Playing career

Club

Born in

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

, Divers was the son of former Scottish international John Divers and grand-nephew of ex-Celtic player

Patsy Gallacher Patrick Gallacher (16 March 1891 – 17 June 1953) was an Irish footballer, playing in the inside-right position, and most noted for his career at Celtic - he is one of the club's leading goalscorers of all time. Early life Patsy was born i ...

. He played 248 games for Celtic between November 1957 and September 1965. Playing mostly as an inside left, he scored 110 goals for the club, which helped gain him a reputation as a skilful, clever and hard working player. He contributed to Celtic's nine consecutive league championships in a row by scoring the first goal of that period, away against

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

in 1965. After joining Partick Thistle in the early part of the 1966–67 season, he later retired from the Senior game in 1969 to attend

Strathclyde University The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...

International

Divers was part of a number of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

squads (including a 1962 match against

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

) but never got onto the field. He played on three occasions for the

Scottish League XI The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...

, scoring 4 goals.

Later life

Divers spent some of his later life in teaching, spending most of his career in St Patrick's High (where he'd also been a pupil), later

Our Lady and St Patrick's High School Our Lady & St Patrick's High School is a six-year co-educational comprehensive Roman Catholic school, situated in the Bellsmyre area of Dumbarton, Scotland. It is the only denominational secondary school for Dumbarton, the nearby Vale of Leven Co ...

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

. He died in September 2014.Scottish football: Former Celtic striker John Divers has died aged 74
Sky Sports His family connections mean he was related to fellow footballing descendants of Patsy Gallacher: sons

Willie Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scree ...

and

Tommy Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...

, and grandsons

Brian Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word me ...

and

Kevin Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant '' Kevan'' is anglicized from , a ...

References

External links

John Divers profile
''thecelticwiki.com'' 1940 births 2014 deaths Sportspeople from Clydebank Footballers from West Dunbartonshire Scottish footballers People educated at Our Lady & St Patrick's High School Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Scottish schoolteachers Association football inside forwards Scottish Junior Football Association players Renfrew F.C. players Scottish Football League players Celtic F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Scottish Football League representative players Gallacher family (footballers) {{Scotland-footy-forward-1940s-stub