On Sunday evening we found out that our friend and contributor, David Potter had sadly passed away. David’s contribution to Celtic FC and it’s history is immense and leaves behind a legacy of Celtic writing, in books, blogs, programmes and fanzines.
I can’t even remember when David started to write for the fanzine but he was always first to submit articles ahead of deadlines and his knowledge of the club’s history was amazing and he was our go to man for historical information on Celtic and their opponents.
He was not well enough to contribute to the next issue but we will dig out some of his archived articles to use. I was also lucky to have him on the Celtic Soul Podcast and we also chatted on a number of episodes of the Grand Auld Team on Celtic Fanzine TV. We will re-run these over the coming days in his memory.
We also had a great Celtic AM with him in Malones, Glasgow pre-match when he recalled stories, poetry and he even broke into song. I will remember him as a lovely man who loved Celtic.
Born in 1948, David Potter first saw Celtic at Dens Park, Dundee in March 29 1958. It was a 3-5 defeat, which equipped him admirably for the horrors of the early 1960’s. He had “followed” Celtic for a few years before that and recalls having been called upon to impersonate Jock Stein and receive the family silver teapot which had to do for the Scottish Cup as it was presented on April 24 1954, after he and his father had spent a nerve wracking afternoon listening to the radio!
Since then, he has “followed” every Celtic game with bated breath, and has written extensively about the club in magazines and books. His favourite team was that of 1969 (which he rates marginally better than 1967) and his favourite player was Henrik Larsson.
His ambition for Celtic was for them to keep on winning silver in Scotland and to be something in Europe once again. His other interests are cricket and drama. He was teacher of Classical Languages, married with three children and five grandchildren. He travelled on the Joseph Rafferty bus from Kirkcaldy. He also had a love for Forfar Athletic.
I will leave the last words to Lisbon Lion, John Fallon “Sad day to hear that David passed away, he was a great Celtic Fan his knowledge of this club was enormous when he helped my with my book we talked about games he saw. Great Celtic man, it’s a sad day for Rosemary and family my prayers go out to them, Hail Hail David Potter Rest in Peace”
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes and host of The Celtic Soul Podcast
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