Topic: Beautiful (Kenny Tribute thread)

[teine]

We've all used that word to describe a great pass, or a stunning goal. But in the macho world of football it's rarely used in its simplest sense - to describe the way someone looks, or moves.

With Kenny Dalglish, it's a word you cannot avoid. He is simply the most beautiful player ever to grace a football pitch.

I'm going to post a series of photos here. I'm imagining them as a kind of online gallery, to be appreciated like any work of art. Beauty is, of course, in the eye of the beholder. But I'm sure I can't be the only one who looks at these pictures and thinks 'How is that possible? How is it that every pose he strikes looks sculpted? How is it possible that he stands out so starkly from the ordinary mortals around him?


The Beauty of Kenny Dalglish




Rangers v Celtic, 28th August 1971.




Celtic v Dunfermline, 19th February 1972




Celtic v Partick Thistle, 23rd October 1971




Celtic v Dinamo Kiev, 5th February 1972




St.Johnstone v Celtic, 4th August 1971




Celtic v Airdrie, 15th January 1972




Celtic v Dumbarton, 31st July 1971




1971


That's eight photos, and we haven't even seen the famous Dalglish smile yet.

You'll have noticed the dates. Every photo is from his breakthrough season with Celtic - 1971/72 - and most are taken from the magnificent celticwiki site.

I could post many more, but I'd rather see your examples.

[teine]

One thing that surprised me when reading match reports from Kenny's early Celtic days was just how often his name was misspelt. 'Dalgleish' was very common.

But it's understandable. Dalgleish is a very common name too. And in fact, it was especially common right around the time Kenny was born.

It was March 4th 1951 that Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish came into the world, and just the week before that, a man with a very similar name was making the news.

On February 24th, a young right winger made his debut for Scotland's rugby union team against Ireland at Murrayfield.



Let's see Kenneth a bit more clearly:






Scotland lost that game, but Kenneth kept his place for the game v England at Twickenham on March 17th. That was the first time Scotland had played at Twickenham since a famous feature of the ground had been installed. That was the weather vane, placed on top of the Main Stand. You can see it here, just before it was placed on the roof:



The man who designed that weather vane was, would you believe, a Mr. Kenneth Dalgleish.

So let's just confirm that. The birth of Kenny Dalglish, the future footballer, was sandwiched between Kenneth Dalgleish, the rugby player, making his debut at Murrayfield and him making his second appearance, beneath a famous landmark, the work of Kenneth Dalgleish the designer.

Here is the rugby player in action at Twickenham that day (with the wrong initials in the caption):



The timing is uncanny - and you wonder if the debut of Kenneth Dalgleish at Murrayfield had any influence on the naming of the baby Dalglish, born eight days later.

[Fitzy.]

A great thread and an odd coincidence to draw upon. Cheers for sharing.

As you can see from my profile waffle - I once misspelt the great man's name.

[RedSince86]

Fabulous thread.

[Red Ol]

Fascinating. Cheers Teine

[Dougle]

Black & white times. Lovely.

[duvva 💅]

What an incredible coincidence. Mad that.

Thanks for sharing teine