John Hughes RIP

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

John "Yogi Bear" Hughes passed away last week and the funeral was yesterday. An obituary was in my paper earlier this week, and I thought I would let the funeral pass before penning this. Here's the obit:-


He was 79 and supported Celtic to the very end. An imposing figure on a football pitch, my abiding memory of him was playing for Palace in December 1971, hurtling in from the left touchline, bearing down on goal like a Chieftain tank at a rate of knots before sending the ball past John Hope in the Sheffield United goal. Later in that game he fired one into the top corner from 30 yards. We thought we had some player at Palace, the like of which we rarely saw, but he got badly injured in that same game and never reached that pinnacle again. He tried and managed to play a total of 23 league and Cup games, one of which I'll talk about below. He is lovingly remembered at Selhurst by all who saw him play, and of course a complete legend at Celtic Park.

A couple of action photos:-

v Rangers, 3.1.1970 John Greig #4



For Palace probably v Chelsea 20.11.71



Finally I close with a shot of a stern-faced John about to appear at an FA disciplinary hearing with manager Bert Head. In the FA Cup game with Everton in Jan 1972, he was hacked repeatedly and finally, near the end of the game, a red mist descended and he deposited one of the perpetrators, right back Peter Scott, into row X of the Main Stand. Hapless referee Tommy Dawes probably rightly sent him off, but had taken little action earlier in the piece. John could take no more. The game went to a replay and he played in that too, but thereafter very sporadically until his last game at Newcastle on 20th Jan 1973. So in total 23 games with 4 goals for Palace. He did join Sunderland very briefly, making just one start, before calling it a day.



RIP Big John.

[Texas Rangers]

RIP.

Was a little bit before my time but by all accounts a great player.

[overlap]

Hi Pete,
thanks for that lovely tribute. Yes, when "Yogi" was in full flight down the wing it was hard for full backs to stop him.
One of his best, but unheralded, games, was for the Scottish Football League v Football League at St James' Park in 1966, he was rampant on the wing that night.
He was unlucky to miss the 1967 EC Final for Celtic v Inter but everyone knew the role he had played in getting to the final, and he belatedly got a winners' medal.
And he played in the 1970 final v Feyenoord when Celtic were on the verge of scrambling a replay, but not to be.
He joined Palace with Lisbon Lion Willie Wallace, in an era when Palace had a lot of Scottish players.
He will be sadly missed.

[Karb]

Hughes signed for Sunderland in January 1973 to play alongside his brother Billy, but was injured on his debut and never played again. Bob Stokoe promptly went out and signed Vic Halom, and he and Billy were pivotal in Sunderland's cup run that season.