John Divers played for the club for 10 seasons between 1956 and 1966 and scored more than 100 goals in 232 competitive appearances.

After cutting his football career short, Mr Divers went on to teach at Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School in Dumbarton for over 30 years.

Celtic FC paid tribute to the football hero on the club website and a minute’s applause was also held in his honour before the team’s League Cup match against Hearts last week.

Born in Clydebank on March 8, 1940, John joined his beloved Celtic on July 7, 1956. It appeared the young footballer was destined to join the club as his father, also John, wore the Hoops between 1932 and 1945, and his great uncle was the legendary Patsy Gallacher.

John got his Celts career off to a flier, scoring on his debut on November 16, 1957 in a 2-2 home draw with St Mirren.

That was to be the first of the goals that would make him a Century Bhoy as he reached the magical 100-goal figure for the club before moving to Partick Thistle in 1966.

The 99th of those goals, and his last league goal, has gone down in Celtic history.

He scored after 15 minutes of the opening-day league win against Dundee United at Tannadice on August 15, 1965. This proved to be the very first goal of Celtic’s legendary nine-in-a-row run of league championships.

Despite his lengthy spell with the club, John never earned a major domestic honour or a full international cap. Apart from two Glasgow Cup medals, Divers did not feature in a trophy-winning team at a time when Celtic suffered a near-decade of under-achievement.

But with his fine scoring record of more than 100 goals for the Parkhead club in 232 appearances, John would undoubtedly have been valued in the millions nowadays.

He was also immortalised by having his name featured in a 1960s fans’ song, Celtic, Celtic, That’s The Team For Me.

Though he joined Partick Thistle in 1966, Divers was already looking to the future and retired at the age of just 28 to pursue a career in teaching.

He graduated from Strathclyde University and his first appointments were at Braidhurst High in Motherwell and St Bride’s High in East Kilbride before gaining a job at Our Lady and St Patrick’s in Dumbarton. He mainly taught economics for 30 years and latterly social studies.

John also took charge of various football teams at the school and maintained that his biggest success in the sport was coaching the under-15s to the league and Scottish Cup double, going unbeaten in 28 matches in 1988-89.

Former Our Lady and St Patrick’s pupils paid tribute to John online via Facebook last week.

Carrie McPhail, 32, from Alexandria, wrote: “RIP...excellent teacher. God bless.” Mark Dempster, 34, from Erskine, added: “He was well loved. He really was a great man.”