A student at Glasgow's St Gerard's School, Craig was a Celtic supporter as a child, with the first game he attended being the Saint Mungo Cup final in 1951.
[2] He was a Scotland schoolboy international,[2] while his first senior side was the University of Glasgow representative team which he played for while studying dentistry at the institution.
Craig's abilities and style of play matched manager Jock Stein's tactical philosophy and he soon displaced Willie O'Neill and Ian Young as Celtic's regular right back.
Stein encouraged his fullbacks to overlap the side's midfield to provide additional support to the forwards, in the style of the modern wing-back role, and in Craig and left back Tommy Gemmell he found willing protagonists.
[citation needed] Originally from Leith, his father supported local team Hibernian and the family was later to settle in Craigton, Glasgow.