Rangers72

SPANISH MUSIC

Beauty is when something ordinary

is transformed into art.

The art in football

is that it can transport you out of your daily world:

the tough, the boring, the repetitive,

and into the ultimate theater.

Grecian plots and narratives of validation or tragedy

played out in real time,

without divine narration or script

in front of the eyes of its emotional shareholders.

Sometimes it delivers.

Sometimes it doesn't.

That... is part of the game.

However, once in a while,

people, places, and circumstance

play out through the vehicle of football

to conjure up narratives so rich

they transcend the paradigm

and leave a lasting impression on history.

Barcelona '72.

Colin Stein scored one,

Willie Johnston two.

Tragedy, redemption,

unjust defeats and unimagined triumph.

Ancient lands, and the spirit of the tribes that inhabit them

of rivalries and heritage,

European invasions,

and corridor presentations.

Chaos, comedy,

and the transformative powers

of the beautiful game.

Stories like these

come once in a lifetime,

and they deserve to be told.

You wouldn't find this in Milan,

you wouldn't find it in London,

You wouldn't find it in Munich or in Lisbon,

You wouldn't find it anywhere else in Europe.

Glasgow is...

fucking mental.

ROCK MUSIC

but really good.

Glasgow is my home, the best city in the world.

Glasgow... it's a working class city.

Our whole culture is about proving ourselves.

I think we have to battle for our existence,

but mostly in the industrial age through... deprivation.

Damp and dank tenements.

Most of them on their way down,

for a regeneration of the city so it's very, very different,

Glasgow in early seventies than what it is today.

I think football has been... a saviour.

It lifted people, and gave them the opportunity to dream.

To me... life.

It lies at the heart of our community.

Living in this city,

you either support Rangers

or you support Celtic.

You don't choose to be a Ranger,

you're born a Ranger.

The Rangers mean

everything to people like me.

After your family,

Rangers are always first.

The Old Firm is just,

it's the biggest game.

A massive occasion,

across all the fans there across the world.

It's the biggest fixture in the league.

It's got religion, it's got politics,

it's got everything about it.

People know me as a Minister,

but many more know me as a Rangers fan.

The vast majority of Rangers supporters is Protestant.

The vast majority of Celtic supporters is Catholic.

It wouldn't be the same at the Rangers

Celtic match, if opposing supporters didn't clash.

I'd never been to an Old Firm game until I played in one.

In them days it was a 50/50 split with the fans.

It was bitter, and it was angry, and it was aggressive.

And the capacity crowd

settle back to watch the battle of the giants.

The two greatest rivals in British soccer.

There's certain pubs that are Ranger's pubs,

and certain pubs that are Celtic.

Don't go in the wrong one.

If you do that, then you won't come out again.

It's just a mad city and I better watch what I'm doing.

And when you mention 'Old Firm' it means:

Violence.

Disturbance.

Trouble.

Trouble.

Terrific atmosphere.

My best pal was a mad, keen Celtic supporter so

we would hurl abuse at each other for 90 minutes

and then meet up later.

It's just your neighbour, it's just like a 90 minute... rant.

Back in the days it was a bit rough

but it's not like what it was, it's calmed down now.

They were also competing against each other

to become the best in Europe.

CROWD CHEER

Glasgow is a... it's a rough city.

It's a hard city.

But it lives and breathes football.

When Scot Symon was manager of Rangers,

Celtic couldn't buy a victory against them.

They reigned supreme.

And then in March 1965, Jock Stein came along.

DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

He developed a different kind of spirit at Celtic Park,

and Stein started to win things.

So that was a problem for Rangers.

Celtic were the dominant team,

and it was Jock Stein who was putting all the pressure

on Scot Symon.

CROWD CHANTING

Scot Symon never really recovered

from the Berwick result.

Rangers needed to win trophies,

Berwick at the time of course,

were bottom of the heap

in the Scottish game.

Expectations was so high

because Rangers were league cup holders at the time.

So there was the big Rangers against the wee Rangers

and it should have been a walk in the park

for Rangers that day. But it was a disaster.

I don't think they were playing at their full potential.

I mean, I think there's a lot of good players,

individual players,

and I think the team thing was lacking a wee bit.

The disaster of Berwick, that shadow was cast over

Ibrox and Rangers football club for a long, long time.

That marked the end of that era.

CROWD NOISE

Scot Symon was eventually sacked.

TENSE CLASSICAL MUSIC

Davie White comes in. Different character,

more of a tracksuit manager, a kind of a new breed.

Davie White was good.

Tactically, he was very good.

He's actually reached a European semifinal in 1969.

I think a quarter final as well, both in the first cup.

But when it gets to the 1970 Rangers

they're still in second place, but points wise

they're really falling behind.

In actual fact, Davie White, he was hands at the training

and he had a good football brain.

But his biggest letdown was

he didnae come over as a Rangers manager.

To us he was one of the boys like, you know, and...

he didn't have the authority that Symon had.

He couldnae handle some of the players,

because he was still a young man and he couldnae handle

the older boys

and they were nae respecting what Davie White was saying.

And I think it was probably

the right job, maybe just at the wrong time.

I think Davie White was a good fit for Rangers,

but Rangers is built on success

and one thing that you're not allowed, is time.

You have to get it right immediately

when you're given the responsibilities

and the keys of Ibrox park.

And Davie White was looking for time that just wasn't there.

We actually were doing quite well in the league, under him,

but he still got the sack. You know.

For all the good work that might have been done

on the training field, and behind the scenes,

and the modernisation that was going on...

it just wasn't translating.

Which is why, eventually,

they turned to Willie Waddell.

SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC

Any ex-Rangers would be looking for that job,

especially Willie Waddell like.

Wi' Willie Waddell, you've got a man there

who is the most important figure in Rangers' history, arguably.

He's played for the club.

Well, Willie Waddell was a Lanarkshire man,

and he had come up the hard way in junior football.

His debut was against Partick Thistle when he was like 15.

As a reserve player, he gets farmed out,

he comes back, in his first game in the first team he scores

the only goal in the game against Arsenal,

in what was then a kinda established, prestigious,

pre-season friendly, in the days

before European football.

And he was powerful.

He was a powerful player.

There was no jinkiness about him, it was thrust.

Dynamic play. Ball up the wing, ball over.

The Second World War comes in,

he won infinite trophies during that period.

But because it's all during the Second World War, it's,

you know, it's not counted. It's unofficial.

He knows about hardship as well, he knows