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SPANISH MUSIC
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[narrator] 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.
[commentator] 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.
[fan] 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.
[commentator] 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.
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
that it's... everything is hard won.
CROWD NOISES
When I first met him
it was when he had left football altogether.
DRUM MUSIC
Willie Waddell, who was a
journalist at the time,
kept hammering
Davie White in the press.
Oh he was slaughtering him, every week.
He was very critical of Rangers and him obviously being a hero
Rangers player.
He wasn't happy.
So eventually, for some reason, he got the job.
Was it deliberate? Was there,
you know, maneuvering behind the scenes?
I'm not so sure about that.
I think it was inevitable
that he would come back to the club, whether it was manager
or whether it was a different role.
It seemed like that was kind of written in the stars.
SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC
Gravity took over,
and he was sucked in, and he couldn't refuse,
and Rangers supporters began to look out their scarves again.
It was quite clear that the journalist
from The Daily Express...
had turned into a titan.
UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC
an entirely different animal
altogether.
When he came in,
he was quite ruthless
shaping the squad that he had.
Big players, the likes of Jim Baxter, Willie Henderson,
weren't part of that blueprint, probably not
decisions that 99% of the fans would have made.
But he made those calls.
He brought in some new players,
and some of the old guard was... was released for the club.
So that was a big change at that time.
He was a tough man.
You never ever argued with Willie Waddell
because there was only going to be one winner...
it was him.
You did what you were told.
If not, you were out the door.
That was a turning point,
Waddell seeing that change that was needed.
The fans were demanding it.
He was different altogether he wasnae a...
a tactician, or nothing like that,
he was more of a...
disciplinarian.
Discipline was everything, you were a Ranger 24 hours a day.
You had to behave.
You lived by that tradition, you know.
Every morning: collar and tie.
And once you're a Rangers player
You're always a Rangers player.
Conduct yourself in the right manner.
I fell out wi' him quite often.
He wouldnae listen. He wou-
You didnae have a say.
It didnae matter what you said,
he was always right.
SLOW DRUM MUSIC
He could sit in the dressing room
and argue with three folk at same time.
In his office, up at the top of the marble staircase,
he had a traffic light system on his door.
And there was an 'Enter' and 'Wait' outside the buzzer.
So every time you went up, and pressed it, it would be 'wait.'
So you's are standing there and you're
wondering what he's want to see me for.
You know, and he always perched his
glasses on the edge of his nose
whenever he had something to say to you.
Right son, I want to tell you something.
And that's when you knew you were in trouble. [laughs]
And that was his trademark.
UPBEAT LOUNGE MUSIC
I remember one time, I went up to
sign a new contract,
and he offered me... basically the same money,
and he just comes out, "You don't really mean it"
I went, "Well I tell you what, the money's getting made
at the wrong side of the table here."
And the next thing he's got me up against the wall [gurgles]
"Hold it! Hold it! Calm yourself!"
ROCK MUSIC
He wouldn't let you
away with anything that incurred his displeasure.
And he could tell you it straight,
as he always did.
So I'm pressin' the buzzer.
'Wait.'
'Enter.'
So I goes in.
And he stands up,
he stands up,
he goes, "what did you do?"
He says, "did you sit on the ball?"
I says, "no I didnae sit on the ball!"
I says, "the elastic on my shorts broke,
and I had to bend down to pull them up."
"Public apology and fined £60."
I says, "I'm not making a public apology."
"You'll make a public apology.
I'm telling you, you'll make a pu..." I says,
"You can fine me all you want, but I'm not fucking making
a public apology,
not for sitting on a ball."
He certainly let the players know,
what their job was.
And in John Greig he had a player
who would take his instructions down to the letter.
FUNK MUSIC
Well, John Greig was an example to everybody,
and I think he was the alter-ego for Willie Waddell
on the field,
commanding people.
He commanded them off the pitch.
John Greig commanded them on the pitch.
[commentator] Greig shoots, it's a goal!
He was simply a captain with a
personal drive
that I think you could associate with Waddell as a player.
Almost a mirror image of each other.
And John inspired the rest of the players.
You were fortunate
in having John Greig,
the greatest ever Rangers player
he was voted as well, of course.
John Greig to me was important in every game.
You wanted John Greig on the park.
He was a tremendous asset to us.
He was a tremendous leader.
I think Greigy got on alright with Waddell.
I think they had a lot of respect.
I always looked up to him as a famous player from this club.
And he sat me in his office through there,
and he said to me,
"we're going to bring this club back up to where it should be."
He could see in me probably a lot of him
as a younger person,
to move the club in the direction it should go.
They worked well together, they did.
They were a good manager, and captain.
But then you have boys like me on the team that's
gonna talk and say, "Well, I didn't agree with this."
You get that in every team.
FOREBODING MUSIC
The day was the second of January.
It was a dull, dark, grey, misty day.
The fixture was Rangers and Celtic. That's was always the
biggest game basically on the calendar, the league calendar.
CROWD CHEERS
The game itself was quite a dull
Old Firm game.
And the two goals were scored in the last minute of the game.
Celtic scored first.
Colin Stein... he scored the equaliser.
After the game finished,
we moved our way up the terracing.
And when you get to the top
of the terracing, there's a concourse
And they were shuffling along... the concourse.
It was really tight,
the crowd was about 80,000.
My Father always installed in me when you're... in big crowds
going out the games, you keep your arms up.
Don't let your arms get pinned at your side.
This is basically
where the exit would have been, coming out from
the steps and the slopes of passageway 13.
And we were basically up here.
We turned right,
you go down the stairs,
and it was very, very tight.
And somebody had fallen
halfway down the stairs.
And...
it was like a pack of cards.
[witness] The scene was terrible it was like a picture from...
the last war.
The bodies were just all over the place.
Everybody was starting to pile up
on top of each other, just constant pressure.
Everybody was shouting,
"Get back! Get back!"
Because you know, you just had to do something.
And end up...you couldnae even shout,
"get back, get back" because the air was getting squeezed out
your lungs, and you were gasping for breath.
The more you moved, the more you would just fall
and you were getting crushed like mad.
And I could- couldnae breathe at all.
And there was another fella,
just across from me, shouted, "I'm dying"
Then I saw him fall.
I prayed to God,
and said "please don't let me die."
There was a bit of give in front of me.
And I managed to pull myself up,
crawl over everybody,
and I fell over onto the grass embankment.
My breathing was gone
and my shoes went off, lost my watch.
But I eventually made it down
to the bottom of the bankment,
and the disaster was just happening in front of me.
It was that kind of
spectral mist about the place.
Imagine seeing a whole line of bodies,
some of the faces blackened. I...
I had nightmares about it
for weeks after.
We didn't realize what exactly the disaster,
how bad it was.
So I was in the dressing room,
everybody was dressed and away,
Then Willie Waddell came in and went,
"you, you and you, out now."
This guy came in with a stretcher,
with a body on it, and he said,
"you better hurry up, John."
He says "because there's been a big accident.
They're going to be using the dressing room here for bodies."
It was like Dunkirk with all the bodies laying all
along the side of the pitch.
Everybody was devastated,
you know, when that happened.
It took us a long time
to go over that, to be perfectly honest it...
I mean, I was only a kid as well.
I mean, I'm 16, 17 years of age when that happened.
Reported by that time, the official death rate of 66.
The Rangers directors were in a state of shock.
And then...Willie Waddell walked in,
and he took over, he took command.
And from then on
he was in charge of everything that happened in the aftermath.
The organizing of visits to relatives,
of funerals, totally in charge.
That's when Willie Waddell come into his own,
because he orchestrated the whole situation.
Waddell made sure that we
went to as many funerals as we could.
Players would go and meet the families
of not only people who perished, but also
people... who survived.
It's something I've never forgotten,
the Ibrox Disaster,
and anybody that was involved is probably feeling the same way.
They'll never forget it.
You've got somebody in your family
going to a football match and they don't come back.
And a lot of them were young people.
There's no way you can make up for a tragedy like that,
but you can certainly make things worse.
His priority is about making sure that never happens again.
He did take it.
By the scruff of the neck and...
and he rebuilt the stadium.
Everything.
He went out and he looked at stadiums
across the world
to change Ibrox.
I mean it's-it's...
Willie Waddell's legacy.
Willie Waddell always maintained that the
new stadium was a testimony to the people that died.
So as it would never, ever happen again.
Least he can do for the people who died that day
is to rebuild Ibrox itself.
And he knows that in the short term
he has to... he has to get
some sort of glory on the field.
It's strange to say, but it seemed to bond everybody.
You know that comradery, and that friendship, and that
you know, we are the Rangers
and the fans are a huge part of that for us and
we came away from that saying,
"you know what we've, we've got
to give these fans something back."
The manager got us all together and said "look
let's do for these poor people, these people that came to
watch football and never went home,
only thing we can do is go out there and try and perform
and win things.
That's all this club can do for these poor people
that perished."
Every Rangers player
knew what was in store for them now.
Revival.
Revival and survival.
and what better way to do it
than winning things.
UPLIFTING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
When the manager came in, and just- and he was wonderful,
just the way he said it was great.
"We owe them.
Big time!
So let's get the heads down and work
hard and win games and win trophies."
Team spirit, you know, it was it was getting better.
Better, better, you know, much more...
together.
The Rangers fans are looking for
Rangers to win a European trophy.
And of course, that's where the great opportunity came along.
JAZZ ORCHESTRA MUSIC
Well European football was about prestige.
The Rangers community wanted part of it,
we wanted to rub shoulders
with the best.
They wanted into Europe
if they got a European prize, that in itself
elevated Rangers
into a different stratosphere, if you like.
At that time in the seventies, there were three European
trophies up for grabs.
Rangers qualified
for the European Cup Winners| Cup.
The Cup Winners' Cup
had massive value
because if you look at the people who won the Cup
in the top countries,
they were the top teams.
Rangers qualified as runners up.
So it was by
default, effectively, that Rangers
found themselves, catapulted into the European arena.
And my goodness, they grabbed their chance.
BLUES ROCK MUSIC
Willie built a good team,
so it was well balanced team, with a lot of good...
we had everything in the right place.
John Greig, number four,
captain.
Peter McCloy,
goalkeeper.
Derek Johnstone, number five,
striker,
midfield,
and defense.
Bill Mathieson, left-back,
number three.
Dave Smith, number six,
midefield, sweeper.
Alex McDonald,
left midfield.
Colin Stein, number nine,
striker.
Willie Johnston, outside-left,
number 11.
To pick out, one, two, three
from that team is just, it's impossible.
It was a collective.
FUNK ROCK MUSIC
The very first game we had drawn in
France against Stade Rennes, which we obviously thought
was gonna be a good draw.
But we hadnae started the season very well.
We were outsiders, total outsiders.
You wouldnae put a bet on us in the first game.
Well, everyone knows the flair of French football.
Rangers were perhaps
a wee bit fragile, defensively.
I think Willie Waddell
and Jock Wallace was still striving
to come up with the best combination,
particularly at the heart of the defense.
So Rangers had to find a formula that stopped this French flair
and they did it by the high press.
They would look for their star man,
and try and minimise his impact
within the rules...
or sometimes outside the rules.
It wasn't a spectacle from a fan's perspective.
But my goodness, it was effective.
Marcell Aubour I think was the goalkeeper,
Keruzoré and Betta
were their kind of playmakers in midfield.
And it was Willie Waddell's tactics
He put John Greig and Alex McDonald onto these guys
and they did not appreciate it.
We knew exactly what we were up against
There are a few PC players in the side
that could cause us real problems.
You know, if we weren't marking.
CROWD NOISE
Tactically I think we were sound
Rennes were a bit upset how we... we performed and that,
I don't know
I don't know if they were taken aback, the way we...
we played a bit physical.
The French are nae very brave at the best of times are they?
Rennes weren't happy at all by the way
Rangers played in that game, you know.
One of the reporters said the Rangers forgot
what the ball was for.
Yeah. He's probably talking about me.
[chuckles]
Yeah he's definitely talking about me.
In fact, I think they put...
one of the French journalists had said "if this Rangers team
had been in the...
front line of the war
it'd have finished earlier."
You're not going to stand back and let a good team play,
you got to shut them down.
They don't play, we play.
Well, the thing is,
what's anti-football? You've come to win a game.
That's when I came in at the near post,
It went whizzing past me
Willie Johnston put it in.
You're there to try and get a result.
Everybody wants to watch lovely football,
but we went there with most men behind the ball
and their manager felt, "well, they're not even trying to win.
You know, that's non-football."
'Anti-football.'
It's 'anti-football.'
Well, I beg your pardon but
we've come away with a 1-1 draw.
Let's see how you do at Ibrox.
CROWD NOISES
UPBEAT FUNK MUSIC
After the game their manager stated in the press
that "when we come to Glasgow
we'll show them how to play football."
Didn't matter what he said!
That was fine, just let them talk.
We'll do our talking on the pitch. That's what we said.
Then in the second leg we did the business.
They went back with their tails between their legs.
Some times you don't have to play nice football. We won.
That's not anti-football, that's just
scoring a goal.
I'll settle for that, every time
I'm not bothered.
It don't matter what they say about you.
I've been called a lot of things.
Little Willie Johnston, an icon.
He didn't want to be peripheral to the game
by playing as a winger.
He wanted to be the second striker,
and in Rennes that was probably the first time
that Rangers deployed him
in that area of the team.
Because they knew they had to be stuffy,
they had to be durable and they had to defend from the front.
So Willie Johnston was played up top alongside Colin Stein.
And my goodness, that partnership was forged.
ROCK MUSIC
The quickest player
I've ever seen here at Ibrox.
He was that quick, he could catch pigeons.
I always remember the Rennes game, the crowd reacting to
Willie Johnston's pace,
[surprised noise] who's that?
He had this... built in
temper.
Colin Stein makes this comment about Willie Johnston,
I don't know if it's true.
He's the best player he ever played with from the neck down.
He was sent off 22 times in his career.
Which is...phenomenal.
And he says to me, he says "I played 22 years."
So he said "it was only once a year."
He was just a typical Fifer, you know,
He'd his own brand of laughter and good stories,
wee Willie Johnston.
Well, well, how are you doing?
How are you doing, Willie? Great to see you again.
He played Ayr United one day,
and he was going to take a corner kick
and a guy held this can of lager and said,
"you want a drink, buddy?" He says "yeah" and he took a drink.
Give it him back, and took the corner.
Think you might a yellow card
for these type of things nowadays.
That's Willie...
no, but a good lad.
Did you score one goal?
Dos.
Was it not Steiny that got two, no?
He got one.
Did you get two? [laughs]
I wanted to become a footballer.
So... it was either
the army or the pit and a lot my friends went to the pit.
So I just went with them so I could play football.
on a Saturday afternoon.
I was asked to sign for Man United but
It'd been the first time I'd been away from home
and I was homesick.
I was in a hotel and
it was terrible
and I came home,
and I was asked to sign for Rangers.
My Father, he wanted me to sign for Man United,
he liked Rangers, he liked...
but he always said to me...
"you're a man now so never come back and
tell me you made a mistake."
Worked out alright.
Lisbon? Well, it really was
drama of the highest order.
SWING MUSIC
Lisbon was, you know,
a big name,
a big team... still is.
And that was always going to be the difficult one.
That was a test.
Sporting were one of the favorites.
They were the favorite, one of the favorites to win
that trophy.
You look through the team that they had
really, really established international players
who were always going to pose problems.
I think the problems that they posed were probably unexpected
because it was... more fierce and more
more formidable than maybe even Waddell had anticipated.
One thing that added spice to the game
was that Sporting Lisbon,
they wore Celtic strips.
they wore Celtic tops, you know, so when they ran out at Ibrox
that night, there was a little bit of extra...
tension there, if you like.
We were playing great. We got off to a flyer.
They were miles ahead
by halftime.
Steiny scored two, wee Willie scored one.
We were winning three-nothing at halftime.
We were all over them.
The thought was this tie is done.
They brought this guy on the left wing...
and he ran riot.
We lost a goal, 3-1. And then they got that,
and they come right into it then.
they lost one goal,
then they lost a... a goal very close to the end
to make it a very nervy finish.
I probably should not have lost two goals.
You know, I can't remember if I was playing at the back
or in midfield...
I was possibly playing at the back
so it's probably my fault.
3-2 at home's not really a good result to go
to the second game away.
If they can score two goals here
what can they do at home?
UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC
The first leg,
it was by no means... done
and it was about going out to Lisbon
to- to really finish off
what had been started.
And the journey to the second game
was incredible.
Anything that could have gone wrong
went wrong.
You couldn't make it up.
Chaos is the only way to describe it.
Well normally you've got to be in the opposing
team's city by 24 hours,
prior to kick off
or you forfeited the game.
We're on British Airways, on the way to London
and the captain come on,
he says: "there's a- a strike in London.
The baggage handlers have gone on strike
and you'll have to get your own stuff from the hold."
And as soon as we arrived
in London, we we're told
"all flights have been cancelled."
So there's no flight to Portugal.
Where they actually had to carry their own bags... to their
hotel in London, they were forced to stay in overnight.
They announced a flight for us,
This was about 12:00,
at this time
you'd to be in Portugal by
I think it was 5:00,
It's an old
Vi-Viscount
and twin-turbo.
It's a little propeller thing
and as soon as the engine started up,
the smoke was filling in the cabin like
We're never gonna get there [laughs]
We landed with about half an hour to spare.
As a kind of sign of things to come.
The game itself was erm...
'chaos' was the best way to describe it.
Bonkers.
Absolute bonkers.
SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC
At Lisbon...
ah it was...
There was a lot of noise that night, y'know
DRUM MUSIC
It was a great atmosphere.
Just like Ibrox, they had drums
along the line and that
they were bang bang banging
The crowd were... the atmosphere was incredible.
The home side opened the scoring
They scored... when they-
There was only one way for this to go,
we had to go forward.
Cancelled out within 60 seconds
By Colin Stein...
to be short lived.
Sporting got another goal just before halftime and again the
tie has swung against Rangers, Sporting are in the lead.
But again Rangers dug deep
and right after halftime,
Colin Stein on target yet again.
They were putting the ball in the net and I was going up and
putting the ball in their net.
It was horrendous.
Up and down.
I think the biggest... bang was when the boy broke Ronnie's leg.
You could hear it, the crack.
Ronnie received one of the most diabolical tackles
I'd ever seen in my life.
Yazalde went over the top, got him right in the shin.
Everybody put their hands to their head
because they knew exactly what happened.
And we're running about
"Get up you!" Shouting at him, "Get up!"
And Ronnie's just... like that,
"I think I broke my leg."
Ankle's lying like that and his knee's still there.
He never even got booked, Yazalde, for this.
So we're sitting there and only defenders on the bench was
Davie Smith and I, it's the first time I'm sayin'
"I hope it's not me that's going on."
I could feel the sweat running down the back of my shirt.
Davie Smith, who was a sweeper, he come on,
and he was just back for a broken leg.
You know he was...
ashen when he seen Ronnie.
Teams are tied, level, over the piece,
we're going into extra time.
Wee Willie Henderson, as he did in the first leg, he puts...
he scores for Rangers 10 minutes into extra time.
And then they got a penalty kick just at the end
and it was 4-3.
It means the tie ends, 6-6.
And... the referee decides it's going to go to penalties.
That year I think was the first change
in the away goals rule.
Away goals counted double, in Europe.
The referee didn't understand it
He thought that the away goals rule was only for the 90 minutes
So we went to penalties.
Now, half the Rangers team
know about the change to away goals rule...
and half of them don't.
We just thought we'd won the game.
We were coming off the park,
congratulating one another that we're through.
And the referee's turned "what's going on here?
Penalty kicks."
We're still arguing with the referee that we're through.
So I don't think we were...
we were 100%,
you know, concentrating on the penalties,
which isn't an excuse really.
Davie Smith's was the best [laughs].
The goalkeeper was moving,
so I ran up and I stopped,
and the goalkeeper dived.
And I sort of smile, and I put it passed the post.
He ran up, swaggerin' and that,
and he went like *boof , right passed the post.
But... the referee says "you'll have to take it again."
run up, stopped, goalkeeper dived.
Passed the post again.
Twice.
It must be, you know, the only player to...
to miss twice in a European shootout
I would've thought.
We missed all our penalties [laughs].
It was one of those nights when
20, 30 shots...
naebody hits the target.
And we just think they've been
eliminated because they failed at the penalty shootout.
Sporting Lisbon, celebrating, thinking
they've made it to the quarterfinals.
They were carrying their goalkeeper round
their shoulders and their fans.
And we're going... flummoxed by what's happened.
So as far as we were concerned
we were out.
We're all...
heads down, cause we were... disgusted with ourselves.
They go into the dressing room,
despondent, defeated, out of the tournament.
Waddell's commiserating with us all like, you know.
And Willie Henderson,
another terrific player in that squad,
he said, "I think the rules are: the away goals
scored in extra time do count as double. We should be through."
On this occasion, they had to thank journalism.
John Fairgrieve, who was a reporter
in the Scottish game at the time,
was aware that something wasn't right.
ENERGETIC ROCK MUSIC
That journalist came through,
kind of brandishing the rulebook
The rules said Rangers had won,
so he went and alerted
Willie Waddell to that fact.
He burst into the dressing room with this wee book, he says,
"You shouldn't have gone to penalties."
He says, "You won the game in extra time!"
I didn't at that point, still didn't believe him I don't think
He said, "I'm telling ya Willie!"
The referee had made a monumental blunder.
He still didn't know what was happening.
The referee made a few phone calls
and lo and behold,
"Yeah you were right, I beg your pardon,
Rangers are through the next round."
The euphoria when we found out
five minutes, ten minutes later that we were back in.
From down there to up there, it was tremendous like.
All of a sudden, on my birthday, we're in the next round
of the European Cup Winners' Cup
Absolutely... phenomenal!
You find out you're back in the hat again
so you're getting another chance.
Hopefully this time we don't play as bad.
There was a thing then where you think "Well...
you never know, maybe we could win this."
It was a shock for a lot of Rangers fans
when they woke up the next morning and seen the papers.
When you scored the goals
you're always going to get the headlines,
you know, and he loved the headlines, Steiny.
he scored on the Saturday, on the Sunday
he'd buy every Sunday paper to see his name in lights there.
He loved scoring goals,
and he proved it in Portugal when he was there.
When it had to be done,
to qualify we needed to score goals
and he was the man that, once again, came up trumps.
And Colin Stein's verve, his appetite for the game.
and his willing to do the hard yards and constant running for
the team was never more evident than the night in Lisbon.
I didnae start bowling 'til about 1978
when I stopped playing football.
I like to win [laughs]
I like to win.
An enigma.
I never knew anybody with as much energy as he had,
and he never stopped talking.
Colin Stein, Louis the Lip. [laughs]
We used to call him the Louisville Lip,
after Muhammad Ali. You know, Muhammad Ali could yap
all the time. Steiny was the same.
Biggest pest I've ever met.
Honestly, I would have hated to play against that guy.
You... he must have talked you off your game.
Every time I see him he gets beat.
But no... he loves the bowls.
Likes a glass of red wine also.
It's a great game.
You know, it brings everybody. you can be a terrible bowler,
you can be great... everybody cannae be a champion.
But the camaraderie in the bowling club is,
you know, second to none.
Just the, you know, the football with your teammates, and that.
I got them for playing
obviously Ireland, England and Wales.
I didnae get a cap each, the same cap.
You know Steiny was great,
he was one of these footballers
That can actually hang in the air for a couple of seconds.
It felt he was there for about 30 seconds in the air.
Tell you what, he was like an old fashioned center forward.
He could score goals
and he could rough it with the best of them.
He didn't get messed about.
He was two footed, he was good in the air.
He was a good player Colin, he was a really good player.
Colin Stein joined Rangers, the first £100,000 transfer
between two Scottish clubs, from Hibernian.
He was just 21 years of age.
The support at Rangers was absolute fantastic.
I was lucky enough to score a hat trick in my first game.
Against Arbroath and that got the,
you know, the crowd on my side.
He was a tremendous player, Rangers fanatic you know
but can he talk you know.
A likeable pest. [laughs]
A likeable pest and a great friend.
We moved on to the next game,
which is...
Torino.
ROCK MUSIC
Italy was where it was at, wasn't it?
I mean, they were the poster boys of world football.
Well, Torino were the top team in Italy then.
They were a typical Italian team defensively.
It was all about the physicality in the Scottish game.
And there was these suave Italians
who could all pass the ball with distinction.
And they were known for a modern approach to the game.
We were very good side, and when we played them,
they were top of the league.
They were a serious side, amazingly difficult to beat.
LOUNGE MUSIC
Coaching was evolving, and Willie Waddell was
really at the heart of that from a Scottish perspective.
He was learning he had Jock Wallace beside him.
Who was a similar character, wanted to learn
and wanted evolve, and he took the team
just to a different level to compete with these teams.
Waddell and big Jock,
yeah they done their homework
Every game he set out himself to go and
watch these teams and come back with this
dossier on each player and everything.
It's a great example of how football has changed,
when the managers got to give
pen picks to the players to see what his opposition looks like.
Nowadays, of course, they know them inside out, upside down.
But that time, they didn't know what they looked like.
Hadn't seen them play on television and wouldn't have
known them unless you had played against them previously.
And that was, that was breakthrough stuff,
at that point, you know.
Here everybody's got their own card, player,
date of birth, 'many kids he's got, you know.
Not said I'm not gonna kick him
because he's got two kids, you know what I mean. [laughs]
There was myself, Alex MacDonald, and Sandy
and we... were set out as markers.
Our role was stay with the player.
Wherever the player went, you went.
You have to change it in football you have to
have different styles
depending on which team you're playing against.
We seem to adapt, you know,
when we played away in Europe we played a different system,
we played with a sweeper, which was hardly heard of then.
The sweeper was designed by the Italians.
A football playing defender, made use of the ball
and tried to spring counter-attacks
and they would immediately try
and get the attack going, from defense.
Dave Smith embraced that part of the game, like an Italian would.
I liked having the ball.
At the back...
I did get plenty of the ball.
He's the best sweeper I have ever seen.
Absolutely wonderful left foot.
I think he did settle the back four, that's for sure.
He was the, the sweeper in the side,
and we never lost too many goals after that.
BAGPIPES MUSIC
There's been a bus going from Fraserburgh for years
and I believe one of the main members,
Dave Hamilton, he played five or six-aside games
of football with him in Aberdeen.
And I believe that's how people from Fraserburgh got to know him
he started to come on the bus, and the bus just got
named after him: The Dave Smith Loyal Fraserburgh.
# We are the champions #
# No time for CELTIC! #
My Granddad.... every old guy speaks about him
says how class a player he was, just... just a touch of class.
He wasn't fast or anything but he didn't need to be,
Cause he had it up there they say...
Dave? Oh Dave was a class player.
Very class, classy left foot.
Smithy? Quiet, didnae shout a lot on the park,
didnae talk a lot on the park. When he got the ball...
Unbelievable. Cool, calm, collected.
Oh dear.
You been waitin' long?
Yes... [conversation fades]
Mr quiet man. Thinks he's funny, but he's never funny.
He laughs at his own jokes.
To me he was another Beckenbauer.
So cool, calm, and collective you know...
You don't appreciate at the time,
just how really good he was.
Oh!
Hold on a second, I'll have to go and check something.
[crew] Petrol or diesel?
I think it's diesel...
Oh aye, so it is.
MUSIC: "The Best Team in the Land" by Glasgow Rangers Support
# We've got the best team in the land. #
# We've got Dave Smith, number six #
# We've got the best team in the land. #
ETHEREAL MUSIC
My brother who died at 26,
he was a Rangers supporter,
and I always said I would, I would play for Rangers.
Well he died before I did,
but... I kept true to that.
I met Scot Symon, and he said
"we'll look after you."
And he was good as his word, you know.
That was it, that was me.
Well, I kind of realised pretty early on is,
you don't choose it, it chooses you and I think that's
a really intriguing thing about the top top players
don't really realise what they've got within them.
I watch clips of my Dad playing in front of, you know,
crowds of 70,000. You look at Willie Johnston
sitting on the ball
and, you know, the heat of battle
and all that sort of stuff.
They didn't think anything of it
that was that was where they were at home.
We would,
go to games together and you would get people
it would be you know "Davey you got your boots today,
you playin'?"
joking, you know, and he would laugh
and he would smile and he would say, "Yeah, yeah."
But actually deep down I think he thought, yeah, yeah,
I could still, I could still be out there.
It's really difficult to let go, I think,
because you still feel you could be out there.
You still feel you could do a job.
I like to see the team win.
How you win
that matters a lot to me.
Dave Smith
on the night against Torino, out-Italianed the Italians.
He did the Italian job.
No, I didn't play in Torino either.
Ahh, well I did play in Torino.
Ah, well you see, you know more than I do because...
I cannae remember playing against Torino. [laughs]
The only thing I can remember about Torino
is just coming home,
and going shopping.
We bought tartan bonnets.
I've got one upstairs, I just found it the other day,
the tartan bonnet, we all bought that,
and we were walking through the square,
five of us, with tartan bonnets on.
That was... probably one of the
the best talks we'd had before anything, was Waddell
sitting us down, and getting us to realise the importance
of this game.
This game,
could be the springboard to win a European trophy.
Realise what you's could achieve here, you could make history.
Willie Waddell, giving out the pen pics
of the various players.
And he tells John Greig that this is Claudio Sala.
The legend is,
that Willie Waddell just kind of used the phrase
"put him out of the game."
If you make sure that he doesn't play,
then they lack their best playmaker.
And I had the reputation for being
somebody that liked to make a tackle.
I'd say to him, I says
"do you mean, just for tonight Boss, or for good?"
He says "oh no" no I says, "no I'm sorry" I says
"that's the wrong thing to say."
I think the way that John Greig stared at the pen pic,
he was given, actually scared Willie Waddell.
Look after Sala.
[commentator] Sala with the ball at his feet and Greig
trying to dispossess...
a foul.
Sala.
It does John Greig a massive disservice
to paint him as
merely as a hatchet man. He's a hell of a player,
scored a lot of vital goals as well,
but he knows what he's got to do
and he does sort Sala out early doors.
[commentator] Freekick awarded to Torino.
Sala.
A swarm of Rangers' players there.
Greig is being warned by the Referee.
Sala can't move in there, although it was to be expected.
They weren't happy, you know, maybe that slowed them down.
That got them thinking, "We're playing against a team here,
that know how to play the game." You know, physically.
INTENSE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
[commentator] Torino are certainly being given a game.
They almost look caught out!
Especially when Rangers advance up the pitch.
All against the run of play,
Rangers open the scoring.
I ran the length of the park, had a shot.
The goalkeeper did a brilliant save, knocked the ball down,
and Willie Johnston walked in and tapped it into the net.
Willie Johnston again with that blistering pace.
Chances were few and far between
But Rangers knew that they would be
given limited opportunities to score, against this well-drilled
Italian rear-guard action.
And it took a pretty scrappy equaliser
to get the Italians back on level terms.
Colin Jackson clears the ball off the line
and then Toschi fires it straight back in,
and Paolo Pulici, who is their kind of top striker,
he gets a deflection on it
and that takes it away from, from Peter McCloy but...
that's the only reason we've conceded
and Willie Waddell was absolutely delighted
with the performance. He, kind of, runs onto the park
at the end, kind of... he was really delighted.
MATCH WHISTLE
[commentator] And that's the final whistle.
Willie Waddell is straight on the pitch
to congratulate his players.
The Torino manager, Gustavo Giagnoni,
talks about how Rangers played the Italian game,
and he's very, very complementary.
And at that time, to get, a kind of, away goals advantage,
in Italy is an incredible result.
[commentator] 1-1 against the top Italian side,
is surely a result that will send the Rangers supporters
home beaming tonight. A fantastic result.
We got the result we were looking for,
and went home there delighted
and at once again thinking at one each,
what a chance we've got at Ibrox again
to get through to the next round.
70'S ROCK MUSIC
We went back and we beat them in Glasgow.
The second game, the center half always with him, and I was
running down with the ball and that, and he
f*ckin' whacked me right there, with hand like that,
they were physical as well.
They could look after theirselves.
It was a hard, hard game... Turin,
physically, and you know, tactically as well.
I think this was the time where, because of the quarter final,
because of the opponents,
when they played Torino, I think with the Rangers crowd
kind of felt that real momentum, a bit of magic was starting
to build up at this point.
Rangers again had pulled the rabbit out the hat.
They'd turned it into an art form.
So we're in the semifinals,
we can't believe we're in the semifinals.
We've done so well, the confidence is, is high
in all the players,
and you can see that in the training and everything else.
The draw was being made, I always remember,
in the afternoon, we were saying
"Hope-hopefully we don't get Bayern Munich"
because they were the best side, you know, in the last ten years.
INTENSE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Bayern were a marvelous team.
They were actually the best team in the world.
Eventually they were going to mop up everything in sight,
both domestically and in Europe itself.
They'd seven players that played for the German national side.
Names just tripping off your tongue.
You know the Gerd Müllers.
The Maiers, the Breitners.
Overath.
Guy called Zobel.
Franz Roth.
Franz Beckenbauer.
Beckenbauer.
The greatest captain that Germany's ever had.
What a player he was.
They had an aura about them didn't they?
West Germany, they're always big, physical teams.
They were the favorites to win it.
And that is why
when the draw took place, I didn't really fancy Rangers.
I thought they've reached their peak now.
They've done as much as they possibly can do.
So when I went to, to Bayern,
I went with a degree of trepidation.
The, the Bayern final in '67
it burnt deeply, you know
and those that played in it but the supporters as well.
It was as if this pair were destined
to meet every time they took to the European stage.
And Rangers lost the European Cup Winners' Cup of 1967
to Bayern Munich.
We played them in Nuremberg,
in the final, which was basically a home game from them,
for them being, being a German side.
Willie Johnston, John Greig.
Dave Smith and Sandy Jardine.
Who'd all played in that final of 1967.
I think they were a better team.
We lost, one-nothing
and we gave a good account of ourselves
and I thought, to be honest
I think we were a little bit unlucky.
MUSIC INTENSIFIES
They'd gone through the pain and knowing what it felt like
to come off that pitch
and they actually had to, to line up and applaud as Bayern,
you know, picked up that cup.
Had they learned from that previous experience?
could they take on Bayern Munich?
Were they overdue a result against Bayern Munich?
Redemption.
CHEERING
One of the things about playing at this club
I felt I could beat anybody,
never always happened,
but always felt that I could beat any, any team
because we were the Rangers.
TENSE MUSIC
For the first 30 minutes of the first leg
in West Germany,
Rangers were under the cosh.
It was the most pressure they'd been under in any game
during the competition.
The first half we just couldn't get out of our own box.
We were actually...
backs against the wall.
It really was.
Every one of their players, except Sepp Maier,
the goalkeeper,
had a shot at our goal.
They were so dominant against us
And the goal that Bayern score,
Paul Breitner basically playing one-two with Gerd Müller,
who manages for once to get inside Colin Jackson.
CROWD NOISES
It was a backs to the wall performance.
The Germans tried everything they had,
but that night every Rangers player really gave all they had.
None more so than Billy Mathieson.
I got a marker's job to mark Roth.
This lad couldn't get away from me like,
You know, he was all over the park.
Willie Mathieson was up and down the wing, some machine.
I had to man mark
a man called Uli Hoeneß, he was the midfield maestro.
Willie Waddell said to me,
"Your job tonight, never mind anybody else,
he's your man, mark him!"
He says "at halftime if he goes to the toilet for a wee wee,
you stand outside the door and look after 'im."
Big Jock says "you just go with him,
follow him wherever he goes.
And when Beckenbauer comes over the halfway line
go to Beckenbauer."
Are you talkin' to me?
Beckenbauer's about six foot four.
If he told you to do it, you do it.
By the second half,
Franz Beckenbauer strolls forward and tries
one of his contemptuous little flicks.
And Alex MacDonald just cuts it out
and Colin Stein takes the ball,
still in the Bayern half.
And what him and Willie Johnston,
who had played so well together as a unit,
they turn them inside out.
Schwarzenbeck has fallen over the top of Sepp Maier,
and the ball that... Colin Stein plays back in
Rainer Zobel heads it, you know, into his own net.
And Willie Johnston goes down and congratulates him.
Rainer Zobel just...
he buries his face in the mud.
It was an own goal but listen we'll take it.
When you're in Germany playing against mighty Bayern Munich,
if you'd scored with your backside you'd have taken it,
it's as simple as that.
In the second half we defended well
never, never gave Gerd Müller a sniff.
And at the end of the game they were, they were outrunning
the Bayern Munich side you know, they were much superior
in terms of fitness.
In fact Willie Johnston was through in the last minute
when the Referee blew the whistle for full-time.
So you never know it could have been another one,
at that particular time.
We survived over there,
big time!
It was the first time then, in my career,
that I'd seen all 11 players,
when that referee blew the whistle,
actually punching the air and jumpin' about.
ENERGETIC JAZZ MUSIC
Big Jock and Willie Waddell, first time I've seen
the two of them smiling at the one time, you know,
these two had confidence in us that we could go all the way
and maybe even pick up this trophy.
But Wallace was a fitness fanatic and all the players
will tell you that made the difference.
Big Jock, was, oh...
Sergeant Major.
I would run through a brick wall for Jock Wallace,
without a shadow of a doubt. He was that type of person.
He was a Marine.
And you could see that in the way he spoke, in the way
he did the training, and everything else.
He's a winner. Always will be a winner.
He was a character, a real character, hard as nails.
You never argued with Jock,
he'd just hit you.
He would give you a kick up the backside when you needed it.
He put his arm around you
and give you a cuddle when you needed it.
He was like a father figure to me.
He looked on us all as his lads.
You know, "You're my boys. I'm going to look after you."
If You're not doing something right, I'm gonna tell you."
And boy, did he tell us.
This is the day that they have to tackle this.
The hill.
JAZZ MUSIC
Jock Wallace and Murder Hill was
synonymous with that period.
East coast beach...
and run until you drop.
We had to do these sand dunes for about an hour.
Well I've never in my life experienced anything like it.
Really it was punishing,
but it made us.
[Jock Wallace] Hands off that bloody sand, come on!
Had about a session for an hour, that was all.
And during that hour you weren't allowed to walk.
I remember Jock running over to me and
lifting me up by the scruff of the neck.
He says, "hey Son, if you're going to be sick,
be sick running, keep running!"
As much as it was physical, it was psychological,
they believed they were fitter than, than anyone else.
We just felt as if we could, we could run through brick walls.
It was extreme training but my God did it work.
The expectation levels at Ibrox
for the, for the, semifinal were kind of, off the scale.
It was a great night for Glasgow football, Scottish football
Two games,
either end of the city, staggered by half an hour.
150,000 there.
Never be repeated again.
Rangers... under the shadow of what happened in 1967,
are facing Bayern,
the team who defeated them in that final, and Celtic are,
are facing Inter, the team that they beaten... in that final
so there's a kind of a poetry there.
And I had got this terrible shin injury,
and it was touch and go, whether I played against Bayern Munich.
I would not like to have played brag against Willie Waddell.
He came up with one or two distractions
involving the media.
The wily old Fox.
He says, "John you get on that table there."
And he says, "pull your socks down." So I did.
And he brought all the press core in.
He said, "Have a look at that."
And my shin bone... it was practically showing the bone.
And the... the guy says,
"he's not playing with that?!"
He say's, "yeah he's playing." he says "that just shows you,
he's not frightened about Bayern Munich." He says, "He's playing"
"Right, on you go." And out they go [laughs]
He was really struggling,
but they didn't want to make it public.
It was about maintaining a guessing game,
and it left
the Rangers fans bewildered, it left the German team
totally in the dark as to what to expect.
As it was, John Greig
was never really going to make the game.
Dave Smith captained the side.
And Derek Parlane, almost unheard of,
was thown in to the starting 11
against the giants of the German game.
My dad said to me,
"Derek, do you think there's a chance
that you might be on the bench?"
And I said, "Dad... on the bench
would be beyond my wildest dreams."
Jock Wallace came into the dressing room before the game.
He says, "Right lads, here's tonight's team:
number one Peter McCloy, number two Sandy Jardine,
number three, Billy Mathieson,
number four Derek Parlane, number five, six..."
I honestly did not hear the rest of the team.
Jock says to me, "Derek, come on Son, I want
a word with you in the boot room." [laughs]
I nearly said, "Jock, I want a word wi' you, what you doin'?"
He said to me, "Look, we've watched you lately in training,
we've watched the two games you played for us.
We want you to mark a guy."
This guy was called Franz Roth.
"And if you get half a chance..."
kick the big bastard!"
INTENSE VIOLIN MUSIC
They flew in the day of the game,
They think, "We'll go there, we'll play the game,
and we're back home at midnight, and we're in the final."
I think they were so confident, and Big Jock says, "Yeah,
typical Germans you know, just how they are.
They just think they're going to win every game.
Especially this mob because, they're a great side."
He says, "We're going to have to play,
everybody's gonna have to play out their skin tonight.
If we don't, then we've no chance.
And if we can score a goal, what a start that'll be for us.
There's 80,000 here at Ibrox.
So of course we'll go out, we can't believe it, the noise is
phenomenal, we're all lined up just looking around.
They could sense that something was going to happen as well,
and so did we.
MATCH WHISTLE
INTENSE CLASSICAL MUSIC
My goodness Rangers started with a whirlwind: tempo, desire.
Move the ball quickly.
I gave the ball to Sany Jardine, just on the halfway line.
The man who had suffered such frustration
against Bayern Munich in the previous final of 1967,
cuts in from the right wing.
His left foot was just for walking with,
he'd never kicked a ball with his left foot in his life.
and all of a sudden he goes back and all the lads are shouting,
"NO DON'T SHOOT, PASS!"
VICTORIOUS JAZZ MUSIC
He's hit this ball wi' his left foot and it's
gone straight in the top corner.
What a goal it is!
And Sandy couldn't believe himself.
The ball's in the back of the net within the first minute.
and 80,000... the roar when you hear it is, it's quite,
it's quite something else.
God love you Sandy, scored in the first minute of the game.
It settled us right down.
We're all over them!
Willie Johnston is running the fullback right, he's firing
balls across the goal. You know we're just missing the headers.
And, I hadn't even had a kick at the big German sod so far,
but I got a few digs in, and then in the 21st minute
Willie Johnston hit a corner over from the,
the left hand side from the Broomloan road end,
and Sepp Maier, the goalie, punched it out.
And I met it on the half volley with my left foot,
which was usually for standing on,
and it went up into the postage stamp.
And... ah my God, the guys couldn't catch me,
I ran that fast.
And that night, that goal,
my life changed.
Sounds very dramatic but it did.
My life changed.
DRAMATIC MUSIC
It's... arguably the greatest performance in the whole,
in the whole run.
And that is essentially Bayern Munich done after 20 odd minutes
Franz Beckenbauer was something special,
you know, really world class,
but I had him on toast at Ibrox.
Rangers basically are left, they were toying... at one point
in the second half Willie Johnston actually,
he just sits on the ball.
Briefly, but he sits on the ball just to make the point
that Rangers are tearing apart what would basically be
the greatest team in the world
for the next three or four years.
Willie Waddell gave him stick about it, he says,
oh he says, "I was tired."
I was getting tired...
so I had to take a wee rest.
Sepp Maier I think it was,
He lost the plot, the crowd got the better of him.
and I think he... dropped his drawers and that to
the crowd and things like that, so he was upset.
They were arguing with each other.
We knew then that we werenae gonna lose, you know.
Just another game aye, another game to win, which we did.
It was probably one of the greatest games in
Glasgow's football history.
It will never happen again, I don't think.
Celtic lost their game that night and went out.
and we went on, you know, which made it even better
for us like, you know.
My Dad, my Dad picked me up after the game.
I popped into my Dad's car and we drove home.
My Mum says, "Well done Derek, you did well tonight.
You want a cup of tea?" I had a cup of tea and went to bed.
We'd beat one of the best teams
in the world.
FUNK MUSIC
The final in Barcelona.
As soon as you get to the airport,
there was Rangers fans there already waiting on us.
The amount of people
that were there were phenomenal, just ordinary supporters
that couldn't really afford to get there. But,
they made it.
And in' early 70's,
working class people didn't go abroad for their holidays,
that was preserved for the middle classes.
The 25,000 or so Rangers fans who went,
most of them would be going on a plane for the first time.
Most of them had to go into debt.
A lot of the boys were going to Barcelona
on a provvy cheque.
It's a loan!
And that was a big thing,
You know, credit wasn't easy to get in those days.
It wasnae even acceptable.
Rangers fans had got there
any which way they could.
They'd gone by car, hitching lifts.
they'd hired buses.
Bicycle, scooters, motorbikes, vans.
Getting a car with an MOT, and just leaving it.
I took my Mum.
[laughs]
She says, "What you mean, come to Spain?"
"We're in the final at the weekend,
You're coming to Spain".
"Oh, that'll be lovely."
She said "I've never been on an aeroplane before."
Rangers fans were just delighted to be there,
but there was a sense of anticipation,
that this time,
third time lucky, might be the season
that they actually lift that European Trophy.
I think there was a presumption around Ibrox
that because Rangers had beat Bayern Munich.
The hard work was, was done,
knowing nothing about Moscow Dynamo.
I've got to stress to you,
you didn't know about these players.
You'd never seen them play,
unless they'd been on the TV, which was very, very rare.
Well, I think when you've beat the favorites
you've still got to have the same attitude,
which is a big thing in football: the right attitude
to play in a final, when you've never seen them playing.
Till Waddell got some of the pictures of their players
and that you didnae know who you were playing.
Every game... they went and analysed opponents,
right from the first round against Rennes.
Now this was a different question,
how do you get behind the Iron Curtain,
to spy on a team from Moscow.
The Russians weren't happy to hand out visas like confetti,
but Willie Waddell found a way.
He had friends in the right places
to pull strings, to get he and Jock Wallace
into Russia, to watch, in the flesh, Moscow Dynamo.
You just look at their run to the final,
and they're winning, they won all their away games
apart from the semifinal, a home leg with Dynamo Berlin.
They were good footballers, and a big country.
Russia, at that time,
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
they were big, they were massive.
They were competitive in everything they did,
whether it was gymnastics, or football.
They were just bred as athletes.
We did the training and,
midway through the training, we lost our centre-half,
Colin Jackson, he went over on his ankle.
SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC
Colin was ruled out,
prior to the big game
against... Moscow Dynamo.
Big Ronnie McKinnon had broke his leg in Lisbon.
That meant two centre-halves, we'd lost Ronnie McKinnon,
We'd lost Colin Jackson, we'd no centre-half.
In the final,
it was Derek Johntsone and Dave Smith.
I was told I was playing in the afternoon,
and I was playing alongside Dave Smith,
who I hadn't played with before.
You know this was the first
the two center halves were together, in this game.
And the night before the game,
John Greig was...
extremely doubtful at that point,
because of an injury, whether he was gonna play or not.
I had fractured my metatarsal joint.
In the morning of the match when I woke up, I couldnae
put my foot on the ground, I was in agony.
Waddell 110% wanted John Greig to play.
I don't think he was fit,
but there was no way he wasnae going to play like,
that was John Greig.
Make no mistake,
John Greig should not have played
in the final, in Barcelona.
But somehow the medics patched him up.
And saying that, I think they probably would need to
have anesthetized him
not to have him play.
I remember arriving very early at the stadium
and the Rangers supporters were on the pitch
and it was like Sunday strolling in the park,
walking all over the pitch
with the police just looking at them.
It was so friendly, as if the Spaniards were saying,
"Welcome to Barcelona."
Fans invading the park.
It was well known, it was done for years.
That in itself
contained the seeds of what happened later.
because the police really should have been saying
"This is sacred territory.
You don't get on it."
When we drove in
to get into the Nou Camp,
it was just like going into Ibrox,
it was a mass of blue,
and in fact they were rocking the bus.
And it was deafening, and so that's the first time
we've seen or heard the crowd.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
I remember getting very emotional,
seeing all the supporters with their scarves and their flags.
Thinking to myself,
we've really got to do it this time for them.
There's always pressure on Rangers players,
Rangers have to win.
If you don't win you're gonna be criticized,
a lot.
By the papers, the fans, and probably,
if you're being honest, with yourself because
how big an opportunity is it, to play
Moscow Dynamo, in the Nou Camp
in front of Rangers supporters
because there was very few Russian supporters there.
It was like a home game to us.
We think we thought, "This is ours lads,
this is ours,
We've got to believe we can do this."
Deedle give to me what was a good talk.
You know, he was saying to us,
"Remember now" he says,
"There's people in villages, there's people in towns,
there's people in cities, countries,
millions and millions,
all around the world, sitting and waiting on this result."
He says "Go out and
do it for them."
"Don't do it for yourself, do it for them" he says.
"And then you'll be heroes."
We'll probably not get another, another chance, you know.
The last chance.
MATCH WHISTLE
INTENSE MUSIC
Their main player
was a guy called Sabo.
He was the one that made them tick, he was the guy
that got on the ball and made things happen.
Willie Waddell I remember saying to John Greig he said,
"Hey, listen, the captain is their top man
everything goes through him."
He says "I want you to sort him out early."
So the ball got centered, kicked back,
and it got played to Sabo,
and Greigy hit him.
He whacked the boy.
Oof!
The game had just started
and the ball broke between the two of us,
and I thought, "Well, if I don't go in for this,
I'm gonna get hurt."
So I went in and clattered him and
he walked away without saying a word and I walked away.
So that was it.
Everyone in the stadium from a Rangers perspective went
"Captain's back."
That guy Sabo never kicked a ball,
till late in the second half.
for an unfit man, he did,
he did his job well.
[commentator] Mathieson, Smith, Greig.
I remember the first
15, 20 minutes, I'm just, "Slow it down,
calm yourself, get a grip of the ball."
F*cking going everywhere.
[commentator] Dave Smith.
Dave Smith, Willie Johnston, John Grieg, Sandy Jardine,
are absolutely determined
that they are not going to lose another European final.
The guys that were there in 67.
Dave Smith has that bit of class that bit of concentration,
that bit of skill,
that he sets up the...
he plays an electric ball.
[commentator] Dave Smith.
Over to Colin Stein.
Goal! Fantastic goal, incredible! Colin Stein!
A tremendous piece of football
and he just rifles it into the top corner.
FUNK ROCK MUSIC
Sandy Jardine
won a tackle on the halfway line
which he never usually did,
and gave the ball to Dave Smith,
who chucked it forward to me and I just whacked it
right in the net.
Oh! What a feeling
that is, a European final and you've scored the first goal,
the fans are going absolutely berserk.
I turned round and there was
hundreds and hundreds on the park.
[commentator] And the fans are on the pitch!
They run on the pitch,
and the game gets held up for five minutes
while they all get off.
We're trying to help them off you know
"Come on, come on get off!"
And the same happened the second goal,
Dave Smith got the ball on the right half
[commentator] Smith again.
Good ball.
It's a goal!
Willie Johnston!
CROWD CHEER
Dave Smith, a master of his trade
with the ball at his feet.
The two assists you see, as my friends would say,
two long punts up the park.
I can remember looking at Davie and putting my hands in my
head and going
"Are we really two-nothing up?"
but the turning point is in the second half.
The kick out from Peter McCloy.
I used to hit it very high.
Over the years we got a lot of goals off it for the Rangers.
[commentator] Johnston is through.
Goal!
Goal by Johnston!
Willie Johnston just takes it and controls it
and just puts it away.
The Russians were like rabbits in headlights.
It seems as if the game is over.
Then all of a sudden,
the Russians realise,
"We need to make a fist of this."
And they found a way to try and muscle
their way back into the game.
[commentator] The Russians are attacking.
INTENSE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Goal!
And then, 3-1.
I think the biggest problem is
I think we saw the winning post to early
We definitely...
went to sleep.
Lost concentration.
We were definitely getting a wee bit tired, you know.
And the polo necks were getting to us as well.
Polo necks in Spain.
They should never have been in sight of us,
because we were a far, far better team than them.
[commentator] Goal again!
Moscow Dynamo score
with only three minutes of the game remaining
and that three goal cushion has evaporated
into one.
Rangers were running on empty.
The tank was in the red.
And all of a sudden they start coming forward.
So we're having to defend a lot more.
The Rangers fans are quiet.
They're starting to panic a wee bit now.
From then on in you're saying, "Not again,
It's not going to happen again." You know.
If I've ever, glad to hear a final whistle,
that would have been the night.
[commentator] Oh! the crowd on the pitch again!
Referee blew for the free kick and the fans come on
and it wasnae, it wasnae the end of the game,
they had to kind of back off.
We've still got another two minutes to go.
They thought it was the final whistle.
Invading the park is what you did in those days.
[commentator] Oh, my oh my, the game's not over yet.
As I was doing the commentary,
one supporter came and sat on my knee
and offered me a drink of Fundador,
which is that firewater Spanish brandy,
which you shouldn't really touch with a bargepole.
They were in seventh heaven.
They thought it was all over.
It was just chaos.
I mean, it was just fans everywhere.
We can argue about it all day, it was an accident.
We thought it was full time.
[commentator] They'll have to clear the pitch
and play the remaining time.
They just made a mistake.
Off they went.
INTENSE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
However close it looked on paper,
the memories, I think of '67 were definitely
there in the back of the mind that night
and it wasn't going to happen again.
[commentator] Stein.
Johnston.
MacDonald.
It's getting quite physical.
They weren't letting that go,
there was just no way that was going to happen again.
[commentator] We're expecting the final whistle
at any moment now.
The Rangers fans watch on... waiting.
There's no way Rangers were letting this, letting this slip.
REFEREES WHISTLE
[commentator] And there we have it.
Rangers are the winners of the
European Cup Winners' Cup.
The supporters are flooding on!
What a sight to behold!
UPLIFTING MUSIC
You can see how much it means.
CROWD CHEERING
We can't see the players anymore.
It's a sea of people.
What incredible scenes!
They've waited a long time for this.
EMOTIONAL PIANO MUSIC
It's probably the most wonderful
feeling I've ever had.
Tremendous... atmosphere it was like, you know.
And of course with 25,000 Scotsmen,
full of sangria.
[Laughs]
It was just euphoria, flooding onto the pitch.
and manifesting itself in that way.
this was, this was just that rush of,
of just pure celebration.
You never forget that euphoria,
it's the most wonderful memory,
you'll never, you'll never beat it.
Well I ran into the... down the stairs,
and then Willie Johnston come in after me.
Steiny was waiting on me,
and he says, "What took you so long?"
I says "You seen out there?"
There was hundreds of people on the park and it's the first time
I've ever beat him at running.
CROWD CHANTING
They're cuddling you and... following you.
You cannae see me. I mean, they're all a good six foot aye.
To them it was just... emotion, you know.
They'd won a European trophy like, you know.
CROWD CHANTING
[commentator] The police haven't got a chance.
The players, Willie Waddell,
they're all in there.
The police.
They started thumping 'em
with big batons.
Not just wee batons.
The Glaswegians are no... they'll no back down.
Spain was run by the Dictator: Franco,
and it was his fascist police
who took the heavy hand
and charged the Rangers fans.
They were just happy, delirious, there was not any trouble.
But, they should just have let them run mad for 10 minutes.
The police got it wrong, I think, you know,
they really did.
Typical Glasgow boy, you don't hit me, you don't get hit back.
You know.
ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC
They got us off the pitch as quick as possible.
They escorted us into the dressing room.
Yeah, it became apparent that
there could be no trophy presentation.
You know, there was too much trouble going on outside.
Obviously in the dressing room
we didnae know what was happening
to be honest with you.
Just sitting there waiting to get an answer.
You know, "Are we going to get the cup or not?"
And then all of a sudden,
Waddell and John Greig was called to a,
some wee room away in the stadium somewhere.
I'm sure that we ended up in the Barcelona... trophy room.
There's all these officials and
I think they were all UEFA officials that night.
and the guy, I don't, I don't know what he said, but
it sounded as if he was saying
"1972 European Cup Winners' Cup,
winners: Glasgow Rangers,
here... now on yous go, on your bike"
DISCO FUNK MUSIC
Till we got back to the dressing room and we got in there,
and we handed the cup over to the boys and the boys went
daft when they saw the cup and that.
Well when they come in with the cup, that was it,
we knew we'd won it, so...
it was party time.
PLAYERS CHEERING
I remember him, he just ran into the dressing room.
we were all in the bath and he threw the cup in the bath
and we all jumped about and had a right a good laugh.
It was absolutely wonderful.
PLAYERS CHEERING
It was great you know, Just everybody's overjoyed and
It's hard to put words into it, you know you're
that excited and the adrenaline is still flowing.
It was, it was, it was one of the nights
you would nae, you would nae forget.
Then we went back to... up to our hotel.
The champagne was flowing. Rightly so [laughs].
I can remember all the wifes and the mums
coming back to the hotel.
My Mum had two wee glasses of sherry
and went to bed early. [Laughs]
Dave Smith, and Greigy, and myself.
I don't think we went to bed.
There wasn't a drink left in the hotel that night.
I was never a big drinker. You know I was,
"God sake lads, I'm not... I'm not drinking."
"I'm, I'm 18 and a half. I don't want to drink."
And Steiny "Come on, son, have a drink, have a drink."
Waking up in the morning with a banging head,
which I'd never had before.
I guess that's a hangover for you.
And what a lot of people don't know is that
the trophy in the morning had a dent in it.
Me and John Greig had it.
We shared a room and
we looked at the trophy and there was a dent in the side,
but they got fixed.
We were very fortunate.
Colin Jackson's father was on the bus.
So he drove us up, they got the bus to take us up to the hotel.
And he asked Willie Waddell if he could
get the players down with the Cup
because we never seen the Cup
getting presented at the end of the game.
John Grieg came down with the Cup, all the players.
And I went down and got to hold the Cup with John.
Holding the Cup with John Greig.
Highlight of my life.
Of course a lot of the fans were still in Barcelona,
when we paraded the Cup at Ibrox
the next night.
The thing was my family was still in Barcelona.
[laughs] So there was nobody in the house.
FUNK MUSIC
We went back to Ibrox.
What was waiting for us?
A big limousine, weren't it.
Called a coal lorry. [laughs]
A coal lorry.
And it... peeing with rain [laughs]
And that's the type of thing that we were used to.
I don't know if the coal man had
just finished his shift and was still driving. I dont know.
[laughs]
Trying to balance yourself standing on the end.
Went round the track with the Cup.
Class act. Hey.
"Anybody wanna bag of coal? Anybody wanna bag of coal?"
BAGPIPES PLAYING
At the time...
it's not seen as being as glamorous or glorious as the
as the players would've imagined it.
There's a tatty old Union Jack on the front of the truck
that's kind of fallen off.
But, whether they like it or not,
that's what I grew up with.
and that's, you know,
as Rangers supporters we've taken that to our heart.
That kind of chaos.
You know, the chaos of the Sporting game,
The chaos after the final, you know,
not being able to get the trophy, and it's part of
what we love about the club.
UPLIFTING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
The supporters, you know, are eveything
to-to Rangers Football Club.
To get a Cup... a European Cup and bring it back to them,
well that's the pinnacle innit?
The pinnacle of your career.
And as we got to the Broomloan Road end
there was a guy standing there
and it was pouring with rain,
he was standing there waving his scarf,
and it was Bobby Shearer.
Bobby Shearer used to be the captain of Rangers.
He was in the crowd.
It hit me at that point,
there was a legend.
Not in the stand or, or
in the... directors box.
just standing on the terrace, waving a Rangers scarf.
You know.
An out and out legend.
That's when it hit me like, you know.
The players enjoyed it.
There's no doubt at all the players enjoyed it.
I mean, it was the biggest,
the biggest day in most of their lives,
the day in biggest in my life,
and this club's life, winning a European Trophy.
CROWD CHEER
When you pull theat jersey over your head,
it's a tremendous experience.
And it's not about you, as Willie Waddell says
"The millions and millions of people all around the world
who are sitting and waiting on that result on that day like,
you know, it's about them.
It's about the people on the terracing."
I think winning,
meant everything, meant so much to the supporters
after everything that had gone before.
But it just gave a...
hope, a sense of pride.
Oh I certainly think the Rangers supporters needed it.
I needed it.
And the players that played in the '67 needed it.
The club needed it.
There's no question about that.
What is that moment
that you're going to be remembered for,
for all time, what
in 50 years time are you going to be
looking back at thinking, "Yeah,
I did that.
I was part of that."
And, and there's very few people probably in the world
that are lucky enough to have that moment.
And I look at... you know, for example, my Dad. Eight years,
more than 300 games,
that 90 minutes in Barcelona,
is, is it.
That's what his life, his career, is, is defined by.
And there's lots of players in that team
who went on to win
lots more leagues, trebles, cups momentous occasions,
scored so many goals,
but they'll still be forever
defined by Barcelona and that's... special.
It's quite remarkable.
You can go through a lifetime
and you don't know
in that that moment in time that this is what's,
what's going to define you.
But it does.
REFLECTIVE PIANO MUSIC
I look back and I'm thinking it was just yesterday.
You wonder where the 50 years has gone because
it doesn't seem that long ago.
We didn't think an awful lot
that we could maybe do it again but,
things have changed. As you know.
You don't want to be just an 11 or
19 players involved.
You want other players to get the, the,
the feeling of doing it as well you know because it's
it's with you for life.
You know,
naebody can take it away from you.
You never come down from that, you know that remains with you,
you've won that trophy and it's...
it's special.
I was playing football and what could be better in life
than getting paid for doing something you'd be doing
if you weren't 'been paid.
I just loved it.
You know,
you don't realise you know, that we're just ordinary people.
I'm just happy I've done it,
been there, seen it.
Barcelona 72's about a moment in time that...
changed a club forever.
Change a city. It's 90 minutes that made heroes,
made legends.
MUSIC:'Here's to My Old Friends' by Ellen Smith
They'd had an awful lot
of different experiences they'd shared together, some good,
some really, really, painful and poignant experiences together
and I doubt there's
another group of players that have been through
what they went through together.
# Here's to my old friends #
# I miss you every day #
Peter McCloy, the gentle giant.
'The Girvan Lighthouse.'
It was me that named him that,
you know being so tall obviously
Mr. Sensible.
Good lad Peter.
Big Ronnie,
'Clint Eastwood', I used to call him.
Very calm cool lad, you know.
I couldnae say anything bad about him, great guy.
Ah my mate, my mucker.
my roommate for best part of ten years.
Only 18, 19 year old to play, playing in a European Final.
Must have been tremendous for him.
# So here's to the old times #
'The Quiet Assassin' I call Willie.
Think he was an unsung hero Willie.
Very, very underrated football player.
Willie Henderson.
He's still the same wee arrogant boy he was then,
and a nicer wee guy you'll never meet in your life.
Wonderful little lad.
Everyone played there part in that campaign,
incluiding: Penman,
Fyfe,
and Denny
Parlane, good player, always played well against Celtic.
Good in the air, could pass a ball,
Derek was an overall good player.
Super guy.
Dave Smith: 'Mr. Quiet Man'.
He was just exceptional,
and he was a good talker as well to the players around him.
Davie used to take players on in our penalty box.
I'd be screaming at him, "Get that ball out of there,
get it out of there!"
Tommy McLean, could land a ball on a six pence.
It was unbelievable to watch him.
He was a good man to have in your team,
he was a good lad as well.
Doddie aye, a great wee person.
'Mr. Slide Tackler' I call him.
Typical little Glasgow guy.
If you cut the wee mans arm, he'd bleed blue blood.
Rangers through and through.
Alfie Conn was a great midfield player,
good lad off the park as well.
Alfie was an awful nice lad.
Is still an awful nice lad.
Colin Jackson.
He was the best center-half we had,
he was solid, a great marker.
A good defender and
a real Ranger.
He was the life and soul of the dressing room,
not in ways that you'd want him to be.
Because he'd be a pest.
One of my best friends from football.
Ahh...
I love him.
# Here's to my old friends #
Great personality, and one of my best friends.
He was a top character, you know.
A wonderful lad to be beside, great company.
He still is to me,
probably one of the best
young players that's ever been at this club.
# Here's to the old times #
We used to be like two brothers really,
we shared a room for many years.
He would have run through brick walls John.
That's just the way he was.
He was a tremendous leader on the park and...
he drove us on.
Sandy, Sandy was a class act.
He really encapsulated everything
that a Ranger should be.
Difficult to find words for Sandy because
we traveled together for so many years together.
It's hard for us to accept he's gone, you know.
I wished he was here.
# But you'll still live as hopeful as #
# the days we had together #
Willie Waddlle said to us after the game, "You won this trophy.
In 50 years time they'll be talking about this."
He was good for Rangers there's no question of about it.
He knew what he was doing, He knew what he was doing.
Although he appeared a hard person,
he had his soft sides as well.
# So here's to my old friends #
he was always very, very good to me.
I feel I owe him a debt of gratitude.
[Director] If you could say something to Waddell now,
What would it be?
If I could say something to Waddell?
I'd say, "Willie, why did you not turn that light to green
more often when I was coming up to talk to you?"
First thing I would say to him,
"You never gave me the £10 rise you offered me."
[Laughs] That'd be a starter.
What would I say to him?
Firstly I'd say
"How's it going?"
"What were your feelings,
actually, when we won that cup,
and you realised we were the first Rangers team to win it?"
Quite simply I would just say
"Thanks for everything Boss."
"Thanks."
He definitely changed me, you know.
# Miss you every day #
I would say "Thank you."
A big thank you.
To say well he gave me a good break, you know, and I...
can't say enough about Willie I don't think.
[whispers] Oh dear.
He certainly made me a player.
There's not much I can say because...
he changed me.
# And leave our faces changed #
"I miss the arguments Boss."
That's what I would say to Willie Waddell.
"Well done, Mr. Waddell.
and I miss the arguments."
That's what I think I would say.
# Leave our faces changed #
# But we'll still live as hopeful #
# as the days we had together. #