IOO Years of Glory
continued
'Hard work.
Hard lessons'
When he died in his 81st year in
September 1956 the whole football
world mourned a remarkable man.
His successor, Scot Symon, came to
Ibrox in June, 1954 after a fine career
as a player with Dundee, Portsmouth
and Rangers and a highly successful
spell as manager of East Fife (who
twice won the League Cup under him)
and Preston, with whom he stayed just
over a year and guided to a Wembley
Cup Final.
Manager Symon took over just as the
great Ibrox team of the 40's and early
50's was beginning to break up
Willie Thornton, Jock Shaw, Willie
Waddell and Sammy Cox were all to
retire within a couple of years and
Willie Woodburn was banned sine die
by the S.F.A.
The emphasis on football was shifting,
too, from success on the home front to
the challenge of the major European
trophies. Floodlighting had arrived in a
big way, bringing with it a new
dimension to soccer. The fans grew to
love the tremendous feel' generated
by huge crowds hidden in the dark
Jim Baxter (centre), reckoned by many to be one of the great
Rangers players of all time, throws the League Cup aloft in
delight after Rangers had beaten Celtic in the 1964-65 final at
Hampden. Baxter is seen with some of his team-mates (left to
right)—W. Ritchie. R. Brand. W. Wood. D. Provan. E. Caldow.
and J. Greig.
terracings as the players battled it out
on the field like actors on a stage.
New tactics had to be adopted to
meet these changing conditionsand
Rangers, by hard work and some hard
lessons, learned to cope.
The Light Blues made their first sortie
into Europe in the 1956—57 European
Cupand went out in the first round
after three stormy ties against French
club Nice, losing 3-1 in a Paris play-off.
It gave Rangers their first taste of the
Continental temperament when the
stakes were for rich European rewards
The return game in Nice was a fiery
affair in which Ibrox left half Billy Logie
was ordered offfor taking a punch on
the jaw I He didn't have time to retaliate
before he and the offending Nice forward
Bravo were off.
Since that day, Rangers have been
involved in a total of 83 European
games (including play-offs). They
reached the semi-final of the 1959-60
European Cup before crashing out to
Eintracht of Germany. They also reached
the quarter-finals of the same tourney
61-62 and 64-65.
In the Cup Winners trophy the Light
Blues battled through to the 60-61
Final to lose to Fiorentina of Italy and
again in 1966-67 where they were
edged out 1-0 by Germany's Bayern
Munich after extra time at Nuremberg.
Season 68-69 brought a semi-final
defeat from Newcastle in the Fairs Cup.
Then on May 24, 1972 the long quest
for that elusive European triumph ended
with that 3-2 win over Moscow Dynamo
in the Cup Winners' Trophy Final in
Barcelona.
Scot Symon left Ibrox in November,
1967 having steered the club to six
League titles, five Scottish Cups (in
cluding a hat-trick between 62-64),
three Glasgow Cups and three Charity
Cups.
His assistant Davie White was pro
moted to control for two years, before
8
