THE service that was planned to mark the 50th anniversary of the Ibrox Disaster tomorrow has, like everything in Scottish football since March, been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Only four officials will be able to commemorate the tragic death of 66 Rangers supporters on Stairway 13 on January 2, 1971, at the stadium due to social distancing restrictions.
Yet, Reverend Stuart McQuarrie, the club chaplain who conducts the annual ceremony at the John Greig statue at the corner of the Bill Struth Main Stand and the Copland Road Stand, is hopeful that a larger gathering will be held when society returns to normality in 2021.
“We had been in touch with the families of the victims and had intended to have a service in Glasgow Cathedral,” he said. “But because of this dreadful virus we will not be able to do anything on that scale.”
As someone who was, as a young lad of just 17, present at the fateful Old Firm game 50 years ago the occasion has always been particularly poignant for Reverend McQuarrie.
“It has a special resonance for all Rangers supporters,” he said. “But it does have a special resonance for me as someone who was actually there and who can remember the aftermath.
“Some people say that when the company that owned Rangers went into liquidation in 2012 it was the worst day in Rangers’ history. It wasn’t. The worst day by far was January 2, 1971. Every Rangers supporter that I have ever spoken to has concurred with that view.
“I was at the game. My friend Liam was a Celtic fan and we used to go to the Old Firm games together. There wasn’t the intensity of hatred there that there is now for some people. There was much more of a community feeling around Glasgow in those days.
“There was very little actual physical segregation at matches. My pal and I would go in the same turnstile, go to the halfway line, chat for a bit, head to our respective ends and hurl abuse at one another for the next 90 minutes. That is the way it was for many fans.
“But that day I went with my pals on a supporters’ bus that left from Sandyhills in Glasgow. I was 17 and was just out with my pals for a laugh and a carry on.
“There was an air of expectation that day. Rangers had beaten Celtic to win the League Cup, their first piece of silverware in four years, two or three months before. It was exciting.
“The match itself was pretty rubbish. It was a dull, misty, damp day. We ended up behind the goals and got a good view of Jimmy Johnstone, the smallest man on the park, scoring with a header in the 89th minute. But we couldn’t see Colin Stein scoring at the other end a minute later.”
Reverend McQuarrie added: “After the game ended, there was a crush at the top of the stairs. But there was always a crush at the top of the stairs. Most people went out that way because it was the way to the subway and where the supporters’ buses were parked.
“I saw there was a crush so I climbed over the fence at the back of the terracing and slid down the embankment.
“The lighting was dull. But I could see this big sort of swaying group. The thing that struck me was how quiet it was. But I didn’t really think any more about it. I got back on the bus and got home at about seven o’clock that night.
“By that time news had started to filter out about what had happened. I am sure this scene was replicated all over Scotland – I just about got a doing off my parents when I got home. They were so worried about me, but there was a sense of relief as well.
“In the days after we saw the photographs of the twisted railings. I thought to myself: ‘I could have easily been in that if I had gone up the terracing steps a minute earlier’. Today, many people would have what is described as survivor syndrome.”
Reverend McQuarrie has been honoured to conduct the memorial services at Ibrox since the John Greig statue was unveiled on the 30th anniversary of the disaster back in 2001.
He will not do so today because of the coronavirus outbreak, but is optimistic that, at some stage in the coming months, another event will be held to honour those who lost their lives.
“It was assumed – and we should give thanks to Willie Waddell for this - that the redeveloped stadium would be a lasting memorial to the supporters who died,” he said. “But the Rangers fans wanted more and it was important to get something established.
“This year we have produced a commemorative video that will be released on the day. The players and coaching staff all say the name of those who died. That is to make a connection between today’s players and today’s Rangers and the club 50 years ago.
“I was very much involved in it. It is very important that we do hold a commemoration. But hopefully later this year we will be able to have the commemoration that we had envisaged last year.
“There are a couple of proposals that are with the Rangers directors and I think we will see in spring how we take it forward. For me, it is about expressing sadness in a way that is reverential and dignified to those who died and their families.”
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