Ibrox Disaster victims remembered ahead of Rangers anniversary service

Chris Jack marked the 50th anniversary of the Disaster in his book - 'Going for 55' - as Light Blues legend Derek Johnstone recalled that fateful Old Firm fixture and the relative of the youngest victim, Nigel Pickup, revealed his links between Ibrox, Hillsborough and Heysel. It was a date that resonated strongly with Steven Gerrard, too.

Directors, management and supporters will once again gather at the John Greig statue ahead of the fixture with Kilmarnock. Here is an extract from 'Going for 55' as Rangers prepare to remember those who never returned home.

It is said that football is the most important of the least important things in life. It matters, of course it does, but only in context and perspective. A reminder of that can often be welcome and useful and one is provided every January for Rangers supporters as they commemorate Absent Friends.

The last decade has undoubtedly been tumultuous and harrowing for fans to live through but they are not the darkest times in their club’s history. Rangers have suffered on and off the park but their trials and tribulations in a sporting and business sense are incomparable to the weeks that followed the Ibrox Disaster and the loss felt 50 years on puts recent hardships in an alternative light. It is easy to get caught up in the emotion and lexicon of the game, but there must always be a reminder of the true tragedies that unfold around us and that has been felt as deeply as ever during a pandemic that would change and take too many lives.

The build-up to the Old Firm fixture in January was typically feverish from Press and punters alike and the significance of the contest in terms of the title race could not be downplayed. Yet there was a more sombre tone to the coverage in the days ahead of the New Year meeting and a very different feeling around Ibrox in the hours before kick-off.

The absence of supporters played a part in that, of course. On a crisp morning in Glasgow as the winter sun bathed the iconic red brick in an warming glow, there was no sense of excitement or tension in the air and the crowds that gathered were there to pay their respects rather than support their team. An occasion that was so important to Rangers’ future was put into context by its past.

It was on that day in 1971 that 66 supporters lost their lives in the Ibrox Disaster following a crush on Stairway 13. A 1-1 Old Firm fixture was nondescript as Colin Stein equalised in the final seconds after Jimmy Johnstone looked to have won it for Celtic. Had fate not played its hand, the derby draw would have been lost in the mists of time.

Instead, the fog that enveloped Ibrox as darkness fell would be the backdrop to events on a scale that hadn’t been seen before in British football. Until the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989, the accident on Stairway 13 was the worst loss of life in a stadium on these shores.

The thought that anyone could go to a football match and not return home is difficult to comprehend, especially today given the safety of our stadia and the security operations that are in place whether the crowd is 500 or 50,000. The game can provide so many moments of sheer adulation but those of tragedy resonate even more strongly and unite supporters no matter the colour of their scarves.

The recollections of Ibrox, Heysel and Hillsborough are very different for Derek Pickup. He will never forget, though, and he remembers to this day. His cousin, Nigel, was the youngest victim of the Ibrox Disaster. In a tragic twist of fate, Derek was present when 39 Juventus fans were killed at the 1985 European Cup final and he would survive the crush in the Leppings Lane end four years later as Liverpool lost the 97.

Pickup mourns the deaths, each one so heart-breaking and cruel, no matter the time that has passed. As he consoles his mother, Dorothy, he can only admire her strength of character to deal with the pain and the worry on each occasion.

It was young Nigel, just eight-years-old and attending his first ever match, that was at the forefront of their thoughts in January as Rangers supporters and the survivors remembered those that went to a game and never returned. It is a cruel destiny that Derek is all too familiar with.

“My mother is exceptional, she is 87 and still got her faculties,” Pickup told me in an interview for the Herald and Glasgow Times that was published on the weekend of the anniversary. “But her life has just been tainted and marked by football tragedies and losing people at football. When we lost Nigel in ’71, it had such a massive impact on the family. Nigel is buried with my dad, my uncle and my grandparents.

“I went to Heysel in ’85 and Hillsborough in ’89. After Heysel, my mum said I was never going to another football match. We had lost Nigel and she said I wasn’t going again.

“I used to be in the Merchant Navy and when I was home on leave, I used to go to whatever games I could. I was stuck behind the goals at Hillsborough. Jon-Paul Gilhooley, the youngest victim at Hillsborough, he lived 12 doors down from my mother. She has had so much involvement with football tragedies, there is probably nobody else on the planet who has had to deal with what she has.

“At Heysel, we didn’t have phones and at Hillsborough we didn’t have phones so my mum was watching it on the telly and didn’t know what the outcome was going to be.”

It is perhaps natural given the differences in time and circumstances that the Ibrox Disaster doesn’t have the profile of those events at Hillsborough, but the lives lost and touched by the tragedy remain just as worthy to remember. The Disaster is as important a part of Rangers’ history as its most famous players and celebrated triumphs and while the coverage made for uncomfortable reading and viewing, it is essential that supporters of today understand and appreciate the events of yesteryear.

Many would find it hard to comprehend and the personal recollections emphasise the grief as well as the fear as survivors talk about the life being squeezed out of them, only to be saved with seconds to spare. Steven Gerrard would need no briefing into the impact that such devastating days have on clubs, communities and families and the Liverpool legend spoke from the heart as his pre-match press conference naturally switched between past and present matters.

When Gilhooley was killed at Hillsborough, the man who would go on to captain the Reds lost his cousin. Five decades on, another link between Merseyside and Glasgow was strengthened as Pickup arranged for flowers to be laid at the statue of John Greig that stands as a tribute to the 66 at the corner of the Main Stand and Copland Stand.

Front and centre of the red, white and blue dominated display was one with the letters ‘LFC’. Facing out onto Edmiston Drive was a photograph of Nigel and his father, Joey. Nigel would spend New Year in Scotland and travel to Ibrox with a family friend. The 1-1 draw between Rangers and Celtic would be the first and last game he would ever see.

“Nigel, it was his first ever football match,” Pickup said. “Eight years of age and he never came back. You couldn’t make it up, it is such a sad, sad story.

“He was a Liverpool lad, but because he emigrated to Canada a lot of people on Merseyside didn’t make the link and they didn’t realise. He was the initial link between the two clubs and Nigel’s tragic story will never be forgotten.

“You just think of the excitement on his face at eight years of age. Someone says they have got you a ticket for an Old Firm game, you are going to your first ever game. The feelings for him must have been immense, but he would never come back. Jon-Paul was ten when he went to an FA Cup semi-final and he never came back. It is just so, so sad and both lads will always be remembered.”

Ten years previously, Greig and legendary Celtic captain Billy McNeill had laid wreaths as an Old Firm encounter at Ibrox marked the 40th anniversary of the Disaster. Plans for a fuller ceremony, similar to the one which was held in Glasgow in the aftermath of the tragedy, had to be postponed due to Covid restrictions and the array of flowers, cards and tributes at the foot of the Greig statue was significantly smaller than it would have been had supporters been able to pay their respects in the manner in which they wished.

Some survivors still find it difficult to talk about those fateful moments and the stories of those that are able to put the pictures into words are chilling to hear.

The opportunity to work with Derek Johnstone on his column for the Glasgow Times was a personal and professional privilege and a Rangers legend has become a friend over more than a decade of covering every high and low along the way at Ibrox.

One conversation just before Christmas was different, though, as DJ recalled his memories of January 2, 1971. Months earlier, he had written his name in Rangers folklore as, aged just 16, he scored the winning goal in the League Cup final against Celtic. It was the start of a career that would see Johnstone become a Gers great. He would win the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1972 and two Trebles under the guidance of Jock Wallace and has served as a Club Ambassador alongside his extensive media work in print and on the airwaves.

The story of his Hampden winner was a remarkable one that is unlikely to ever be matched but another Old Firm encounter provokes very different memories. DJ had returned up the tunnel that day ultimately satisfied with a point from the derby. As he replayed the action in his mind whilst submerged in one of the deep baths that dominated that section of the dressing room, the commotion outside grew louder as sirens wailed and vehicles negotiated their way through the crowds on Edmiston Drive.

Johnstone was on the end of a quip from Greig as he asked ‘have you not got a home to go to?’ after the Rangers captain had received treatment in the physio room. When Greig returned, his manner was far more serious as the scale of the devastation just yards away began to hit home.

“I went through the door into the dressing room and on the floor on the left-hand side there were five or six black bags,” Johnstone said. “The door opened and an ambulanceman came in and said he didn’t realise there was anyone still in. He told me it was madness out there and to get myself away.

“I asked what was going on and he explained what had happened and that the supporters had been crushed. As he is telling me this, on the floor in the dressing room is the black bags covering the poor people that had died. It was horrific and they kept bringing bodies in as I was getting changed.”

By the time manager Willie Waddell reaffirmed Greig’s message to get himself home, the death toll had sadly risen. As DJ approached the touchline, a glance to his right brought into view the scores of bodies lined up side-by-side and the efforts to save those that had been pulled from the mangled barriers that had collapsed under the weight of thousands of supporters.

Unable to get a taxi and with the queues for the subway far busier than at usual that long after the whistle, Johnstone would end up walking along Paisley Road West to return to the city centre. The death toll has as profound an effect on Johnstone today as it did the moment that he saw the newsflashes and he would return to his family to seek solace and comfort.

“It hit me that hard that I went home to Dundee,” Johnstone said. “I had only just turned 17 in the November and I didn’t want to be in Glasgow on my own that night so I got the train back to Dundee and went home. My mum didn’t know anything about it. She hadn’t seen it and my brothers had been out, so it was only when the news came on later and the pictures came through that they saw the tragedy that had unfolded.”

There is a heart-breaking story behind each of the victims and a tale of survival related to those that were hospitalised or emerged from the chaos and confusion. The passing of time hasn’t diminished the grief for those that lost fathers and sons, uncles and nephews. One family would lose a daughter and a sister.

Margaret Ferguson was the only female victim of the Ibrox Disaster. Aged just 18, she had been told not to travel to Ibrox by her father and, after leaving the family home in Falkirk, she would never return.

Just weeks earlier, she had chapped the door of Stein to hand over a teddy bear for his newly-born daughter, Nicola. To Margaret, Stein was a hero for the club that she adored and the Barcelona Bear would later attend her funeral as Rangers ensured that they were represented at every service to pay their respects.

A sad occasion on this day in 1971 as @RangersFC played Dundee Utd in their first game after the Ibrox Disaster two weeks previously, my dad took me and it was a very sombre day, and foggy if I remember correctly. pic.twitter.com/72swpOxFBD

— The Rangers Archives (@OldRangersVideo) January 16, 2020

At just 17, it was a heavy burden to place on Johnstone’s shoulders. Indeed, he was only a couple of years older than the five from Markinch that travelled together and died together. The losses of Bryan Todd, Ronald Paton, Peter Easton, Mason Philip and Douglas Morrison would shatter a Fife village and three of their Celtic supporting schoolfriends would return home oblivious of their deaths after watching the match from the Broomloan Road end of Ibrox. The Old Firm were united in grief in the days after the disaster and they would again come together on the 50th anniversary as both clubs paid floral and heartfelt tributes to the 66 and the scores that were injured.

“All the players were given areas, like Greigy and Sandy Jardine in Edinburgh,” Johnstone said. “There was nobody from Dundee but I was in Fife and went to the funerals of the five lads from Markinch. They were all from the same school, they played for the same team and they came through on the supporters’ bus. They were only a couple of years younger than I was.

“The turnout that day was incredible, the streets were so crowded and it was such a sad day. I remember speaking to Greigy and was telling him how bad I felt and that I couldn’t sleep, and he said to just think of the parents of those kids, of the brothers and sisters, the aunts and uncles and the grandparents of those five lads and of everyone that lost someone in the Disaster. That sticks with me to this day.

“Some of the stories we had were terrifying to hear but the supporters were so glad to see us and we just had to do anything we could to help them get through it. It was a duty, it was us being part of the Rangers Family. These fans had given up their time and their money to come and watch us, so it was only right that we paid our respects to those that died and visited those that were in hospital.”

Out of the darkness of the Disaster, a new, modern Ibrox was built. Today it stands as a symbol of the club and a tribute to those that died on its vast terraces that swayed and sung in unison and support. The project to redevelop the stadium was driven by Waddell but it would be decades later before the safety of supporters was given due care and attention across the United Kingdom. By that time, tragedy had struck at Hillsborough and The Taylor Report would bring about long overdue structural and procedural changes that modern day fans perhaps take for granted.

This extraordinary season played behind closed doors has only emphasised how important football is in a social sense in Scotland and the game continues to inspire, to offer an escape. Whenever fans next step foot inside their stadium, they should not take the surrounds for granted and Ibrox, like Anfield, will always remember those lost doing what they loved.

Had fate dealt him a different hand, Pickup could have suffered the same outcome as Gilhooley, who was the older cousin of Gerrard and from the same Huyton estate in Liverpool, on that harrowing afternoon at Hillsborough. There is an emotional tremble in his voice as the recollections from that day are recovered from the depths of his memory.

His first instinct - as it was at Heysel four years earlier as he spent the night in an Amsterdam train station - was to phone home and to let his mother know that he was safe. All of those that Pickup travelled to Sheffield with would make it back safely eventually. One was found out in the city, another walking on the M62 as the scale of the tragedy took hold.

“My mother has been gripped by football tragedies for years and I will never forget that day at Hillsborough,” Pickup said. “I remember walking back up the hill going back to our cars, we didn’t have mobile phones, and there were two telephone boxes. One was coins and one was cards and every time you walked by the cars it was 10 dead, 20 dead, 30 dead, 40 dead and we were all an emotional wreck.

“Nobody was using the booths for the cards, everyone was using the coins trying to phone home. I picked the phone up, reversed the charges, and my mother just went ‘oh, God’. I said ‘I am alright’ and then I shouted to the other lads to use that booth, reverse the charges and phone home. We waited around for hours afterwards. There were 16 of us that went in a van and 13 came back, but the other three lads went astray. It was a sad, sad day.”

It was on the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough that Pickup thought it was time to alert the Merseyside public to the loss of another one of their sons in a football tragedy. The story of Nigel’s death resonates just as strongly in Glasgow and a group of Rangers fans would travel south to place a commemorative plaque on his grave at Yew Tree Cemetery in Huyton a decade ago.

His father Joey now lives in a care home in Toronto. On his 80th birthday, Derek made the journey across the Atlantic to gift a signed Liverpool shirt. It was fitting that the 50th anniversary of the Ibrox Disaster was marked by an Old Firm fixture as both clubs united in commemoration of the 66 that were killed and the almost 200 that were injured on Stairway 13.

A banner in honour of the victims of Hillsborough and Ibrox was also on display. At a time of isolation, the Rangers Family was together in spirit that afternoon. As Rangers remembered, those bonds broken in death half a century ago were stronger than ever in the minds of those who will never forget Ibrox.

“I phoned Radio Merseyside and they had me on,” Pickup said. “They said that they were unaware of Nigel, they didn’t have any clue that he was the Liverpool link to Ibrox and the youngest to pass away in a football disaster.

“I always thought that Ibrox was a forgotten disaster and I said that on the radio, that there was a generation of people who didn’t know anything about Ibrox. They think of Bradford, Heysel and Hillsborough as the three tragedies.

“I got a few calls from Rangers fans and a few lads phoned me about a year later and said they wanted to put a plaque on Nigel’s grave on behalf of Rangers fans worldwide. I couldn’t believe it, it was fantastic. Those lads came down and put that plaque on Nigel’s grave.

“The Scottish lads said that Rangers didn’t do anything for the Disaster for 30-odd years and it was somewhat overlooked. We have the Hillsborough Flame at Anfield but Ibrox, for some reason, never really got due recognition for so long.

“Nigel’s dad Joey was brought up in Huyton, just a mile away from where Steven Gerrard was brought up. All the brothers were brought up in the area where Gerrard is from. His dad used to drink in the local club and the manager of the club used to give Joey his tickets. Maybe Steven doesn’t even realise how close the links are.”

Like Liverpool had to in the aftermath of Hillsborough or Bradford following the dreadful fire at Valley Parade that killed 56, Rangers had to move on and get back playing football. Within 18 months, the club had won its most illustrious crown as Dynamo Moscow were beaten in the Nou Camp and the European Cup Winners’ Cup was lifted.

The squad that played that fateful day at Ibrox was tight-knit and remained together for many years. They would savour the triumphs that would follow in their careers but never forget those who paid the ultimate price whilst watching them in action.

“It wasn’t great, it wasn’t great,” Johnstone said of the weeks after the Disaster as Rangers returned to action. “Usually the dressing room is full of laughter and pranks, but there was nothing like that and it was just so quiet between the lads and in training. We just had to get on with it, but it took a toll and nobody will ever forget it. Football went on and we just had to do what we could for the victims, the survivors and the fans.

“You think back and wander what life would have been like for those that died. They never got the chance to grow old, some never got the chance to have a family and take their kids to Ibrox. Their families have been grieving all this time.

“Every year they will have gone to the cemetery or the statue at Ibrox and remembered. It is something I will never forget, the families will never forget and Rangers and the supporters will never forget.”