Honouring The Ibrox Disaster Victims, 38 Years Later - Page 3

Rangers manager Willie Waddell went to the stairway and saw first hand the human carnage. The dressing rooms, club gymnasium, and the club offices were all used as temporary mortuaries and hospitals for the countless injured. The medical staff of both clubs were actively involved trying to help those they could. Bob Rooney, the Celtic physio, was seen with tears streaming from his eyes trying to resuscitate victim after victim.

The local Southern General Hospital could hardly cope with the influx of dead and injured. The photographs taken of the stairways and its twisted barriers revealed the true extent of the horror.

Anyone, myself included, who attended a big match during that period, could so easily have become one of those victims. I can remember losing my footing as a young boy whilst descending a staircase whilst leaving a 63,000 crowd at the Chelsea v Manchester United game at Stamford Bridge in 1969.

I was lucky that day, we all were, and despite the fear that I felt, no one was hurt, let alone killed. At Ibrox two years later that wasn’t to be the case.

Ibrox and football has changed almost beyond recognition since that day in January 1971. The fierce rivalry still exists between the two clubs of course and you wouldn’t expect it to be any other way. For this day though a city was united in its grief for those who so needlessly lost their lives on those stairs.

The religious divide agreed on one thing. There for the grace of God ……………..

Within a few years the huge terraces, and staircases at Ibrox, Celtic Park, and Hampden had been bulldozed to be replaced by the impressive all seater stadiums we see today.

Unfortunately there would still be more tragedy at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Hillsborough, and Bradford to come. The lives lost at Ibrox are today remembered by a statue of the Rangers captain for that fateful match, John Greig, near the scene.

For more information the best site is Glasgow Rangers’ own official account of the tragedy.

Article Author: Jeff Perkins

Jeff is a writer who lives in France. He writes CD/DVD box sets, music reviews and has had a book published about David Byron of Uriah Heep. He is 'busy' exploring the music of Europe with his wife Debbie and dog Dylan. It's Dylan that does the writing of course. …

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