Mercer - get your predatory hands off Hibernian Football Club
For Hibs fans of a certain age, Saturday 14 July 1990 – 30 years ago this month – will resonate strongly. It was the day that Hearts owner Wallace Mercer finally admitted defeat in his attempt to take over city rivals Hibs.
Mercer’s humiliating climb-down was a tremendous victory for the club, its fans and the Hands
Off Hibs campaign, possibly only surpassed by the events of 21 May 2016, when Hibs ended a 114 year drought and brought the Scottish Cup home to Leith.
Growing up in the Borders, I had no affinity to any football team. A Hearts supporting neighbour lured me to Tynecastle where I shivered through a boring 0-0 draw and put up with the overwhelming smell of hops from the nearby brewery before, thankfully, my sister took a fancy to Peter Cormack and took me to Easter Road.
That was on 14 October 1967 and I fell in love with Hibs that day. I know the date as I still have the programme which cost 6d. We stood in the old south enclosure next to the dugout and my breath was taken away at first sight of the massive two-tier old east terracing as we watched Hibs beat Dunfermline 2-0, with Cormack scoring from the half-way line.
From that day on I have never missed a Hibs game at Easter Road that I was able to go to.
I was lucky enough to grow up watching Turnbull’s Tornadoes and have never seen a better brand of football anywhere in the world. It was poetry in motion. I was at the greatest game in history on New Year’s Day 1973 when Hibs beat Hearts 7-0 and also at the East
Fife game a few days later when the great John Brownlie suffered a broken leg. It was downhill from that moment, with the 1970s ending in relegation.
In 1987 there was a glimmer of hope when David Duff took over from Kenny Waugh and I risked divorce by spending my life savings on buying shares. A golden generation of youngsters including John Collins, Mickey
Weir, Paul Kane, Gordon Hunter and Eddie May, were augmented by top-quality signings such as Andy Goram, Stevie Archibald and Murdo MacLeod, but it was apparent that all was not well in the boardroom.
I was one of the first to lose faith in Duff and Jim Gray and let them know as they were walking round the pitch during the Morton game when Andy Goram scored from inside his own box.
Sure enough, a series of disastrous business deals left the club open to a hostile takeover and Wallace Mercer was quick to take advantage with his so-called “vision for the future” that would see one Edinburgh side challenge the Old Firm dominance and the “end of tribalism” in the city. In reality, everyone knew that the move was a take-over bid with the aim of acquiring Easter Road and the substantial property owned by the club. The fact that he swanned round the capital in a maroon coloured Jag with the personalised number XX1 - or Double Cross One - hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Speakers at a packed Hands off Hibs rally, included the great Pat Stanton, Jimmy O’Rourke and Joe Baker, who famously kissed the Easter Road turf, raising the roof of the East terracing. If Joe had told us to invade Gorgie at that moment we would have done so. The biggest roar came when
Kenny McLean warned Mercer: “Keep your predatory hands off Hibernian Football Club”.
The afternoon ended with an emotional rendering of You’ll Never Walk Alone by The Proclaimers and we all left the stadium determined to save the club. Politicians and councillors got involved and popular Leith MP
Ron Brown promised to raise the issue with both the Monopolies Commission and the Office of
Fair Trading. Two London-based Hibs fans, Brian Rogan and Tony Connor, along with Hearts fan and former First Minister Alex Salmond, presented a copy of a petition to Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street. Unfortunately, the Iron Lady was running late as she was having lunch with Nelson Mandela and the massive crowds outside waving ANC flags were persuaded to chant ‘Hands off Hibs’ whilst waiting on the great man appearing.
Supporters staged a five weeklong picket of the Bank of Scotland’s headquarters on the Mound, (Mercer’s bankers), and the campaign even got an airing on Blue Peter when presenter
John Leslie, against the orders of his bosses, appeared on screen wearing a Hands Off Hibs t-shirt. A Battle Bus containing amongst others Gordon Strachan and
The Proclaimers joined the Leith Festival Gala Parade and at a packed Usher Hall rally chaired by politician Margo MacDonald, Hearts legend John Robertson disobeyed Mercer’s order not to attend.
Unable to get his "predatory hands" on enough shares and with the Bank of Scotland pulling out, Mercer’s attempt to end tribalism had backfired spectacularly and on that Saturday in July 1990, generations of Hibs fans drew a collective sigh of relief. If Mercer had got his way the magnificent traditions of Hibernian Football Club would now be consigned to the history books, and me and thousands of other Hibees would never have experienced that unforgettable weekend in May 2016 when Leith was transformed in to a sea of green and white.