IBROX DISASTER 50 YEARS ON
A survivor and a first-aider share their heartbreaking stories from the darkest day in Scottish football history
IT was supposed to be the start of a new year and new hope as families had just celebrated the bells 24 hours before.
Parents, wives and children waved off their loved ones as fans headed to the traditional New Year derby between Rangers and Celtic.
But within hours those same families who had said their goodbyes, expecting to see their loved ones walk through the door that night, were left with the heartbreaking task of having to identify the bodies of the football fans who never came home following the 1971 Ibrox Stadium crush.
Sixty-six people died and the youngest victim, Nigel Pickup, was just eight years old. Another 145 fans were injured.
Afterwards, a myth grew that the tragedy had been caused by Rangers fans leaving in despair after Jimmy Johnstone scored a late goal to put Celtic in front, only to turn back on hearing that Colin Stein had equalised for Rangers. But a
Fatal Accident Inquiry, held the following month, discounted this, finding that victims had been moving in the same direction.
The inquiry found the victims had died after being crushed or covered by the bodies of others. Sixty lost their lives because of asphyxiation, the others from suffocation.
One survivor will never forget the screams as people began falling on top of one another as fans piled out of the exit.
Andy Ewan, who was 23, remembers the moment he was carried along and then his legs went from under him.
“I was trapped from the waist down and couldn’t move, but all around me I could hear the screams and people, who we now know, were struggling for breath. There was a silence at times as the breath was being taken away from them,” said Mr Ewan, from Argyll.
He had been a regular attender at Ibrox and, as he admits, there was nothing unusual in those days about there being a bit of a rush for the exits at the final whistle. There had been two previous incidents at Ibrox where fans had been crushed at the same stairway in 1967 and 1969. The club had even employed a civil engineer but his report was never implemented.
“I travelled to the ground from my Hillhead flat and with it being all terracing in those days I used to find a place in the Copland Road stand,” he added. “After the final whistle that day a few fans remained to cheer the team. After about five minutes a lot of fans started to head for the exit, but I waited until the bulk of the crowd cleared and waited at the back of the terrace concourse which in those days ran around the top. I realised there was more fans around than normal as it hadn’t cleared as much as I thought it would by that time.”
Mr Ewan started to make his way down the stairs which is when he realised something was wrong.
“I have been in a few crushes in my time at football matches and you just tried to stay upright to get to the bottom of the stairs,” he added. “I must have been about half of the way down when people in front of me just kept falling.
“I was starting to get quite scared and I realised people were falling and being crushed, yet in the distance you could see people walking out who had no idea what was happening behind them.
“I went down and the upper left of my body was stuck and I couldn’t move from the hips down. There were people under me and more and more people coming down. The worst thing was that I felt completely helpless. There was nothing I could do to save myself from what was happening.
“I have never experienced anything like that in my life and if it wasn’t for a policeman who came up from the bottom and put his hand out to help... who knows.”
Apart from losing his shoes, Mr Ewan walked out uninjured but clearly in shock.
“I remember asking the policeman if I could help, but he told me to sit down and then help seemed to be arriving,” he added. “I was then wandering around outside, I think, and a supporters’ bus stopped to help me. They took me on board and dropped me off at Bridgeton Cross.”
As the 50th anniversary of the tragedy approaches, Mr Ewan looks back with sadness for the people who didn’t survive that day.
“I returned to Ibrox for the following game and a memorial match as well,” Mr Ewan added. “I always think about what happened that day and the 50th anniversary will be all the more poignant given the year people have gone through.
“It is something that could have happened at any ground at any time in those days, but it was the scale of the tragedy which was so hard. At least it led to eventual changes at terraces at football grounds around the country.”
The desperate wait for news after the crush saw relatives of the dead and missing arrive at Glasgow Central Station and the city mortuary through Saturday night and Sunday to identify bodies.
As was reported in The Herald in the aftermath, some spent the night at the Salvation Army hostel in the city, with Salvation Army helpers staying all night at the mortuary comforting relatives and friends of those who died, and providing transport.
Many who had become separated from friends and relatives in the crowd at the end of the game did not know of the disaster until they arrived home. Among them were the Law Supporters’ Club who left Glasgow with five people still missing from the bus, but hours later the discovered two of them had died.
A number of people travelled back to the city immediately after they heard of the disaster. One Fife village was left in mourning when five young fans from Markinch all died.
The youngest of the disaster victims was Nigel Pickup who had been spending time in Glasgow to visit family.
Friends who had travelled together in the same seats on supporters’ buses for many years were split apart.
Two men from Barrhead, in East Renfrewshire, Hugh Addie and Alexander Mcintyre, were also among those who died.
Although both were Rangers supporters they did not attend football matches regularly but always made a point of watching the New Year Old Firm clash. Both were married and had young families. Mr Mcintyre, 33, a joiner with Robert Mcalpine, left behind his wife, Helen, who was 27 at the time, and their three daughters aged four, two and eight months. Mr Addie was survived by his wife May, a son aged four and a daughter aged two. The 29-year-old worked as an electric welder with the Thermotank Company in Govan.
The tragedy also took the lives of young fans including 14-year-olds David Mcghee and Thomas Morgan, both from Bearsden. George Wilson, 16, from Greenock was also killed. He had only recently changed teams having previously been a Morton supporter until the previous year. He then switched to Rangers. His shipyard worker father said he had tried to see them as often as he could.
The only female to be killed was 18-yearold Margaret Ferguson. She was such a keen Rangers supporter that at Christmas she made a doll for the baby daughter of
There was a silence at times as the breath was being taken away from them
centre forward Colin Stein and delivered it personally to his home.
Her father, David, speaking from his home at the time, said: “The rest of us in the family are all Falkirk supporters and we teased her when Falkirk beat Rangers.
“I didn’t want her to go to the game
Ibrox but she slipped out of the house after I left to go to see Falkirk play Airdrie.
When I learned that the game was off I went to another game and did not know for some time Margaret had gone to Ibrox.”
Had it not been for a broken leg, nineyear-old Scott Gray, from Denny, Stirlingshire, might have been among the victims. Robert Mcardle, 36, had been staying with the family and was among the dead. Scott would most likely have gone to the match with Mr Mcardle.
James Sibbald, 28, from Edinburgh was also a victim. The prison officer died on what was his son Leslie’s fifth birthday.
Mr Sibbald travelled on one of the Rangers supporters’ buses from Edinburgh with another prison officer.
Teenager Russell Malcolm, from Broxburn, West Lothian, was among those who died.
The 16-year-old was the youngest of a family of six and was a member of the Broxburn and Rangers Supporters’ Club.
Walter Raeburn, from Edinburgh, also lost his life. The 34-year-old’s life revolved around Rangers and his room was said to be covered with photographs and pennants of his favourite team.
The tragedy led to huge changes in football stadia across the country.
It spurred the UK Government into a review of safety at sports grounds and, in
February 1971, Scottish judge Lord Wheatley was asked to conduct an inquiry. It formed the basis for the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (Green Guide), published in 1973.
A minute silence will be held ahead of Saturday’s Old Firm match and with a wreath laid at the John Greig statue.