Our Football team was the Glasgow Rangers.
I will never forget my first Rangers match – our granddad took me and my brother to Starks park in Kirkcaldy to see the Rangers playing Raith Rovers in the Scottish League back in 1970.
Our first ever Rangers match and they lost 2-1, Andy Penman scored our goal.
But no matter what score it was that night, we still supported the Rangers and have done for over 62 years and followed the Rangers for years all over Scotland.
We knew all the Rangers songs when we were 10 years old – our Grandad wouldn’t let us leave his house until we sang some Rangers songs to him to the end.
Our Grandmother used to say to him ” Let the boys go home- they are going to be late for their dinner ” – but nope ! he made us stay until we finished the song to the end, while he was sitting on the couch having a beer – yeah! we were never ever going to support another football team – seems like we were brain washed eh!
Our bedroom was full of Rangers posters and our first ever football strip was the Rangers one.
We used to get the Rangers supporters bus and travel to Ibrox and see the Gers, and as I said- we followed them every where and a great day, was a Rangers win and a fish supper on our way home – and our Mum was always pleased that we arrived home safe.
As on 1971 at Ibrox stadium in Glasgow, more than 80,000 football fans arrived to watch the Old Firm game between Rangers and Celtic.
Sadly, 66 of those supporters didn’t return home at the end of the match.
Our Mum didn’t let us go to these old firm games, as there were so much trouble and we were too young for this game & to this day, it is the deadliest football stadium disaster in Scotland and the ninth worst in the world.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/B0cJMZS3B1/Fiveboys
The link above will take you to a story about this disaster which rocked a village, where I spent most of my youth and was a milk boy.
I also took my son to see the Rangers when he was 10 years old and guess what ? we got beat 2-1 as well.
We travelled in the Rangers supporters bus and Billy ( my son ) was hit in the eye with a toilet roll – he was alright and it was just a accident – but everyone felt sorry for him and they all gave him some money so he can buy some souvenirs at the game – he did well that day, just a real pity about the score.
Since my move to Sweden, it’s really hard to get to a Rangers game now- but I try and watch them on the internet as much as I can.
Rangers have been a huge part of my life and I am so proud to be a Teddy Bear.
The club are nicknamed The Teddy Bears, from the rhyming slang for Gers, which in turn is short for Rangers, and the fans are known to each other as “Bluenoses”.
