Ibrox Disaster 1971....Were you there?

[Danny1000]

Walter Raeburn stayed at my parents guest house at 17 Claremont Crescent. Inwould be happy to pass on any memories I have of him

[Bobby12340]

In the early 60’s Dundee were a well supported club and carried a large away support.

They drew a cup game at Dens 1-1 with Rangers at Dens in the 62/63 season.

The replay on the Wednesday night was officially given as 82,000 however they closed the gates at the Copland Road end but left them open at the other end and thousands got in that end- jumping turnstiles,slipping gate checkers a few bob.

Rangers won that replay  3-2 after being 2-1 down with 15 minutes left with Ralph Brand getting a late penalty and notching the winner.

My dad said that was the worst crushing he had ever been in.

He said they cut the capacity at evening games after that.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Bobby12340

[craigkillie]

On 17/01/2021 at 20:18, HibsFan said:

Just an update on this:

https://www.hiberniancommunityfoundation.org.uk/the-story-of-easter-roads-record-attendance

"At one stage the queues were said to have stretched four or five deep along both sides of Albion Road, up Easter Road almost as far as the junction with London Road, and down as far as Dalmeny Street with similar queues at the St Clair Street and Hawkhill entrances. Such was the chaos that mounted police had to be sent from the High Street in an attempt to maintain order and they struggled to control the masses both outside the ground and around the perimeter of the pitch, eventually managing only with great difficulty to get the situation under control. The huge number of supporters attempting to gain a tentative foothold on the mass of loose earth towering behind the main terracing that was described in one newspaper as ‘table mountain,’ was an accident waiting to happen, and it was only by good fortune that no serious injuries had resulted from the numerous ‘human landslides’. The volunteer ambulance men had also found themselves overworked treating the mostly minor injuries on the pitch before the game, the more serious transported to the makeshift casualty station that had been set up inside the adjacent Albion Road School. Five people were taken to hospital. It was later reported that two people had died due to the effects of the crushing, one at the match itself, the other shortly after arriving home after the game."

A remarkably blasé account of two fans losing their lives, but yes that was the game I was thinking of and it sounded like a disaster waiting to happen from that article.

I wonder if the blase nature of it, and possibly also some of the contributing factors towards the actual events themselves, was the proximity to the war, where reporting news of deaths became commonplace and people became more used to uncomfortable and unsafe situations.