HAMPDEN RIOTS – Celtic have been involved in two riots at Hampden Park on Scottish Cup Final day, on both occasions the opposition being Rangers. One was in 1909 when extra-time was expected after the replay, and the other was in 1980 when Rangers supporters objected to the sight of Celtic with the Scottish Cup and persuaded the ever-willing Celtic fans to join them on the field to decide the issue of which club possessed the thickest set of supporters in Scotland.
The background to the 1909 game was complex involving as it did the long-standing and not-too-outrageous assumption that Cup games were deliberately drawn on order to produce another big gate. “Never!” I hear you cry, yet the Glasgow Cup had seen a replay with Queen’s Park, a replay with Rangers and two replays with Third Lanark, something that made even the staid and respectable Glasgow Herald just a tad cynical. Lo and behold, the Scottish Cup Final on 10 April between Celtic and Rangers was a …draw, 2-2, with Rangers goalkeeper conceding a goal when he stepped out of the way to avoid a shoulder charge from Jimmy Quinn and crossed his line with the ball in his arms. Maley had suggested that extra-time might be a possibility in the replay, but his suggestion received no reply. Once again, the game finished as a draw, this time 1-1 with Jimmy Quinn again scoring Celtic’s equalizer.
Full time came, some Rangers players walked off, but most Celtic players stayed thinking that Maley’s suggestion of extra-time might be sensible. They had indeed finished the stronger side and were keen to finish the job. But the referee Mr Stark of Airdrie, no-one’s darling at the best of times, picked up the ball and walked off. What actually started the trouble, no-one knows but a few “hotheads” invaded the field and before long there were hundreds on the field and fires were started.
The players all escaped (indeed they had all dressed and been told that the replay had been fixed for Wednesday night before they realised there was a major problem) and there was never (in spite of what has been claimed) any sectarian element. The crowd did NOT fight each other, nor was anyone killed but over 100 people were injured and major damage was done to the Hampden stadium. Police, ambulancemen and firemen were all the irrational targets of the demonic power of the mob, and the London riots of August 2011 offer a striking parallel. But in 1909 after law and order was restored, the Scottish Cup was withheld.
On 10 May 1980, extra-time was played and Celtic scored a late goal when a Danny McGrain drive was deflected by George McCluskey into the Rangers net. The Cup was presented to the delighted Danny McGrain (a fine consolation for the loss of the League to Aberdeen that year) but some of the Rangers fans then invaded the field, clearly thinking that some mistake had been made.
Celtic fans then joined them, because the police were all outside the ground to watch for the fans going home, and in a media circus, much enjoyed by TV commentators “Here comes another charge!”, the world was given as strong an indication was it was ever likely to be given that the Scottish education system was an abject failure.
Hundreds of intellectually challenged young men tried to bash each others’ skulls to inflict even more brain damage than nature had already done. The blame had to be shared, and for months in 1980, Scottish politicians examined their navels and came up with the same old tired cliches that they had used for generations. But the bottom line was that Celtic had won the Scottish Cup.
There was a third occasion when a riot almost ensued, but didn’t, thanks to the forebearance of the Celtic fans. I refer to the Scottish League Cup Final of October 1965 when some Rangers fans who didn’t look as if they would have been all that good at nuclear physics or classical Greek, invaded Hampden to express their annoyance that Celtic were being presented with the League Cup when everyone knew that in the early 1960s, trophies were only given to Rangers.
It indeed was a mercy that Celtic fans did not retaliate, and it is equally a blessing that the Celtic players did not accept the challenge. What fit young men like Tommy Gemmell and John Hughes might have done to these undernourished and mentally derelict youths from Larkhall and Govan does not really bear thinking of!
The Scottish FA response to this was to ban laps of honour.
David Potter
