FIFTY years ago today, the Bunnets o' Bonnie Dundee were truly flying, and rightly so. For the 'Dee won the club's first and thus-far only Scottish League title; doing it in style too, by beating and relegating St Johnstone - then, with Dundee United only just emerging into the big time - their deadliest rivals, on their own Muirton Park.
No wonder tonight: Pat Liney, Bobby Seith, Ian Ure, Bobby Wishart, Alan Gilzean and Alan Cousin, the six survivors of that great team, plus fringe players such as a then callow youth named Craig Brown will assemble in the Caird Hall for a night of celebration.
The toast to "Absent Friends" will re-call Alex Hamilton, skipper Bobby Cox, Gordon Smith, Andy Penman and "Louie" Robertson - the five others who, with manager Bob Shankly will be looking down from the great pavilion in the sky. Liney; Hamilton and Cox, Seith, Ure and Wishart; Smith, Penman, Cousin, Gilzean and Robertson - now there was a team.
The following season, Bert Slater displaced Liney in goal and they marched on to reach the European Cup semi-final. Of course - "It will never happen again"; "It couldn't be done today"; "Different times".
Aye right. Times are different, but to say it couldn't be done today and will never happen again is to adapt the Scottish cringe. Aye well, we're Scottish, good things dinnae happen to us.
RUBBISH.
Of that wonderful Dundee XI - rated by many as the best team, in purely footballing terms, in Scotland since WWII , Ure got into the Scotland squad, discovered what other internationalists were earning in the south and wanted his share, Gilzean ditto. Penman went to Rangers, even manager Shankly fell-out with his directors and moved on to what he saw as a better gig elsewhere. Players have always moved for what they see as better deals - Ure and Gilzean didn't need agents to tell them their talents would be better-rewarded in North London, at Arsenal and Tottenham respectively.
Sure, with the Bosman ruling and the presence of agents, it is easier today for a player to cash-in on his abilities; a modern-day Gilzean wouldn't have to, as big Alan did, effectively go on strike to get the move he wanted. But, now as then, money talked and the big clubs will always go after what they perceive to be the best talent they can afford.
The fact that so little of that sought-after talent is Scottish isn't the fault of the players - rather of the clubs, who don't push them to make the best of wha they've got, and of a system which promotes "hammer throwing" above footballing ability.
Dundee can rise again; Kilmarnock can replicate their 1964-65 title win. Hibs and Hearts and Aberdeen have not won their final Scottish title. And, I believe their day is coming, soon.
From the end of World War II until the spring of 1965, when Jock Stein returned to Celtic, the honours in Scottish football were spread around more-fairly than at any time before or since. In those 19 seasons (1946-47 to 1964-65) Rangers won the League in 1947, 49, 50, 53, 56, 57, 59, 61, 63 and 64; to these ten titles, they added eight Scottish Cup wins: in 1948, 49, 50, 53, 60, 62, 63 and 64 and five League Cup wins: in 1947, 49, 61, 62 and 64 - 23 of the available 56 national trophies.
Celtic in the same period lifted the League title just once: in 1953-54; they enjoyed a mere three Scottish Cup victories in that time: in 1951, 54 and Stein's first success with the club in 1965, whilst their League Cup wins in seasons 1956-57and their 7-1 win the following season were their only two successes in that competition in that time - one win less than East Fife achieved in the same period.
Aberdeen won the League in 1955, the Cup in 1947 and the League Cup in 1955-56. Hearts were League Champions in 1958 and again in 1960; they won the Cup in 1956 and the League Cup in 1954-55, 1958-59, 1959-60 and 1962-63; Hibs were League Champions in 1948, 1951 and 1952; Kilmarnock won the League (beating Hearts in a virtual last-day decider) in 1964-65; Clyde won the Cup in 1955 and again in 1958; St Mirren lifted that trophy in 1959, Dunfermline Athletic took it in 1961; Motherwell won it in 1952, having taken the League Cup the previous season, while Dundee, in addition to that 1962 League title, had won the League Cup in 1951-52 and successfully defended it the following season; Falkirk won the Cup in 1957.
So, the trophy split - 29 to the Old Firm, 27 to the Rest in those 19 seasons looks an awfully lot better than the 35 Old Firm wins - 6 to the Rest, which will be the score at the end of the season for the period since the SPL started.
Of course, back then the playing field was a good deal flatter. Celtic were being hobbled by mis-management, the clubs shared their gates - so the massive Old Firm following wasn't the 12th man it now is to the two clubs. For most of that period, most players were actually better-off as part-timers with Kilmarnock, or St Mirren or Motherwell - augmenting their Monday-to-Friday wages with what they earned through appearance money and bonuses on a Saturday than they would have been under the strict £20 maximum wage as full-timers in England. There was virtually no TV money.
But, the Rest could and did compete with the Old Firm.
Even if Rangers can cobble together a CVA and carry-on, they will be severely-handicapped for two or three seasons. But, if the club is liquidated and a Newco has to start outside the SPL - and if I was setting-up a Rangers Newco I would first of all see if I could get onto the English Pyramid, then failing that, start in Division Three of the SFL - then the Rest will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to bring greater equality to the SPL.
Without Rangers, Celtic are vulnerable to a call for greater fairness, an end to the 11-1 voting regulation whereby, so-long as (and they continually will) the Old Firm vote together on all major matters, they effectively control the League.
With a fairer share of the money and only one half of the Old Firm to worry about - the Rest can return to the better days of the 1946-1965 period. The question is: have they the cojones to go for it?
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