IN HIS YOUTH Bill Struth was a “Pedestrian” - a middle distance runner of some note. He then moved across to Football, where he ran Rangers with an iron hand for many years, during which, he promoted, every year, the most-lucrative athletics meet in Scotland – the annual Rangers Sports.
In its glory years, under Struth, Rangers' Sports attracted huge crowds, to see Olympic Champions such as Eric Liddel or Jack Lovelock, and world record holders such as Sydney Wooderson or Derek Ibbotson compete on the Ibrox track. But, it wasn't those stellar athletics names who pulled-in the punters, no, it was the Five-a-side Football event, which brought together the six Glasgow clubs: Rangers, Celtic, Patrtick Thistle, Clyde, Queen's Park and Third Lanark – that was the big draw for most of the fans.
They had had no real football since the end of April, so, by the time the annual Sports came round, in early August, the punters were suffering withdrawal symptoms and desperate to see their heroes kicking a ball about – even if only half of the team was out there.
So, in the interests of seeing the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2026 be a financial as well as a sporting success – here's my free suggestion: make Fitba one of the sports.
Imagine the chance to be Commonwealth Football Champions, surely that would get the countries interested and bring-in the fans. What price a Final, at Hampden, between Scotland and England, gold medals on the line – tickets for that would be like the proverbial gold dust.
The Rugby Sevens tournament at the last Commonwealth Games had an entry of 16 countries. OK, running a Sevens tournament, in which each game only lasts 15 minutes or so is a lot easier than running a full-scale Football tournament, but, we could take a leaf out of the Rangers sports book and make it five-a-side, or even seven-a-side, I am sure it would still pull-in the fitba fans.
Just for interest, the top 16 Commonwealth nations, according to the latest FIFA World Mens Rankings are – in descending order: England (4), Australia (25), Wales (29), Canada (38), Nigeria (39), Scotland (52), Cameroon (53), South Africa (59), Jamaica (61), Ghana (70), Northern Ireland (73), Gabon (84), Uganda (90), Zambia (93), New Zealand (95), Mozambique (99).
In the FIFA Women's Rankings, the top 16 are: England (2), Canada (6), Australia (15), Scotland (23), Wales (29), New Zealand (31), Nigeria (36), Jamaica (42), Northern Ireland (45), South Africa (50), Papua New Guinea (56), Zambia (62), Ghana (66), India (68), Cameroon (69), Fiji (72), Trinidad and Tobago (77).
There is one minor problem, Football is not a Commonwealth Games member sport, but, that is surely a minor consideration. I reckon, even at five or seven-a-side, the punters would love it.
I MUST ADMIT, I was a wee bit fearful for Celtic, facing Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday night. Perhaps long experience of our Big Two tripping-up in Europe had made me unduly pessimistic, but, fair dos to Brendan Rodgers' men, they did a thoroughly-professional job on their Slovakian opponents.
Tougher tests are coming down the road, Borussia Dortmund (away) next up will be a whole lot harder, but, sticking five past their opponents first time out has to be a confidence-booster for the rest of the campaign.
Celtic scoring a nap hand of goals (the old football cliches are the best) was as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit to the club across the city – greater expectations now apply to them as they head for Sweden next week; it's just another week in the mad, mad world of Glesca Fitba.
I SAW A POST on Facebook last week – the Best Playmakers in British Football History. It was the usual shite for such lists, with very few players from more than 20 years ago mentioned.
What was surprising was, Jim Baxter, who retired more than 50 years ago, was listed at Number Three. Now, the Gallus Genius is seldom, if ever, mentioned in such all-time great listings, so, I was surprised to see him in there, and so high-up.
Since Bobby Charlton and George Best, neither of whom I would tag as a “Playmaker” were ranked one and two, I did feel Baxter was under-rated, even at three. Danny Blanchflower, was way down the list, but, in my view, he was almost as good as “Stanley” as a setter-up of chances. While there was no mention of the under-appreciated “White Ghost of White Hart Lane” - the late and much-lamented John White.
White was the common denominator in Spurs' fabulous midfield trio of himself, Blanchflower and Dave Mackay and in Scotland's finest-ever midfield pairing, with the afore-mentioned Baxter.
Also missing was the name of Johnny Giles and another couple of great Irish midfield providers – the Republic's Liam Brady and the North's Peter Doherty.
Few fans today will have heard of Middlesbrough's Wilf Mannion or the man many older fans considered our finest Number Ten, before Denis Law – Billy Steel, a man still reveered on Tayside – but they were the orchestrators of Great Britain's six-goal hammering of The Rest of Europe in 1947.
And, if Mannion is still a God on Tees-side, older 'Boro fans will tell you, Bobby Murdoch wasn't a bad operator in the same role when he ended up at Ayresome Park.
Mannion succeeded another great of North-East of England football, Sunderland's Raich Carter, as England's main playmaker, before that role was passed on to Johnny Haynes of Fulham.
Haynes, forever enshrined as the British game's first “£100 per week footballer” had a passing range today's so-called playmakers could only dream about, while another absolute artist as a provider for others from that era was Welshman Ivor Allchurch.
Football today is a different game. Today's top stars have to be athletes as much, if not more than footballers, but, I firmly believe, when it comes to using the ball, making those defence-splitting 50 and 60 yard crossfield passes, rather than the simple five yard one we see so-often today – the old timers were in a different class.
One of my uncles was a Rangers regular, seldom missing a game that club played. He had a tale of how, as was generally the case – he always took a week or two to warm-up and work his way into a new season, Baxter was taking some flak from the old Ibrox “Hayshed” in an early-season game in which Rangers were struggling to get going.
His case wasn't helped by two things, one, that week he had been photographed at a social event with one or two members of “The Celtic Family”. Two - this had sparked off a rumour that he was rather close to a Celtic player's sister – and the Slim One was being barracked to: “Awa an' f#ck Bridie”.
As my uncle tells it, the abuse of Baxter reached a crescendo as Rangers prepared to take a throw-in in front of the Hayshed. Eric Caldow threw the ball in to Baxter, who let it bounce, then swivelled and left-footed volleyed the ball some 40-yards across field to Alex Scott, who rounded his marker and crossed, for Ralph Brand to fire home at the back post.
One-nothing Rangers, no more jeering of Jim Baxter. As the saying goes, form is transient, class is permanent.
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