Ibrox Disaster: Walter Smith opens his heart for first time on Rangers' blackest day

WHEN Walter Smith bows his head in silence on Sunday, he won't just reflect on the tragedy of 66 lives lost in the Ibrox Disaster.


He'll also take a moment to be thankful he wasn't one of those fans who perished on Stairway 13, 40 years ago.

For the first time, the Rangers manager has spoken openly about his experience of that fateful day on January 2, 1971.

Few people realise he and his brother Ian narrowly escaped the life-sapping crush that killed so many innocent supporters.

After making his way by bus to Ibrox from his home in Carmyle, Stairway 13 was always Smith's regular entry rpoint to the stadium. It was no different for this New Year derby which ended 1-1.

Like so many, he exited the ground shortly after Jimmy Johnstone had put the visitors in front with a late goal and never witnessed Colin Stein's dramatic equaliser.

It was what happened after that which will live in Smith's memor y forever.

Speaking before Rangers commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Disaster, Smith said: "Yes, I was at the game. I hadn't been picked for the Dundee United match that weekend so I was home in Glasgow and decided to go to Ibrox.

"Going on a bus from Carmyle, it was always the Rangers end we congregated at. My brother and I were caught on the stairs.

"It wasn't unusual back then for the crowds to feel the squeeze on that staircase. There was always a bit of a bottleneck at the bottom of it and the crowds often had to stop.

"So I didn't think much of it at the time. We managed to scramble out over a fence, which I thought was down.

"But I've subsequently seen photographs of where we got out and the fence wasn't down. We must have climbed over the top of some other people in order to get out on to Edmiston Drive.

"We then got on our bus and went home. Communication back then wasn't what it is today so there was nobody on the bus talking much about it at all.

"It was only when we got back to Carmyle, where everybody was congregating and waiting to see if everyone was okay, that we realised there had been a disaster.

"You just feel fortunate, when you are that close to something like that, that you get out without coming to any harm. I consider myself very fortunate."

Smith accepts that nowadays, even for a 22-year-old man, such a claustrophobic struggle after a football match would be a frightening experience.

But back in 1971 it was the norm. That's why, despite realising there was a problem at the foot of Stairway 13, Smith never once felt his life was in danger.

He was unaware, of course, that barriers had buckled under the pressure of the crowd and helpless fans were being trapped and suffocated. Smith said: "Coming from the East End of Glasgow, as we were then, our supporters bus always parked near that end of the ground, in the surrounding streets.

"We would meet at the top of the stairs and then down a bit into the terracing.

"Stairway 13 was our regular access point to the ground. I left before the end of the game - they were all leaving before the end of the game and that was one of the problems.

"We left after Johnstone's goal but before Stein's - we were at the top third of the stairs by then.

"If you went to those games regularly, such crowd congestion was a fairly common occurrence. Crowds always amassed like that in those days.

"I suppose nowadays people would be quite scared of it but it didn't seem frightening back then.

"The crowd sort of just came to a standstill. I can remember near me the crowd collapsed to the side but still I can't remember ever feeling in any sort of danger.

"Ian and I were about a third of the way down. I think the majority of the people who died were further down the stairs, around the bottom third.

"So, when we found out later what had happened, we realised how lucky we'd been.

"There was always a bottleneck at the bottom of those stairs.

"There was a roadway which came out of the enclosure and it was always the same - even at games where there were far fewer people. So it wasn't an unusual occurrence at all. I'm not quite sure exactly what caused the tragedy.

"Obviously there was crushing but why it happened on that occasion and not at other times I don't know - apart from the fact there was a very late goal in the match."

Smith was relieved to make it home that night when it slowly began to hit home that Ibrox had suffered Scottish football's worst disaster.

When he was shown pictures of the mangled stairway 25 years later he began to piece together what had happened and realised how a cruel twist of fate might actually have cost people their lives.

Smith, who actually played in the next game at Ibrox following the Disaster - for Dundee United - said: "I remember Dr Donald Cruickshank, the club doctor at the time, telling me they had strengthened the fences at Stairway 13 during the close season that year.

"Maybe if they hadn't and they had collapsed there would have been an easier way out because it was quite a slope down there.

"It might have allowed people to get out but those fences stayed intact. I think we got out over the top of them, down the embankment to the big gates at Edmiston Drive.

"I never thought much about it until I saw a newspaper photograph on the 25th anniversary and the wooden railings were still intact. The metal ones were all bent and twisted.

"It was awkward because the whole thing just collapsed and you were more or less lying on your side at one point.

"That was obviously a bit unusual but when you get out of it and away, you don't think about it.

"When we got home, I can just "When we got home, I can just remember people telling us there had been a terrible disaster at Ibrox.

"No one had been injured from our bus and we left the ground that day having no idea anything like that had occurred.

"Ironically, I played in the first game back at Ibrox for United two weeks later. But it was a very subdued atmosphere.

"Looking back, it was just a disastrous day for everyone. As I said, we were the lucky ones."