Bill Struth & his Retirement Presentation in the Blue Room

[Guest Bob Agg]

I came across this pic in the book ' Rangers-The New Era' published (I think) in 1967.

 

The book covers the early history, however the main focus is on the football/events from Season 1951/52 until 1966/67

 

Bill Struth resigned from his post of Manager on April 30th 1954, and there is a whole fantastic chapter on the occasion of his retiral.

 

The picture that accompanies it is a great snapshot of the Era, with all the legends present ( still some living) , and was taken in the Reception Room which I believe is now the Blue Room.

 

I've added some of the text that accompanies the picture, a great insight into the man and his love of the Rangers.

 

'Brushing away a tear, football's Grand Old Man, deeply sentimental about his boys, each of whom was like a son, told of what it all meant to him. Fanatically loyal to his ideals, he made Rangers his life. He lived Rangers.

 

On his Directors -'We have never been indifferent to our reverses. It is because my Directors, men of clear outlook, take them with all due seriousness and try to diagnose the causes that we have been able to over come them'

 

On knowing his days were short - 'Let the feats of our Club - those past and those that assuredly will come - be the star over Rangers. Let none Grieve. Rather, let all rejoice that we have attained so much for the Club which is bigger than the man. The Honour has been mine in serving it. Carry on, my good friends....'

 

Edited August 31, 2013 by Bob Agg

[Zappa 0]

A great reminder of the type of ideals and ethos that we desperately need to see returned to our club's corridors of power.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I came across this pic in the book ' Rangers-The New Era' published (I think) in 1967.

 

The book covers the early history, however the main focus is on the football/events from Season 1951/52 until 1966/67

 

Bill Struth resigned from his post of Manager on April 30th 1953, and there is a whole fantastic chapter on the occasion of his retiral.

 

The picture that accompanies it is a great snapshot of the Era, with all the legends present ( still some living) , and was taken in the Reception Room which I believe is now the Blue Room.

 

I've added some of the text that accompanies the picture, a great insight into the man and his love of the Rangers.

 

'Brushing away a tear, football's Grand Old Man, deeply sentimental about his boys, each of whom was like a son, told of what it all meant to him. Fanatically loyal to his ideals, he made Rangers his life. He lived Rangers.

 

On his Directors -'We have never been indifferent to our reverses. It is because my Directors, men of clear outlook, take them with all due seriousness and try to diagnose the causes that we have been able to over come them'

 

On knowing his days were short - 'Let the feats of our Club - those past and those that assuredly will come - be the star over Rangers. Let none Grieve. Rather, let all rejoice that we have attained so much for the Club which is bigger than the man. The Honour has been mine in serving it. Carry on, my good friends....'

 

 

I have the book which was written by John Allison and published in 1966. The New Era of the title was the era of European football which began for us in 1956/57 against Nice in the European Cup. As BA says, the first part of the book covers the seasons 1951/52 to 1965/66 individually. The second part covers all the prior seasons in groups and is drawn from THE STORY OF THE RANGERS, ELEVEN GREAT YEARS and RANGERS EVENTFUL YEARS all written by John Allan.

 

The statistics include the venue and result of every Scottish Cup tie from 1874 to 1966 and all the winning teams as well as the results of all league games from 1890 to 1966.

 

The title of the book was almost prophetic as we reached the Cup winners Cup Final in 1967 only to lose 1-0 to Bayern Munich.