Hard times ahead aint that bad

[hammer93 15,065]

Being a bear is never plain sailing as we all know by now.

my old man took me to the brox in 77, f.c Twente and 0-0

draw followed but standing as a 7yr old on the broomloan

rd terrace had me hooked.from big Jock leaving to the highs

and lows oy the 79 season the picture was starting to

develop.The early eighties brought tough times with 4th

and sometimes 5th place finishes the best the league got.

As we toiled behind a host of teams going to the away games

was special, the bears would cram the terraces in their thousands

and sing their hearts out regardless of the score.I remember reading

that only 1000 fans were heading to sheepville for a meaningless

midweek fixture in the winter, aye right, over 5000 bears crammed

into the beach end that night, a well deserved 1-1 draw had the bears

in raptures as the noise levels nearly took the roof off.nights

like that are what seperate us from the self proclaimed tgfitw.(pricks)

what im getting at as hard times and hopefully div3 approach we should

seize the opportunity to cram these grounds and watch the rebirth

of the blues as i did in 86.

[whytes3 254]

Good post

[A.T.G 10,773]

Like it

[georgemcdonald9 5]

remember those days well was the time i started to go to watch the rangers,before the glory hunters came along

[CottonRunt 978]

I was thinking about something a bit similar earlier on.

The mess we are in just now is actually a great opportunity for some of the younger bears (and i include myself in that, even though im 30) to show their loyalty.

My earliest Rangers memories are players like Mark Walters, Goram, McCoist, and the likes of big Dave Mcpherson (it must have been the hair!), but basically growing up watching Rangers for me was really a matter of how many we could stick by the opposition.

I often heard stories from older bears about the bad times, the poor league showings, only 20,000 attendances at Ibrox etc, but always felt as though those days would never return.

Well..right now we are in a real mess, and not all of our own doing. This is an opportunity for bears like me to show how loyal we are and how much we truly love the club. I sincerely hope we can all pull together as fans, pack out Ibrox every second week regardless of performance or standard of player and get back to where we belong.

[3Proddie1690 132]

Being a bear is never plain sailing as we all know by now.

my old man took me to the brox in 77, f.c Twente and 0-0

draw followed but standing as a 7yr old on the broomloan

rd terrace had me hooked.from big Jock leaving to the highs

and lows oy the 79 season the picture was starting to

develop.The early eighties brought tough times with 4th

and sometimes 5th place finishes the best the league got.

As we toiled behind a host of teams going to the away games

was special, the bears would cram the terraces in their thousands

and sing their hearts out regardless of the score.I remember reading

that only 1000 fans were heading to sheepville for a meaningless

midweek fixture in the winter, aye right, over 5000 bears crammed

into the beach end that night, a well deserved 1-1 draw had the bears

in raptures as the noise levels nearly took the roof off.nights

like that are what seperate us from the self proclaimed tgfitw.(pricks)

what im getting at as hard times and hopefully div3 approach we should

seize the opportunity to cram these grounds and watch the rebirth

of the blues as i did in 86.

That was when my father first started to take me to Ibrox as a boy, i remember a few matches but my most memorable was a Skol cup final in 88 against the sheep at old Hampden, we blew the place apart that day, i'll always remember it as the day i learned how to sing The Billy Boys, on my fathers shoulders!!

No Surrender!

[hammer93 15,065]

remember those days well was the time i started to go to watch the rangers,before the glory hunters came along

yeah the days before all ticket and a season book at ibrox a must.

[WVB 2,560]

My happiest times as a Rangers fan were during Jock Wallace 2nd spell.

As a support, we were hardcore, and it was fucking brilliant.

Lean years makes you find out how committed you are.....any cunt can follow a star-studded team who win every year.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

[gronaldo 38]

I agree with some of these sentiments. Although I want us to get back to where we were as quickly as possible, in a way there's a slightly hollow feeling to being light years ahead of everyone else. On occasions in the past we might have turned up to a game against one of the slightly lesser sides expecting to win, won easily, gone home and forgot about it. Going through what we're experiencing now will make it that much better when we're back where we belong.

[Carsons Dog 9,878]

Being a bear is never plain sailing as we all know by now.

my old man took me to the brox in 77, f.c Twente and 0-0

draw followed

The away leg of that game was my first ever Euro away trip

[bump 168]

some great wee stories lads,i was a regular at ibrox through the early eighties when i was only a teenager,some great games and some bad.some games only getting 20,000 like what was said earlier post then the great times came to us and it was fantastic time to be a bear.now i take my girl and boy to ibrox a few times a season,they love going as much as i did when i was younger and still do.

if we are in DIV3 which i hope we are i cant wait to go to these away games with them as i think the travelling support will be tremendous and they feel the passion that we all hold inside us.

once we all get our heads round whats happening it will be an amazing adventure for us all and am more than willing to put my hand in my pocket when any share issues are annouced.

WE ARE THE PEOPLE

[S1lv3r 274]

I was thinking about something a bit similar earlier on.

The mess we are in just now is actually a great opportunity for some of the younger bears (and i include myself in that, even though im 30) to show their loyalty.

My earliest Rangers memories are players like Mark Walters, Goram, McCoist, and the likes of big Dave Mcpherson (it must have been the hair!), but basically growing up watching Rangers for me was really a matter of how many we could stick by the opposition.

I often heard stories from older bears about the bad times, the poor league showings, only 20,000 attendances at Ibrox etc, but always felt as though those days would never return.

Well..right now we are in a real mess, and not all of our own doing. This is an opportunity for bears like me to show how loyal we are and how much we truly love the club. I sincerely hope we can all pull together as fans, pack out Ibrox every second week regardless of performance or standard of player and get back to where we belong.

Lol, child..... man I WISH i was only your own age.... sigh !

Still we have to go along with whatever age we are I guess ? lol

When I first saw The Rangers.... it was agains't a team that played in a black and white strip and the game was some Cup game at Hampden.... I saw not a lot of the game as my dad more lifted my older bro

The memory stays sweet in my mind (though I saw not a lot)

My dad (a proper christian I may add) was meant to be meeting my mum along in the town whereby we'd meet-up and ALL go on some Sunday School day outing.... my Dad (no longer with us) had OTHER ideas

Off we went on first the bus into town... then the other bus out to Hampden .... what a Day.

I was around three feet tall, no idea as to how old In was.... but MAN, WHAT a Noise !

I was hooked... line and sinker.

My school-mate's older bro took us to many, many games after this and we sat in the Centenary Stand at ibrox.... wooden benches if memory serves.... brill days !

Ever since...

Though due to some ill-health these past four years not attended as much as I would have liked to.... Still... by taking my two nephews along (now aged 12) I have added another two brilliant supporters to our great cause.

Both are now badgering their dad for season tickets, no mention of what league we play in.

... ...

[Bugsy_Dave 20]

remember those days well was the time i started to go to watch the rangers,before the glory hunters came along

What is it with people like you having these cheap digs?! We are all Rangers supporters and it is people like you who cause this divide amongst our support!

[hammer93 15,065]

some great wee stories lads,i was a regular at ibrox through the early eighties when i was only a teenager,some great games and some bad.some games only getting 20,000 like what was said earlier post then the great times came to us and it was fantastic time to be a bear.now i take my girl and boy to ibrox a few times a season,they love going as much as i did when i was younger and still do.

if we are in DIV3 which i hope we are i cant wait to go to these away games with them as i think the travelling support will be tremendous and they feel the passion that we all hold inside us.

once we all get our heads round whats happening it will be an amazing adventure for us all and am more than willing to put my hand in my pocket when any share issues are annouced.

WE ARE THE PEOPLE

I remember beating utd at tannadice 2-0 and the following week at ibrox we played hibs and 21,000

turned out to watch a 1-0 victory, the following week we played the sheep and 38,000 were there is

any wonder games went all ticket in 86-87

[weshallnotbemoved! 714]

The phoenix must burn to re emerge.

A glorious revolution is happening.

We shall come back cleansed and pure....and full of vengence.

[Shuggy 1,308]

Aye, when I wert lad ...

First game was a cold, windy 1-1 draw at Firhill during a midweek in Winter 1979/80. Can't remember much else about it ...

[hammer93 15,065]

What is it with people like you having these cheap digs?! We are all Rangers supporters and it is people like you who cause this divide amongst our support!

[quote

This post is not a dig at anyone, im only interested in bringing different generations of fans together

as we embark on hard times, we need to be 1.

[southcoastbear 1,639]

I really hope that our first home game is a sell out, send a message to those who tried to destroy us that they failed dismally.

[rbt1548 1,851]

It was in the early '60's that I was first taken, don't know who it was against. At first my father would take me to the reserve or third team matches on one saturday and go himself to the first team games the next with my grandfather, once I was a bit older I started going to the 'big' games.

With the reserves you would go into the enclosure, part of the enjoyment was watching the team warming up through the windows at the back of the enclosure, they overlooked the training area between the dressing rooms and the corridor to the pitch. I always got sent up to watch and then come and tell when they were ready to come out onto the pitch.

I suppose we suffered a bit in the late '60's early '70's, but it didn't seem so bad as I was younger; I do remember , however going to a home game against Dunfermline near to the end of the season '71 or maybe '72 when I think there was only about 5 or 6,000 in the stadium, changed days indeed. I think the early '80's may have been worse for us, some dire performances, and as someone mentioned before, ending up a lowly 4th or 5th.

There was the mention of 'glory hunters' earlier in the thread, you will always get the glory hunters, but you will also get more loyal supporters who will go and give all the support they can. I'm not convinced that there is a large element of glory hunters in our support,(yes there will be some), but I do think a part of our support have grown up with success and are used to it, they maybe find it a bit hard at the moment to comprehend what is happening, but I'm sure we will turn this adversity around and normal service will be resumed.

The club is nothing without it's supporters, look what's been raised through various fund raising events by the supporters, and it's these supporters that WILL get us through the aforementioned "hard times ahead", and we will get through it, we will pass some of the clubs that were happy to see us going down on our way back up, we'll give them a wave, well maybe a couple of fingers.

No matter how hard they try they won't keep The Rangers down as 'We are the people'

[PapaShango 7]

remember those days well was the time i started to go to watch the rangers,before the glory hunters came along

So anyone that's a young bear, for example someone born in the 90s , is automatically a glory hunter because your older than them, and watched rangers back In the day?

[The Beast 9,246]

So anyone that's a young bear, for example someone born in the 90s , is automatically a glory hunter because your older than them, and watched rangers back In the day?

I think that's a bit unfair. There was a period from about 79 through until Holmes/Souness turned it all around where we had low crowds and very little success. I think the bears who were ST holders (as I was) or regular attendees deserve special mention as they showed committment when there wasn't big name players or trophies to be celebrated. I wouldn't want to alientate any more recent fans but I'd hope they'd use our experience as an example for the next couple of years.

[beattie72 170]

First game we got trounced 3-0 off hearts. Allan johnstone hattrick.

However, I was hooked with all the red blue and white that day.

I'll be there next season

[topgoalie 637]

The away leg of that game was my first ever Euro away trip

and the home one was my first euro tie,the Van der Kerkhoff twins,will need to get the programme for that,where is best to look e-bay?

[slimjim1690 4,534]

Some really good posts being offered up , and mostly I suspect from the young uns, as one of the older generation I've suffered some dire times, the late 60's early 70's, early to mid 80's but nothing compares to this.

Up until the 80's The Rangers no matter how bad they were could always depend on a healthy support, but it changed around then so" glory hunter" is not a recent phenonimum it was practiced back then although those who stayed away argued "well if we keep turning up in our thousands nothing will change will it" I had to admit that they did have a point, even though I personally could't stay away, I loved The Rangers to much, anyway I digress, my point of this post is I sincerely hope that if we do indeed end up in Div3. that the supporters who say that they will follow The Rangers will indeed continue to do so and it's not all bluster, you must be prepared for lean years ahead and show not only Scotland but the whole footballing world what you are made of [i say YOU because I can't follow anymore because of living overseas]the 80's were different of course because we were an awful team to watch and I could excuse to a certain extent, fans for staying away but this is so different it's got nothing to do with football, our enemies want to see us totally destroyed so it's up to you lads now to carry the banner, please don't let our great club down in it's time of dire need I'm certain that you wont.

WATP.

[WVB 2,560]

I really hope that our first home game is a sell out, send a message to those who tried to destroy us that they failed dismally.

There won't be a spare seat.