Stairway 13 Documentary

[tam watp 77]

[KingKai 439]

Watched it last night.

At Ibrox, and at Hampden at these big games, it was possible to lift your feet off the ground and be carried out. It was very scary.

Really fortunate we left at the other main exit that day. Never heard anything about it till we got home.

So sad.

[JSP 33]

I was at the match that day aged 12 and remember being on tne stairway ,we were being squashed rather than crushed at that stage, my fathers mate took me and helped me over the wooden fence at the side of the stairs we both went down the banking and out the ground to our bus , i wanted to go along and look up the stairs and see what was causing the fuss but i was told come on or weel miss the bus, im glad i missed that scene as i think it,s something that would have affected me for life , i also recall the next home game i was given a floral tribute to lay at the bottom of the now boarded up stairs the thing that haunts me is it was the only one, different days i suppose, reading the ages of those who lost their lives following their favourite football team made me realise how fortunate i and others were that day RIP THE 66 NEVER FORGOTTEN

[Johnny Hubbard 280]

I was on it. I'm guessing about 5 or ten minutes before it happened. It was busy but not a problem. I remember a roar that I learned later was the equaliser. I had no idea what had happened until I was back in my birds house in Castlemilk. It was on the telly and my ma was phoning the birds place worried.

[Lman 0]

My dad's bus was much the same as Walter Smith's, nobody on the bus was aware until they got back to Stirling, to be greeted with frantic family and friends. You can only imagine the worrying time people went through for those frantic hours, and of course those who's worst fears were realised.

God bless.

[harlands plater 16,988]

I was thirteen at the time and wasn't allowed to go to Old Firm games. The family gathered at my grandparents in Govan and listened to it on the radio. We were quite happy walking the 5 or so minutes to our own house afterwards in the fog after Colin Stein's equaliser saved us a point. We got home maybe around 5pm and started to hear the ambulance sirens, we stayed between the stadium and the Southern General so that was the case for some time. The news started to trickle through and there were bulletins throughout the evening as the casualty toll mounted. My three uncles who were at the game all thankfully came home unscathed although one only last year told me he was actually caught up in the crush.

There was a numbness around the city for days or even weeks afterwards. Even yet it is still so hard to comprehend that 66 poor souls lost their lives through going to a football match.

[ManchestGer 347]

My Dad was living on PRW and had thankfully left from another part of the stadium, he too didn't know what had gone on until he got home and seen all the ambulances go past his house.

[BLUEDIGNITY 33,647]

There's an article in the scotsman from the referee on the day Bill Anderson if you want to read it, it brings this football game into perspective, tragic story !

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/latest/40-years-on-ibrox-disaster-still-haunts-referee-1-3252973

[IainB 599]

That it was stairway 13 is one of the "myths" created by the press. The number 13 referred to the passageway down the terracing to the wall surrounding the pitch, not the stairway. I was there lifting hurt, injured and dead bears out of a mass of bodies like referee Bill Anderson I saw things that have remained in my memories that no 16 yr should have ever had to see. I remember that I thought at the time, "this is what the troops engaged in the trench warfare of the first world war had to see. All of Scotland never mind just Glasgow came to a standstill for weeks after. In someways I was lucky, my mother father and younger brother were at the game also with mum and younger brother awaiting in the car while dad and I went to "help" once we heard about "hundreds hurt and as many as 15 dead" reports on the radio. We were sitting in my dads car in the Rangers Pools car park. The only family member we were worried about was my mum's cousin Jim Neill who travelled on the Bo'ness bus. It was not until late that night when we finally got home to Denny that we had been able to contact family in Bo'ness to make sure Jim was home safe. This day should never be forgotten RIP 66 bears and 96 scousers who paid the ultimate price for following their team.

[harlands plater 16,988]

That it was stairway 13 is one of the "myths" created by the press. The number 13 referred to the passageway down the terracing to the wall surrounding the pitch, not the stairway. I was there lifting hurt, injured and dead bears out of a mass of bodies like referee Bill Anderson I saw things that have remained in my memories that no 16 yr should have ever had to see. I remember that I thought at the time, "this is what the troops engaged in the trench warfare of the first world war had to see. All of Scotland never mind just Glasgow came to a standstill for weeks after. In someways I was lucky, my mother father and younger brother were at the game also with mum and younger brother awaiting in the car while dad and I went to "help" once we heard about "hundreds hurt and as many as 15 dead" reports on the radio. We were sitting in my dads car in the Rangers Pools car park. The only family member we were worried about was my mum's cousin Jim Neill who travelled on the Bo'ness bus. It was not until late that night when we finally got home to Denny that we had been able to contact family in Bo'ness to make sure Jim was home safe. This day should never be forgotten RIP 66 bears and 96 scousers who paid the ultimate price for following their team.

You're right about the "stairway 13" myth. The sign at the top of the passageway appeared in a lot of photographs and made for a cheap headline because of the number on it. I remember the passageways on the terracing were renumbered without a 13 afterwards.