Boxing Day 1970 I celebrated by 17th birthday one week later along with
some of my BB pals from Bridgeton, we headed off to Ibrox to marvel at another
Old Firm game. As per usual we took our place a couple of barriers up from the
front at passageway 13 little did we know that 90 odd mins later fans would be
fighting for their lives. We never left any game early, always staying until the final whistle that simple
action that day probably saved our lives. On the final whistle we started
heading up passageway 13 to get out but as we neared the top the crowd was at a
standstill and folk were being crushed in the swell of bodies. We dropped down a
few barriers and headed across the terraces to stairway 19 and safely made our
exit. Two of my mates then the McKnight brothers had recently flitted from Bridgeton
and their parents lived at High Rise flats just round from Ibrox. With sirens
blaring and rumours flying about we all decided to head of to their new flat.
When we got there we were horrified to be told that there had been lots of
deaths and we'd better get home as our parents would be worried sick knowing
that we always used passageway 13. No phones in our houses in those days, we hurriedly headed off back to
Bridgeton. The traffic was horrendous and it took us forever to get back to
Fairbairn Street, to be greeted by very relieved parents who had indeed thought
the worse and had been to Tobago Street Police station enquiring for news
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