Bear Hunter

Description

The Bear Hunter is the fascinating and unlikely seven-year story of one football fan's devotion to his team. In 2009, John Irwin began a mission to track down every one of the 86 players who featured in Rangers' nine league title wins between 1988 and 1997 and have them sign his favourite strip. From legends like McCoist, Laudrup and Gough to journeymen, loanees and youngsters who only turned out for one match, John vowed to find them all. His obsession took him around the world. From a nightmare trip to Ukraine and a whistle-stop tour of Dubai, to a mayor's office in America and 13 trains across Holland, the number of John's adventures was equalled only by the miles clocked up. Whether it was a fire station in Sheffield or a shortbread factory in the Highlands, amateur detective John left no stone unturned to find each of his heroes. On the 20th anniversary of Rangers' greatest achievement, this is the nine-in-a--row squad then and now - seen through the eyes of one super-fan who turned Bear Hunter to meet his heroes.

Sujets

• Expeditions
• Escocia
• Scotland

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 11 mai 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785312892
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2017
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
John Irwin, 2017
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785312885
eBook ISBN 9781785312892
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword by David Robertson
Introduction
Dave McPherson
Alexei Mikhailichenko
Neil Murray
Fraser Wishart
Paul Gascoigne
Mel Sterland
Trevor Steven
Ally Maxwell, David Robertson and Paul Rideout
Sebastian Rozental
John Spencer
Greg Shields
Steven Boyack
David Hagen
Darren Fitzgerald and Paul McKnight
John Morrow
Colin Scott
Gary Bollan
Gary McSwegan and Charlie Miller
Terry Butcher
Dale Gordon
Ray Wilkins
Stephen Wright
Alec Cleland
Stuart McCall
Chris Vinnicombe
Andy Goram
Brian McGinty
Gary Stevens
Kevin MacDonald
Graeme Souness
Mark Walters
Lee Robertson
Nicky Walker and Davie Kirkwood
Neale Cooper
Chris Woods
Ally McCoist
Barry Ferguson
Derek Ferguson
Andy Gray
Brian Reid
Mo Johnston
Derek McInnes
Kevin Drinkell
Bonni Ginzburg
Ian Durrant
Sandy Robertson
Tom Cowan
Gordon Durie
Andy Dibble
Mark Hateley
Theo Snelders, Pieter Huistra and Peter Van Vossen
Joachim Bjorklund
Nigel Spackman
Alan McLaren
Gordan Petric
Brian Laudrup
Ian McCall
Richard Gough
Erik Bo Andersen
Jorg Albertz and Scott Nisbet
Davie Dodds
John Brown
Terry Hurlock
Neil Caldwell
John McGregor
Jimmy Nicholl and Billy Thomson
Scott Wilson
Craig Moore
Stephen Watson
Duncan Ferguson
Steven Pressley
The Other Signatures
Oleg Kuznetsov
Stuart Munro and Ian Ferguson
Basile Boli
Oleg Salenko
Davie Cooper
This book is dedicated to Debbi, my daughter
Acknowledgements
John would like to thank:
My nephew Andy Thomson and Gemma Sneddon for their constant support and sponsorship of several of the trips.
Nuno Dias for kindly sponsoring a trip.
Kenny Miller and Madjid Bougherra for giving me their match-worn shirts to auction, David Templeton for the kind donation of a shirt and his boots, Kenny McDowall for taking the time to have the first-team squad sign his training top before donating it, and also Dale Gordon for his autographed strip.
Ally McCoist for his support and for taking the time to put me in touch with people.
Brian and Gaynor Campbell for their help and outstanding hospitality.
Scott MacKinnon, not just for being a trustworthy courier but for the memorabilia purchased from me over the years.
Colin Singh, who was a good friend throughout my time back in Glasgow and for his interest and help in searching for the players.
And my friend Ana Resende, who stressed over every foreign trip until I touched back down on home soil. I made it back in one piece!
Murray would like to thank:
John for sharing his incredible story with me, and Adriana and my parents for their patience and help during the writing of this book.
Paul, Jane and everyone at Pitch for their interest in the project and for all of their hard work in putting the book together.
Foreword by David Robertson
IT S HARD to believe 20 years have passed since Rangers clinched nine-in-a-row.
In fact, it seems like yesterday that the squad reunited for the tenth anniversary match at Ibrox. I think the expanding waistlines and creaking legs ensure there won t be a reunion game to mark the 20th!
The past 20 years have gone by in a blur, but so did my six seasons at Rangers. That s not to say I don’t remember every moment, though.
My first championship win, the 1991/92 season, was brilliant. Unfortunately I missed the title-clinching match against St Mirren due to a build-up of yellow cards, but to lift the trophy for the first time remains a great memory. The rest of the title wins, meanwhile, were more of a relief than anything else.
The pressure was never tougher than during the ninth season. We were confident we would do it, but crossing that line seemed to be put on hold for a long time. We were all set up for the celebrations against Motherwell at Ibrox, only to be defeated. Up next was Tannadice, and that was always a tough place to go, but we didn’t want it to go down to the wire away to Hearts. We knew what we had to do against Dundee United and thankfully we did it.
For me, the 1992/93 season is the highlight. We won the treble, defeating my old team Aberdeen in both cup finals and holding them in second place in the league, and I played virtually every game in all competitions. It goes down as one of the most successful seasons in the club s history, and it s great to know I played a big part.
I still keep in touch with what is going on at the club, so I had become aware of what supporter John Irwin was trying to achieve.
When he got in touch with me and said he wanted to come to America to meet me and a couple of the other former players, I was delighted to welcome him into the family home. If he was making the effort to come all this way for a couple of autographs, the least I could do was show some hospitality.
What an amazing story it is. The time, the effort, the money it took to track down and meet every member of the nine-in-a-row squad - lesser men would have given up when faced with some of the problems John encountered along the way, but he remained determined to gather every signature.
As you are about to read, John had a great adventure in making his dream become a reality. The will and desire he displayed epitomises what it means to be a Ranger. Ultimately any football club is about its supporters, so it seems fitting that the 20th anniversary of nine-in-a-row is marked by the incredible achievement of one of the fans.
David Robertson Austin, Texas February 2017
Introduction
LIKE SO many fans, I was born a bluenose.
I came into the world in 1951, the youngest of seven, and was brought up in the Whiteinch and Yoker areas of Glasgow. From an early age I always felt I was different compared with my four sisters and two brothers. I looked at life in a different way, and I suppose I m what some people would call eccentric.
My dad took me to my first game at Ibrox when I was eight years old, and from that moment on I was hooked and rarely missed a home match. When I was a teenager, I started going to away games. I can still remember my first away trip – and it was nearly my last. My dad allowed me to travel up to Tannadice with my friend when I was 16. Back in those days, it wasn t uncommon for supporters to run on to the park when their team scored, although the police were trying to stamp it out.
When Rangers scored, I rushed on but was quickly huckled by a policeman and taken to the back of the terracing, beside another young guy who had also been caught. There were two cops standing guard over us, but that didn t stop the other boy from trying to escape. He was quickly collared and the sergeant punched him in the gut. I couldn t believe what I was seeing.
I was escorted from the ground and taken to the local police station. My furious dad had to come through on the train to get me. It was a bank holiday weekend, so I returned to Dundee on the Tuesday for a court appearance, where I was fined 50. I thought that was the end of it, but two months later a couple of policemen came to my parents door. They wanted to know if I had seen the sergeant punching the other boy at Tannadice. I said I did, but my dad jumped to his feet and insisted I had seen nothing and sent the cops on their way. If you testify against a sergeant, your life will be made a misery, he told me.
I had a habit of making the wrong choices. Another time when I was a teenager, my mate and I jumped on the boat to Belfast with no tickets and no money. Once we were in Northern Ireland, we met a couple of girls and stayed at their gran s house for a week. The problem was I hadn t told my parents, who were searching the streets back in Glasgow, frantic with worry.
I married young and had two daughters by the time I was in my early twenties. The relationship didn t work and I moved south in 1973, where I married again twice and had my third daughter. While none of my marriages went the distance, I m proud to say I ve maintained friendships with each of my ex-wives. I have to be creative when explaining to new people I meet about my Flora tattoo, though, so I just tell them it stands for For Love Of Rangers Always !
I ve survived all of my life by being a ducker and diver. The character of Del Boy could have been modelled on me. I would often sleep in my car overnight in order to secure the best spots at car boot sales, and I ve had every job you can imagine, from painting boats to driving lorries to working in bakeries. One of my favourite occupations was when I worked as a nursing assistant in a psychiatric hospital. I also drove the bus when we took the patients on days out. One time I decided to stop by my house and invited the 18 passengers in for a cup of tea. My wife at the time wasn t best pleased.
I m also a big royalist, so much so that I once lost a job because of The Queen. I heard on the radio that Her Majesty was visiting Chichester Barracks, which was near where I lived, the next morning. I was on the early shift at the bakery, and it was all I could think about as I