The Rise and Eventual Fall of Turnbull's Tornadoes (eBook)

A New Beginning

FOLLOWING NEGOTIATIONS THAT had been ongoing for several weeks, in September 1970 the 48-year-old millionaire Edinburgh businessman Tom Hart had acquired the major shareholding in Hibernian Football Club from the previous chairman William Harrower. The owner of a thriving building business, Hart was a lifelong Hibs supporter who rarely missed a game home or away. A regular visitor to the Easter Road boardroom on match days, he had often travelled overseas with the official party and as far as the supporters were concerned they could not have asked for anyone better to take over the running of the club. One of Hart’s first tasks had been to elect a new Hibs-minded board of directors that included the former Hibs and Scotland goalkeeper Tommy Younger who was already at the club as PR man and secretary of ‘The Hibernian’, a social club situated in the car park adjacent to the east terracing. Although initially tremendously successful, poor management and regular trouble both inside and outside the premises – in one instance resulting in a death – would soon result in its closure.

Jimmy Kerr, another former Hibs goalkeeper who had joined the club from Ormiston Primrose in 1936 aged just 17 before going on to give the club many years of sterling service, was now not only a director of the football club but also a partner in Hart’s highly successful building business. The long-serving Kenny McIntyre who had spent many years as the club secretary had now been made a director and he would be joined on the board by the lifelong supporter and renowned Queen’s surgeon Sir John Bruce who would replace Harrower as chairman. Harrower however would remain on the board as President, Hart himself as managing director, the new set-up completed by Cecil Graham replacing McIntyre as club secretary.

A man of drive, enthusiasm and energy, Tom Hart’s personal goal would be to take the club back to the top of Scottish football. The previous decade had been one of mixed fortunes for the Easter Road side. Long gone were the halcyon post-war years when Hibs, led by the illustrious Famous Five forward line had been widely recognised as the most entertaining side in the entire country, winning three league titles inside a five-year period while also becoming the first ever British side to enter the inaugural European Cup in 1955. Since then there had been a gradual decline in fortune. Only narrowly managing to escape relegation on the final day of the 1962–63 season, the situation had improved dramatically with the introduction of the former Dunfermline manager Jock Stein who in just under a year would lead the previously relegation-haunted side to within touching distance of the league and cup double before stunning everyone at Easter Road, both players and supporters alike, with his premature move to take over a similar position at Celtic.

After an earlier approach from the Parkhead side Stein had initially vowed to remain at Easter Road until the end of the season, but concerned that Celtic would not wait, after a Scottish Cup victory against Rangers at Easter Road at the beginning of March, the fans elation at the victory – the first time that Hibs had defeated Rangers three times in the same season – had been brought to an abrupt end later that evening with the announcement that Stein would be leaving, not at the end of the season as originally promised but immediately.

His successor at Easter Road would be his great friend Bob Shankly who was then manager of Dundee. It seems likely that Shankly had already been well aware of Stein’s imminent departure as he had watched the game against Rangers from the Easter Road stand instead of his side’s 3–0 cup victory over Forfar that same afternoon, and it would be no surprise to learn in midweek that he had now replaced Stein as manager of Hibs and he would spend the next few years at Easter Road. However, just a few games into the 1969–70 season the disillusioned Shankly suddenly announced his resignation after a victory over St Mirren, claiming that there was no fun in the game anymore. Only then was it discovered that he had actually resigned ten months earlier after the sale of Colin Stein to Rangers against his will, but had been persuaded by the directors to change his mind which he now claimed had been a huge mistake on his part. Shankly himself would be succeeded in the Easter Road hot seat by the former Hibs player Willie MacFarlane and with the club ending the season in a more than respectable third in the table, the supporters could perhaps have been excused if anticipating even better in the months ahead.

Just a few months earlier an article in the Evening News had suggested that an American consortium had been intending to make a takeover bid for Hibs. It turned out that the wealthy owner of the multimillion-dollar North American soccer club Atlanta Chiefs, an offshoot of the baseball club of the same name, had already been in lengthy negotiations with the English First Division side Aston Villa with a view to purchasing the club. The move however had ultimately come to nothing, and after looking around England for another suitable candidate only then had he seemingly turned his attention in the direction of Easter Road, a move that had possibly been influenced by the clubs successful six-week tour of the states in 1967. At that time literally millions of dollars were being invested into the fairly recently established North American Soccer League but unfortunately this had failed to generate any great interest among the general public with attendances inside a giant stadium capable of holding almost 60,000 often attracting less than 6,000, and it was felt that expanding links into Europe may possibly be the way ahead. Although the Hibs chairman Harrower later acknowledged that he had been aware of the rumours, he confirmed that no actual approach had been made, and no more would be heard regarding takeover bids until 1970.

Just before the start of the new season the Hibs captain Pat Stanton, the inaugural winner of the Hibs Supporters Association Player of the Year award a couple of years earlier, had now received an even greater accolade when he was voted the Scottish Football Writers’ Player of the Year for 1969–70, an honour only rarely bestowed on a player outside the Old Firm. Widely respected throughout the game, Stanton would later receive the richly deserved award at a ceremony in Glasgow, the event also attended by some of his teammates.

Perhaps an early sign that even better days lay not too far ahead, Tom Hart’s first game in control of the club had been a 2–0 defeat of Celtic, both goals scored by the former Celtic player Joe McBride, Hibs’ first home victory over the Parkhead side for 12 years, a result that would see the Easter Road side sitting top equal in the table.

Behind the scenes however it had been obvious for some time that all was not well between manager MacFarlane and the chairman, the pair sharing what could only be described as an uneasy relationship and in the circumstances there was always only going to be one winner. Both could be brash, forthright personalities accustomed to getting their own way and it was soon obvious that something had to give. MacFarlane, a former miner who had joined the club from Tranent Juniors in 1954 had been a member of the Easter Road side that faced the German Rot Weiss of Essen in the home leg of the inaugural European Cup in 1955 before a move to Raith Rovers in 1958. Later, after just a handful of games for Morton, in 1961 he had been appointed manager of the East of Scotland side Hawick Royal Albert, later moving to Stirling Albion before joining Hibs in 1969. An enthusiastic and charismatic character who enjoyed a laugh, he was popular with the players and had some good ideas, but tried to be both one of the lads and also a strict disciplinarian, a combination that rarely worked for a successful football manager. Although it had been well known to insiders that Hart and MacFarlane did not get on, including rumours of dressing room interference, perhaps the first public display that all was not well between the pair surfaced after a game against Morton at Cappielow played during a thunderstorm, when after just 33 minutes the referee had been left with no other alternative but to abandon the game after what had already been a heavily waterlogged pitch became totally unplayable. After the game MacFarlane had been highly critical of the referee for even allowing the game to start in the first place, but instead of backing his manager, Hart had distanced himself from MacFarlane’s comments by stating publicly that ‘Hibs wished to abide by the referee’s decisions at all times regardless of the circumstances’, a statement perhaps understandably that would not have gone down too well with MacFarlane.

Just a few weeks later, and incredibly on the morning of a Fairs Cup game against Liverpool at Easter Road, arguably the club’s most important fixture for several years, the situation came to a head. MacFarlane was sacked on the spot after refusing to comply with Hart’s earlier instructions that both Joe McBride and Johnny Graham were to be left out of the side that evening, finally bringing to an end the uneasy atmosphere between the pair that had been evident to several insiders for months. The players themselves had been completely unaware of the unfolding situation, they themselves surprised at the exclusion of both players from the line up in the dressing room just before the game. Somewhat curiously McBride had still been listed as one of the substitutes although there would be no place for Graham. The reason behind Hart’s directive that both were not...