This season marked a major milestone for Rangers as they made their first entry into European competition. It was to be a brief but exciting initial assault as they lost to French champions, Nice, in the first round of the European Cup.
Goals from Max Murray and Billy Simpson earned a 2-1 win at Ibrox in the first leg of the tie when Rangers really should have earned themselves a bigger margin for the second leg in the Stade du Ray in Nice.
The French side won that game 2-1 to take the tie to a play-off in Paris, which they won 3-1. Nice went on to the quarter finals where they lost to eventual winners of the competition, Real Madrid.
The first Rangers line-up in Europe was: Niven, Shearer, Caldow, McColl, Davis, Logie, Scott, Simpson, Murray, Baird, Hubbard.
The Light Blues were by no means disgraced on their Euro debut and they brought their fans cheer on the domestic scene by winning the League Championship for the 30th time.
On January 12, Rangers were nine points behind leaders Hearts with three matches in hand. From that point,
In the Cup competitions, there was disappointment. After defeating Hearts 4-0 at Tynecastle in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup, Rangers lost to Celtic 2-0 at Ibrox in a sixth round replay after the teams had drawn an astonishing match 4-4 at Parkhead.
Celtic also proved to be Rangers' downfall in the League Cup, with the Ibrox men failing to qualify for the quarter-finals from a preliminary section which pitted them against Celtic, Aberdeen and East Fife.
They did gain some consolation in the Glasgow Cup and Charity Cup. Rangers won both competitions, beating Celtic in the first round of each, the most memorable being a 4-3 win at Parkhead in the Glasgow Cup.
To complete the silverware collection, the reserves lifted the Reserve League title for the 19th time.
Finally, two of Rangers most famous names hung up their boots at the end of the season. George Young, who played for Scotland against England nine times in his 53-cap interna- tional career, left the Ibrox scene after 678 matches.
And goalkeeper Bobby Brown, who won five Scottish caps, quit after ten successful years at Ibrox in which he made 323 first team appearances.
