Jock Wallace (1972 to 1978) & (1983 to 1986)
Jock Wallace was appointed Manager of Rangers on 7 June 1972.
Wallace was born on 6 September 1935, in Wallyford, Midlothian, the son of a miner. A Rangers fan from boyhood, he showed an aptitude for football and became a goalkeeper, with spells at various clubs including Berwick Rangers, West Bromwich Albion and Airdrie.
His call-up for National Service saw Wallace join the King’s Own Scottish Borderers with whom he served in Northern Ireland and, famously, in the jungles of Malaya.
In 1966 he returned to Berwick Rangers as player/manager, and on 28 January 1967 became part of Scottish football folklore as goalkeeper in, and Manager of, the side which defeated Rangers by a goal to nil in a Scottish Cup first round tie at Shielfield Park. His success at Berwick did not go unnoticed and a year later he was appointed Assistant Manager at Hearts, where his strict training methods reflected his military service and his “jungle fighter” persona.
When Willie Waddell became Rangers Manager in 1969, and shortly thereafter dismissed the coaching staff, it was to Wallace he turned for a chief trainer and coach. The Rangers players were introduced to the Wallace training regime and to the sands of Gullane, and their fitness levels became legendary. The Waddell/Wallace partnership yielded a League Cup Final victory over Celtic and in 1972 the European Cup Winners Cup triumph in Barcelona, and when Waddell moved upstairs as General Manager shortly thereafter, Wallace took over as Team Manager, the sixth Manager of Rangers.
Wallace’s target was to return Rangers to their place at the top of Scottish football. He wanted Championship success and this meant having to dislodge Celtic who by then had won seven titles in a row. His first season in charge saw Rangers get off to a poor start, losing three of their opening five League matches, and although winning their League Cup Section, they lost at the semi-final stage to Hibernian. Wallace was also unhappy with the attitudes of Barcelona heroes, Colin Stein and Willie Johnston, the latter’s disciplinary record being a source of concern. Stein was sold to Coventry City on 5 October 1972 and Johnston to West Bromwich Albion on 1 December (on completion of his latest SFA suspension). The message was clear - it was the Wallace way or else. New arrivals included Tom Forsyth.
Despite the poor start to their League campaign, Wallace’s side rallied and put together a 16 game winning run beginning on 23 December, which included a New Year victory over Celtic at Ibrox. Agonisingly, Rangers lost out on the title by a single point, but silverware success was to come in the shape of the Scottish Cup. In the Centenary Final at Hampden on 5 May, 1973, Rangers defeated Celtic 3-2, the winning goal a memorable effort by new boy Tom Forsyth from all of 18 inches.
The promise of Wallace’s first season quickly evaporated in season 1973/74. Another poor start in the League saw Rangers languishing in seventh place by early November and out of the European Cup Winners Cup on their return to European competition after the ban which followed the Barcelona mayhem.
Wallace’s side topped a League Cup section which included Celtic losing 1-2 to their old rivals at Ibrox but winning 3-1 at Parkhead. With the top two teams from each Section qualifying for the knock-out stages, fate had it that Rangers would again meet Celtic, this time in the semi-finals, and were beaten 1-3. The Scottish Cup campaign finished with a crushing 0-3 defeat by Dundee, watched by a crowd of 64,672 at Ibrox. The League title was won by Celtic, their ninth in a row, and with Rangers finishing third behind Hibernian, there would be no European football in 1974/75. The pressure was mounting on Wallace.
Rangers had a better start to the 1974/75 League Championship, including a 2-1 victory at Parkhead, and were leading the pack into November. Two Barcelona heroes had departed - Alfie Conn and Dave Smith - and Bobby McKean had arrived from St Mirren. When Rangers faced Celtic in the New Year League match at Ibrox, Wallace’s side trailed their rivals by 2 points. A comprehensive 3-0 win saw Rangers go top, and with confidence growing, they began to pull away. On 5 March, Colin Stein was signed from Coventry City (who had failed to fulfil the 1972 transfer terms) and it was Stein whose header earned a 1-1 draw with Hibernian at Easter Road to give Rangers their first League title in eleven years, with four games remaining and Celtic in free fall finishing third, 11 points adrift.
At Easter Road, Wallace had put his captain John Greig on as a substitute for the closing moments to enable him to savour the success, an injured Greig having been unfit to start. It was an entirely fitting gesture towards the man who had battled heroically for Rangers throughout Celtic’s years of dominance.
Rangers’ return to the top of Scottish football was emphatically underlined the following Season. Two wins and two draws in the League matches with Celtic and a run of 21 games undefeated from mid-December to the end of the season saw Wallace’s side retain their title to add to the League Cup won in October with an Alex MacDonald goal against Celtic. Although exiting the European Cup to eventual winners St Etienne, the domestic Treble was completed with a 3-1 Scottish Cup Final victory over Hearts on 1 May, 1976, the opening goal by Derek Johnstone famously arriving before the scheduled kick-off time.
Season 1976/77 was a huge disappointment. With much the same side as the previous year, Wallace’s team failed to recapture the same consistency of form and finished their League campaign a distant second to Celtic. The European Cup saw a first round exit. In the League Cup, two play-off matches were required to eliminate a Davie Cooper-inspired Clydebank, and Rangers were then thrashed by Aberdeen in the semi-finals. The Scottish Cup Final with Celtic was lost 0-1, the only goal coming from a hotly-disputed penalty. A Treble-winner the previous season, Wallace again found himself under pressure. He answered his critics in the most emphatic way, with another Treble.
Wallace added Davie Cooper (Clydebank), Gordon Smith (Kilmarnock) and Bobby Russell (Shettleston Juniors) to his squad, and after a faltering start in the League, Rangers found their form and the title was won by two points from Aberdeen, with Celtic a distant fifth, 19 points adrift. The League Cup was won with a 2-1 extra time victory over Celtic, two days after the tragic death of Bobby McKean. The domestic Treble was completed with victory over Aberdeen, also by a 2-1 scoreline, on 6 May, 1978. Just 17 days later, Jock Wallace resigned as Manager of Rangers.
Wallace would never publicly disclose his reasons for quitting, probably out of his love for the Club and respect for his boss, Willie Waddell, with whom he nonetheless had many a stormy meeting, but it may have been a dissatisfaction with the level of his wages and a sense of his being undervalued at Ibrox. In any event, Wallace left for Leicester City and John Greig moved from the dressing room to become the seventh Manager of Rangers.
Wallace had some success at Leicester, leading them to the Second Division title before returning to Scotland to take over as Motherwell Manager in 1982. John Greig’s resignation on 28 October 1983, under the mounting pressure that comes from lack of success, left Rangers looking for a new Manager. Rangers’ approaches, first to Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen and second to Jim McLean at Dundee United were each declined, and Jock Wallace as the third choice was appointed Rangers Manager for the second time, taking up the reins on 10 November 1983.
Unlike his first appointment, when Wallace was taking over a side that had just won the European Cup Winners Cup, this time he would need to complete a rebuild and look to restore morale and discipline. Despite several new signings, results were poor and attendances dwindling. In the League, Wallace’s side finished fourth in 1983/84 and fourth again in 1984/85. Two League Cup Final victories in the one the calendar year 1985, first over Celtic 3-2 (a hat-trick by Ally McCoist repaying his Manager’s backing) and second over Dundee United 1-0 (new signing Iain Ferguson) did little to appease the supporters who craved the League title.
Defeated by Hibernian in the League Cup semi-finals, by Hearts in the third round of the Scottish Cup, and languishing in fifth place in the League, Rangers’ 1985/86 season was virtually over with four months still to play. Off the field, Lawrence Marlborough’s Lawrence Group who had a controlling interest in the Club, set about reshaping the Board and putting in place a structure that would shortly precipitate a revolution in Scottish football.
On 7 April 1986, after a dismal Ibrox defeat the day before in a friendly with Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers parted company with Jock Wallace. In the moment of his deepest despair, he found time to offer hope to the fans - “Rangers will be back, there is no fear of that.”
by David Plews
Jock Wallace (1972 to 1978) & (1983 to 1986)
Jock Wallace was appointed Manager of Rangers on 7 June 1972.
Wallace was born on 6 September 1935, in Wallyford, Midlothian, the son of a miner. A Rangers fan from boyhood, he showed an aptitude for football and became a goalkeeper, with spells at various clubs including Berwick Rangers, West Bromwich Albion and Airdrie.
His call-up for National Service saw Wallace join the King’s Own Scottish Borderers with whom he served in Northern Ireland and, famously, in the jungles of Malaya.
In 1966 he returned to Berwick Rangers as player/manager, and on 28 January 1967 became part of Scottish football folklore as goalkeeper in, and Manager of, the side which defeated Rangers by a goal to nil in a Scottish Cup first round tie at Shielfield Park. His success at Berwick did not go unnoticed and a year later he was appointed Assistant Manager at Hearts, where his strict training methods reflected his military service and his “jungle fighter” persona.
When Willie Waddell became Rangers Manager in 1969, and shortly thereafter dismissed the coaching staff, it was to Wallace he turned for a chief trainer and coach. The Rangers players were introduced to the Wallace training regime and to the sands of Gullane, and their fitness levels became legendary. The Waddell/Wallace partnership yielded a League Cup Final victory over Celtic and in 1972 the European Cup Winners Cup triumph in Barcelona, and when Waddell moved upstairs as General Manager shortly thereafter, Wallace took over as Team Manager, the sixth Manager of Rangers.
Wallace’s target was to return Rangers to their place at the top of Scottish football. He wanted Championship success and this meant having to dislodge Celtic who by then had won seven titles in a row. His first season in charge saw Rangers get off to a poor start, losing three of their opening five League matches, and although winning their League Cup Section, they lost at the semi-final stage to Hibernian. Wallace was also unhappy with the attitudes of Barcelona heroes, Colin Stein and Willie Johnston, the latter’s disciplinary record being a source of concern. Stein was sold to Coventry City on 5 October 1972 and Johnston to West Bromwich Albion on 1 December (on completion of his latest SFA suspension). The message was clear - it was the Wallace way or else. New arrivals included Tom Forsyth.
Despite the poor start to their League campaign, Wallace’s side rallied and put together a 16 game winning run beginning on 23 December, which included a New Year victory over Celtic at Ibrox. Agonisingly, Rangers lost out on the title by a single point, but silverware success was to come in the shape of the Scottish Cup. In the Centenary Final at Hampden on 5 May, 1973, Rangers defeated Celtic 3-2, the winning goal a memorable effort by new boy Tom Forsyth from all of 18 inches.
The promise of Wallace’s first season quickly evaporated in season 1973/74. Another poor start in the League saw Rangers languishing in seventh place by early November and out of the European Cup Winners Cup on their return to European competition after the ban which followed the Barcelona mayhem.
Wallace’s side topped a League Cup section which included Celtic losing 1-2 to their old rivals at Ibrox but winning 3-1 at Parkhead. With the top two teams from each Section qualifying for the knock-out stages, fate had it that Rangers would again meet Celtic, this time in the semi-finals, and were beaten 1-3. The Scottish Cup campaign finished with a crushing 0-3 defeat by Dundee, watched by a crowd of 64,672 at Ibrox. The League title was won by Celtic, their ninth in a row, and with Rangers finishing third behind Hibernian, there would be no European football in 1974/75. The pressure was mounting on Wallace.
Rangers had a better start to the 1974/75 League Championship, including a 2-1 victory at Parkhead, and were leading the pack into November. Two Barcelona heroes had departed - Alfie Conn and Dave Smith - and Bobby McKean had arrived from St Mirren. When Rangers faced Celtic in the New Year League match at Ibrox, Wallace’s side trailed their rivals by 2 points. A comprehensive 3-0 win saw Rangers go top, and with confidence growing, they began to pull away. On 5 March, Colin Stein was signed from Coventry City (who had failed to fulfil the 1972 transfer terms) and it was Stein whose header earned a 1-1 draw with Hibernian at Easter Road to give Rangers their first League title in eleven years, with four games remaining and Celtic in free fall finishing third, 11 points adrift.
At Easter Road, Wallace had put his captain John Greig on as a substitute for the closing moments to enable him to savour the success, an injured Greig having been unfit to start. It was an entirely fitting gesture towards the man who had battled heroically for Rangers throughout Celtic’s years of dominance.
Rangers’ return to the top of Scottish football was emphatically underlined the following Season. Two wins and two draws in the League matches with Celtic and a run of 21 games undefeated from mid-December to the end of the season saw Wallace’s side retain their title to add to the League Cup won in October with an Alex MacDonald goal against Celtic. Although exiting the European Cup to eventual winners St Etienne, the domestic Treble was completed with a 3-1 Scottish Cup Final victory over Hearts on 1 May, 1976, the opening goal by Derek Johnstone famously arriving before the scheduled kick-off time.
Season 1976/77 was a huge disappointment. With much the same side as the previous year, Wallace’s team failed to recapture the same consistency of form and finished their League campaign a distant second to Celtic. The European Cup saw a first round exit. In the League Cup, two play-off matches were required to eliminate a Davie Cooper-inspired Clydebank, and Rangers were then thrashed by Aberdeen in the semi-finals. The Scottish Cup Final with Celtic was lost 0-1, the only goal coming from a hotly-disputed penalty. A Treble-winner the previous season, Wallace again found himself under pressure. He answered his critics in the most emphatic way, with another Treble.
Wallace added Davie Cooper (Clydebank), Gordon Smith (Kilmarnock) and Bobby Russell (Shettleston Juniors) to his squad, and after a faltering start in the League, Rangers found their form and the title was won by two points from Aberdeen, with Celtic a distant fifth, 19 points adrift. The League Cup was won with a 2-1 extra time victory over Celtic, two days after the tragic death of Bobby McKean. The domestic Treble was completed with victory over Aberdeen, also by a 2-1 scoreline, on 6 May, 1978. Just 17 days later, Jock Wallace resigned as Manager of Rangers.
Wallace would never publicly disclose his reasons for quitting, probably out of his love for the Club and respect for his boss, Willie Waddell, with whom he nonetheless had many a stormy meeting, but it may have been a dissatisfaction with the level of his wages and a sense of his being undervalued at Ibrox. In any event, Wallace left for Leicester City and John Greig moved from the dressing room to become the seventh Manager of Rangers.
Wallace had some success at Leicester, leading them to the Second Division title before returning to Scotland to take over as Motherwell Manager in 1982. John Greig’s resignation on 28 October 1983, under the mounting pressure that comes from lack of success, left Rangers looking for a new Manager. Rangers’ approaches, first to Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen and second to Jim McLean at Dundee United were each declined, and Jock Wallace as the third choice was appointed Rangers Manager for the second time, taking up the reins on 10 November 1983.
Unlike his first appointment, when Wallace was taking over a side that had just won the European Cup Winners Cup, this time he would need to complete a rebuild and look to restore morale and discipline. Despite several new signings, results were poor and attendances dwindling. In the League, Wallace’s side finished fourth in 1983/84 and fourth again in 1984/85. Two League Cup Final victories in the one the calendar year 1985, first over Celtic 3-2 (a hat-trick by Ally McCoist repaying his Manager’s backing) and second over Dundee United 1-0 (new signing Iain Ferguson) did little to appease the supporters who craved the League title.
Defeated by Hibernian in the League Cup semi-finals, by Hearts in the third round of the Scottish Cup, and languishing in fifth place in the League, Rangers’ 1985/86 season was virtually over with four months still to play. Off the field, Lawrence Marlborough’s Lawrence Group who had a controlling interest in the Club, set about reshaping the Board and putting in place a structure that would shortly precipitate a revolution in Scottish football.
On 7 April 1986, after a dismal Ibrox defeat the day before in a friendly with Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers parted company with Jock Wallace. In the moment of his deepest despair, he found time to offer hope to the fans - “Rangers will be back, there is no fear of that.”
by David Plews
