Glasgow Crime Stories: The Hampden riot which saw 200 arrests

It was of the most shameful days in the history of Scottish football. 

A violent pitched battle between Celtic and Rangers fans at the end of the Scottish Cup final at Hampden in May 1980 that was shown around the world and watched by millions of people. 

The actions of the hooligans prompted a major police investigation and led to far-reaching changes in the laws of Scotland that still impact on the lives of football fans to this day.  

The match itself had represented the last chance of success in the 1979–80 season for the traditionally dominant Old Firm. 

Aberdeen had won the Scottish league championship under their then young manager Alex Ferguson. 

READ MORE: Extended: Carol X's fight for justice after brutal East End attack

Celtic had finished above Rangers in the league, but Rangers went into the match as bookmakers' favourites because Celtic were missing three key players due to injury. 

There was not much incident-wise in the game, which finished goalless after the regulation 90 minutes.  

This necessitated an extra time period of 30 minutes, during which Celtic scored the only and therefore winning goal of the match. 

Defender Danny McGrain had taken a shot that looked to be heading wide, but striker George McCluskey redirected the ball past goalkeeper Peter McCloy and into the goal. 

At the final whistle, the Celtic players went to celebrate with their supporters, as was the normal practice. 

The Scottish Football Association had given both teams permission to parade the Scottish Cup trophy on the pitch after the match. 

A ten-foot-high perimeter fence had been installed around Hampden which they thought would deter any invasion by members of the 70,000 strong crowd. 

However, the more exuberant Celtic supporters had managed to scale the perimeter fences and joined the players on the pitch. 

Some of the Rangers fans had stayed behind, despite their team's defeat. 

One of the Celtic fans ran to the end of the stadium inhabited by the Rangers fans and kicked a ball into the goal at that end. 

In response to this, some Rangers fans invaded the pitch to charge at the Celtic fans, who in turn confronted their rivals. 

Bricks, bottles and cans were soon being thrown along with fans using iron bars and wooden staves from terracing frames as weapons to attack each other and the police. 

Supporters from both sides fought each other on every spare blade of grass, including the penalty boxes. 

The police had insufficient manpower inside the stadium to quell the disorder as most had left to police the fans leaving the ground. 

The thin blue line of police found themselves overwhelmed as fans descended upon them from both ends of the ground, scaling the much-vaunted safety fences with ease.'' 

No sooner did the first wave of Celtic fans cross the half-way line than a large number of Rangers fans went to meet them. 

READ MORE: How serial killer Peter Tobin was caught after the murder of Angelika Kluk

The BBC's match commentator Archie MacPherson famously described the riot as follows: 

"This is like a scene now out of Apocalypse Now. 

"We've got the equivalent of Passchendaele and that says nothing for Scottish football. At the end of the day, let's not kid ourselves. These supporters hate each other. " 

However, the fighting wasn't just confined to the terracing. 

Fans were also seen fighting in the expensive seats next to the Royal Box with punches being thrown by men in smart suits and expensive crombie coats. 

During the commentary Archie could also be heard saying: "And where are the police? For heaven's sake, where are the police?"  

PC Jim Buchanan was in a car travelling to the Southern General Hospital with a prisoner who was to receive medical treatment.  

But while he was supervising the man in A&E, he received the frantic call to drop everything and get to Hampden. 

He later said: "I handcuffed the prisoner to a bed and bolted. I have no idea what became of that prisoner. For all I know he's still there handcuffed to a bed." 

Inside the ground, PC Tom McLeod, a trackside officer at the Celtic end, had noticed something that perturbed him. 

In an interview two years ago, he recalled: "The youngsters right down at the front were being pressed against the fence that had been put up around the track. I began to get concerned about that. 

"After the Celtic players had come up close, the kids at the front were being pressed against the fence and I could see the panic in their faces.  

READ MORE: The Glasgow Crime Story of the murder of Tam Cameron and the hunt for Derek McGraw Ferguson

"I decided to open that gate beside me or else there could have been some serious damage done. 

"I then dragged out one kid after the other, maybe about a dozen or so, but down came another surge and scores began to get through.  

"It was then I noticed that another officer, further round the track, had taken his cue from me and did the same.  

"Then the invasion was unstoppable." 

McLeod was adamant the action he and his colleague took, which allowed fans on to the pitch, prevented something much worse. 

The violence on the day also spilled out on to the nearby Glasgow Victoria Infirmary. 

In an interview to mark the 40th anniversary of the riot, PC Willie Allan recalled: "We heard rancour had broken out between the police, who had gone there to be treated for various injuries, and some of the injured fans." 

When the police had arrived, they discovered the rival fans were showing that nothing was spared with fights breaking out in the Accident and Emergency, where people were waiting to be treated. 

PC Allan added: "I will always remember this guy in a wheelchair. A Rangers fan. "Quite badly injured. 

"He wheeled himself across towards a Celtic supporter who was lying on a mobile stretcher. And he started to knock lumps out of him. We jumped in to stop it. It was bedlam." 

Sectarianism was part of the powder keg, but so was alcohol. 

At that time supporters used to take their carry-outs into the ground and large glass cover and wine bottles would be thrown between rival fans often causing serious injuries. 

READ MORE: Glasgow Crime Stories: Murder of Eleni Pachou in Di Maggio's

Derek Johnstone, who had played in the match for Rangers, had gradually become aware of something going on outside, and went upstairs to the Hampden presentation area to look out on the milling throngs.  

He later recalled: "I actually started to worry watching it. 

"It's the first time at a football match I actually felt frightened because it passed through my mind that some of them might try to get up the tunnel and into the dressing room area. I barely saw a policeman among the crowd." 

However, all that was about to change with the arrival of the mounted branch who had begun their return journey to their stables at Pollok Park. 

There were about 12 horses on duty that day before the start of the game two hours earlier. 

They had been dispersed around Mount Florida, to help with the crowds arriving for the game and to keep rival fans groups separated. 

PC Elaine Mudie was just 22 when she found herself at the centre of the post-match chaos and became an unwitting hero of the hour. 

Elaine who was riding a white horse called Ballantrae famously managed to clear many of the hooligans off the pitch. 

It was one of the most enduring images of the violence a lone woman on a horse taking on the unruly mob. 

On a Radio Scotland documentary in 2010 Elaine recalled how her first feeling was one of fear and also nervous laughter at the thought of going on to the pitch in her horse. 

She added: "I remember standing at the exit.  

"I did think, 'there aren't very many people coming out'.”  

"I remember hearing them announcing over the loudspeaker, 'Would the fans please leave the pitch.'  

"I looked over at my male colleague and he said, 'I think we're going to go on to the pitch.'  

READ MORE: Glasgow Crime Stories extended: Trial of Grand Master of the Orange Order Alan G Hasson

"I just looked at him in horror and said, 'Don't be ridiculous, we can't go on the pitch with all these big horses.'"  

Elaine, who admitted she hated football, added: "Minutes later, the boss shouted us over and then the four of us went in. 

"I looked up and the sky was absolutely full of missiles. It looked as if it was raining bottles, cans, bricks, toilet rolls - everything." 

"The first moments were fear. I'd never seen anything like this in my life. 

"The thing that stuck in my mind was, once the fans were off the pitch, everybody in the stand stood and cheered and clapped. 

"I was amazed, I thought, 'There are actually people here who like us.' I felt really proud." 

One of the most iconic moments shows Ballantrae going through the fans at high speed though Elaine admitted that her horse had been hit with a missile and had simply bolted. 

As the night went on, the BBC studios at Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow received a steady flow of calls from broadcasters across the world looking for their pictures of the riot. Within hours, Scotland's humiliation went global. 

Both clubs were fined £20,000 after the riot and more than 200 arrests were made not only at the time but following a lengthy police investigation using footage and photographs of the riot. 

One newspaper photographer who was hit on the head by a heavy cider bottle, suffered a fractured skull and was off work for six months. He later recovered but had lost his hearing in one ear. 

Joe Jackson, then a Detective Inspector, was on duty in charge of a 20 strong team from nearby Gorbals Police Office targeting stadium pick pockets and other petty criminals. 

He was shocked to discover that most of the officers had left the ground by the end of the game, which he felt was a departure from tried and tested police procedure 

Mr Jackson believes that it was done to save money which explained the unusual presence of the then Chief Constable Patrick Hamill and his deputy William McMaster at the game to see how their experiment worked out. 

In an interview in 2020, he said: "It took us almost two hours to restore order and we were lucky no one was killed. 

"I remember speaking to Mr Hamill and Mr McMaster on the pitch once it calmed down afterwards and they were both as white as sheets. 

"Had anyone died that day there would have been a public inquiry and their careers and reputations would have been in tatters." 

READ MORE: The Glasgow crime story of the respected doctor Edward Pritchard who killed his wife

The same police who had just left the stadium had to be summoned back into the ground to control the baying mob. 

Mr Jackson added: "It was too late by then. 

"The remaining officers were doing their best but they were outnumbered and the fans were already out of control. 

"We were lucky that no one was killed." 

Mr Jackson had watched the violence unfold as he stood in the Hampden tunnel at the end of the game helping the players and match officials to safety.  

He also rescued an STV match producer who had fainted with shock and then ran on to the pitch to arrest one of the rioters. 

Mr Jackson said that the police had been allowed to leave the ground early so that they would be in position to deal with both sets of fans as they headed away from the ground. 

At that time there was strict segregation in the ground. 

However, no one had realised that the fighting would actually break out on the pitch itself. 

Mr Jackson and another officer were even applauded by supporters still in the crowd when they arrested a fan who was attacking police officers trying to arrest his fellow hooligans. 

He was also given the job of trying to find the man who threw the bottle at the injured photographer, which was treated as attempted murder at the time. 

Despite being several hours of television footage and hundreds of stills they could not find him. 

In his memoir Chasing Killers Mr Jackson also recalled how one officer John Staunton repelled fighting fans from both sides of the divide by brandishing a corner flag at them. 

He added: "I was reminded of Samson setting about his assailants with the jawbone of an ass in the film Samson and Delilah. 

READ MORE: The Glasgow Crime Story of the 1980 Scottish Cup pitch battle between Celtic and Rangers fans

"Many of John's assailants, each and every one of them an ass, were lying on the ground around him nursing their own jawbones." 

Mr Jackson went on to head the Strathclyde Police serious crime squad and retired in 1992 at the rank of Detective Superintendent after a glittering career. 

The police and the SFA had assumed that the perimeter fences would prevent fans from invading the pitch, but they were later described as being completely inadequate. 

In the subsequent aftermath Celtic, Rangers and Stathclyde Police blamed each other. 

George Younger, the then Secretary of State for Scotland, however blamed alcohol. 

Tough new laws were then brought in the following year banning alcohol from all sports stadia and outlawing supporters taking drink into grounds, entering stadiums under the influence or carrying alcohol on coaches and trains. 

The ban was partially lifted in 2007 to allow the sale of alcohol at international rugby union matches played at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. 

To this day supporters cannot buy a drink while they are watching a football match in Scotland. 

Though the same restrictions do not apply south of the Border. 

The only exception is for hospitality packages, when people are dining inside the stadium itself. 

Even then drinks must be consumed away from the seated area of the ground and not during the game itself 

Football pundit Davie Provan played in the Old Firm riot game and recently admitted he hadn't been aware of the trouble until he got home that evening to his parent's house. 

In the interview he said: "I do a lot of work in England and walk through with the fans' plastic cups full of beer and there's hardly any trouble at all from booze being sold down there. 

"I'd love to think that one day the supporters in Scotland would be able to have a pint as well, but I have to say, given the behaviour of recent years, I wouldn't be voting to reintroduce alcohol in Scotland's grounds." 

The Hampden Riot scandal was discussed in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, in the Church of Scotland and the Catholic church. 

In an interview in 2010, Chief Inspector Iain McKie, who had been on duty that day, recalled: "I'd watched it from the tunnel.  

"I can't remember who I was with, but there wasn't many of us. 

"With the fences in place there didn't seem any chance that the supporters would try and get on to the pitch, so the vast, vast majority of our presence was in the streets around Hampden and on the route back into the city. 

"It was then when we realised that our manpower was drastically short.  

"Once the boys started scaling the fences it just became a general battle. Bricks and bottles flying. I don't know where they got the bricks, but some went over my head and I was thinking to myself, 'What am I doing here? And where the hell is the cavalry?'" 

Chief Constable Hamill was later criticised for positioning too few men inside the stadium at the end of the match.  

'The barriers were completely inadequate,'' he complained later. ''They acted as no deterrent.'' 

At the height of the trouble, 500 police were back inside the stadium, helping to quell the rioters.  

More than 160 people were arrested inside the ground and 50 others outside.  

At that time Glasgow was investing a lot of time and money to change its "No Mean City" reputation. 

Our sister paper the Herald thought the appalling scenes at Hampden put the whole of Scotland, and especially Glasgow, in a shameful light and undid all the good work. 

Their report concluded: ''Years of patient effort to persuade industrialists and others that Glasgow is a desirable place to live are easily negated in a few moments on the national television news.''