Bill Struth is without doubt one - if not the major influence on how successful Rangers are as a club. Below you can find out some interesting facts and trivia about this true Rangers and Scottish footballing legend.
The Rangers reserve (or 'A') team - originally known as the Swifts - are Scotland's most successful reserve team. Their colours were red and black vertical strips (ala AC Milan) which represented Govan.
‘Greigy is a one-off. He epitomises the Rangers spirit and is the genuine article – a true Rangers legend’ – Ally McCoist
There are few players who get to experience the high of winning one treble during their playing careers, John Greig managed to bag three trebles and captained the team to two of those tremendous achievements.
From hooped shirts and socks (yes, hoops!), to white shirts, to light blue tops, to different sponsors and badges; all data available on the strip is available from Dave Moor at the excellent Historical Kits. A huge thanks to his website for taking the time and effort to painstakingly reproduce each kit from our history.
There are a few mitigating circumstances as to how yours truly landed with the unenviable task of detailing the contribution John Greig MBE has made to Rangers over his distinguished and well documented career. Firstly, I stupidly announced that I have some spare time on my hands at the moment, and actually volunteered this idea in the Gersnet writers forum. Secondly, John Greig was Rangers manager when I started going to watch Rangers on a regular basis. I was lucky enough to witness John as a player (and what a player he was) and given the fact of his illustrious playing career, I felt it unfair to solely focus on his managerial career (as was the thought at the time).
Rangers have a very proud history in Europe being the first Scottish club to play a competitive European tie whilst participating in the European Cup in season 1956-57 season and became the fist Scottish or British Club to reach a European final when in 1961 we lost 4-1 on aggregate to Fiorentina in the inaugural European Cup Winners Cup final. During this campaign we defeated Wolves in the semi-final the game that gave us the wonderful Wolverhampton Town song which has thankfully, found it’s way back onto our hymn sheet in recent years.
The question I ask myself most often when thinking off, or discussing John Greig is, is he deserving of the title ‘Greatest Ever Ranger’? This title was bestowed on Greig, by us, the fans. We voted for him as the Greatest Ever Ranger and all the attributes are there. His dedication and love of Rangers is undeniable. We were the only club that we ever played for. He won a remarkable three trebles with Rangers (the club has won seven in our illustrious history), his appearances speak for themselves and listening to fans from the generation before mine, Greig was Rangers during his dark days of Celtic domination.
Below is listed every Scottish league top goalscorer since the Scottish League formally began in 1890. Rangers players are listed in bold.