MO_TxTruBlu
Well-Known Member
11 years ago today George Niven passed away
Wee George, as he was affectionately known, was considerably small in stature for a goalkeeper at 5 ft 9 and a wee bit inches, but what he may have lacked in height, he certainly did not in agility and heart.
He will be best remembered as one of the bravest ever to have worn the turtleneck.
George Niven was born in Blairhall, a small village in Fife in 1929.
He joined Rangers, shortly after WWII from Junior side Coupar Angus FC.
After serving a five year apprenticeship in the reserves, Bill Struth handed Niven his debut in the final League game of the 51-52 season, after Rangers had conceded the Title to Hibernian for the second year in succession.
Not only was it the first time under Bill Struth that Rangers had failed to win the Championship in any two year period in his Thirty Two years in charge, but his Rangers had also failed to lift either of the Cups in those two years as well.
Rangers started the following season (52-53) as they had done every season since the War had ended seven years earlier, with Bobby Brown in goal.
This time however it would be Brown's only appearance of the season.
An embarrassing display saw Rangers trounced 0-5 at Tynecastle in the League Cup season opener.
With only one end of season appearance behind him, the relatively young George Niven was immediately promoted to Rangers first choice goalkeeper, and would play in all 45 remaining games that season,
that would see Rangers re-establish themselves once again as the Nation's finest, winning the League Championship and Scottish Cup, in the most dramatic of season finales.
Despite that trouncing at Tynecastle, Rangers still progressed in the League Cup, and met Division B opposition, Kilmarnock in the Semi Final, on Oct 4th.
Rangers were totally outplayed by their supposedly inferior opponents, and despite some excellent saves from George Niven, Rangers went out to an 88th min fortuitous fluke of a goal..
The following two Saturdays saw Rangers disastrous October continue, as they lost both League games to Hibernian and East Fife.
From Nov 1st onwards however, Rangers turned things around, and would lose only 2 of their next 32 games, as they marched towards the Double.
In the Scottish Cup Rangers seen off, Arbroath, Dundee and Morton, before drawing Celtic in the Quarter Finals.
A crowd of 95,000, packed into Ibrox to watch Rangers defeat their old rivals 2-0.
Hearts were defeated 2-1 in the semi final before a staggering 116,262 paying punters.
In the Final itself, 129,762 turned up to watch Rangers and Aberdeen battle out a ferocious 1-1 draw.
Aberdeen were the better side, and centre forward Paddy Buckley might well have scored four goals himself, had it not been for the magnificence of George Niven in the Rangers goal.
In the 27th minute of the match, Niven dived at the feet of Buckley to prevent a certain goal, and sustained a dangerous head injury that forced him to leave the field.
He returned, stitched and bandaged, for the second half to perform heroically, denying Aberdeen any reward for their sustained pressure.
Bill Struth was quoted that night as saying
"In all my years I haven't met a more courageous man than Niven.
He lay on the treatment table and had four stitches inserted inside and outside his ear.
He never said a word.
He suffered with what must have been excruciating pain and all he asked was that he be allowed back on the field."
The replay four days later saw Rangers stutter yet again, but a well worked goal early in the second half from Billy Simpson saw Rangers gladly collect their first piece of silverware, following those two barren seasons.
( 447,724 people had paid their hard earned to watch Rangers last four Scottish Cup ties)
There was still two league games to play, with Rangers requiring 3 from 4 points to take the Title back from Hibernian, on Goal Average.
Dundee were beaten 2-0 on the Saturday at Ibrox.
A draw in their final game v Queen of the South (a) on the Thursday would bring the Championship home.
Incredibly, 24 hours before that vital game, both Rangers full backs, George Young and Johnny Little, were forced to play in an International match for Scotland (v Sweden) at Hampden.
The following day they lined up for Rangers.
It was a tough pressure filled game, and Rangers were dealt a heavy blow shortly before the break, when Queen of the South took a 1-0 lead.
If the score stayed as it was, Hibernian would have taken the Title for the Third Year on a trot,
but it was not to be.
A gutsy second half performance from Rangers saw them rewarded with an equaliser from Willie Waddell, 15 minutes from time.
Rangers had won the coveted Double, and the rookie George Niven had played in every single match.
Here is the Line up of that famous (and often overlooked) 52-53 Double winning side
Niven, Young and Little; McColl, Woodburn and Cox; Waddell, Grierson, Simpson, Prentice and Hubbard:
The next two seasons saw major changes taking place at Ibrox.
Bill Struth would step down as manager at the end of the 53-54 season, with Scot Symon taking over, as Rangers suffered another couple of barren seasons.
Niven shared goalkeeping duties with Bobby Brown in Struth's final season, but was quick to establish himself as first choice in Symon's debut season in charge.
The next two seasons (55/56 and 56/57) saw Rangers win back to back League Championships.
Niven kept goal for Rangers in 88 of 91 total games played in those two seasons.
That 55-56 team with Niven in goal, conceded only 27 goals in 34 League games,
That figure, was the fewest goals to games that any Rangers defence had conceded in the previous 25 years, or would concede in the next 20 years.
(between 1930-31 and 1975-76).
The 57-58 season was best forgotten for both Rangers and Niven.
Rangers won nothing, and Niven managed only 14 appearances, compared to the up and coming youngster, Billy Ritchie who kept goal in the 40 other games played that season.
The 58-59 season saw Rangers and Niven re establish themselves as No 1.
Niven was an ever present as Rangers won the Championship for the third time in four years.
Niven was still Rangers goalie as the sixties beckoned, and the 59-60 season saw Rangers win the Scottish Cup, and go all the way to the Semi Final of the European Cup.
Wee George played in 53 of 56 games that season.
The 1960-61 season was to be George Niven's last season as a Rangers goalie,
as Rangers won the League Championship, the League Cup and went all the way to the Final of the inaugural European Cup Winners Cup.
Niven collected his Fifth League Championship Medal with 22 League appearances that season.
He finally got his hands on a League Cup Winners medal in that last season as well, when he was recalled to the first team for the Final, following Billy Ritchie's chipped ankle injury, sustained three days earlier at Tynecastle.
Rangers, with a goal in each half from Ralph Brand and Alex Scott, beat Kilmarnock 2-0 to bring home the League Cup for the first time in 12 years.
Niven went on to play in the next 27 games, before Ritchie returned from injury at the end of March.
Highlights from that last season for Niven must include the 11-0 aggregate inflicted upon Borussia MonchenGladbach, as Rangers marched all the way to the Final of the European Cup Winners Cup.
In the first leg in Germany, with the game somewhat still in the balance at 2-0, Niven denied Borussia any glimmer of hope when he saved a penalty in the 30th minute.
This, in no small way deflated the Germans to the point that Rangers would run up a record score over the two legs, and one had to feel sorry for Niven who had to sit through the return leg at Ibrox in torrential rain, without ever having to touch the ball.
The players who entertained the fans to a feast of clever and slick passing football that night,
was a totally different team to that great team of eight years earlier.
Niven, Shearer and Caldow; Davis, Paterson and Baxter; Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.
Few, if any, players in our history can claim to have been lucky enough to have played alongside the talent that George Niven did in his Rangers career.
He not only played in Two instantly recognisable Rangers teams, he also was there to witness the emergence of another generation about to etch their names in the history books of Rangers Football Club, in Messrs Greig, McKinnon and Henderson.
Wee George, as he was affectionately known, was considerably small in stature for a goalkeeper at 5 ft 9 and a wee bit inches, but what he may have lacked in height, he certainly did not in agility and heart.
He will be best remembered as one of the bravest ever to have worn the turtleneck.
George Niven was born in Blairhall, a small village in Fife in 1929.
He joined Rangers, shortly after WWII from Junior side Coupar Angus FC.
After serving a five year apprenticeship in the reserves, Bill Struth handed Niven his debut in the final League game of the 51-52 season, after Rangers had conceded the Title to Hibernian for the second year in succession.
Not only was it the first time under Bill Struth that Rangers had failed to win the Championship in any two year period in his Thirty Two years in charge, but his Rangers had also failed to lift either of the Cups in those two years as well.
Rangers started the following season (52-53) as they had done every season since the War had ended seven years earlier, with Bobby Brown in goal.
This time however it would be Brown's only appearance of the season.
An embarrassing display saw Rangers trounced 0-5 at Tynecastle in the League Cup season opener.
With only one end of season appearance behind him, the relatively young George Niven was immediately promoted to Rangers first choice goalkeeper, and would play in all 45 remaining games that season,
that would see Rangers re-establish themselves once again as the Nation's finest, winning the League Championship and Scottish Cup, in the most dramatic of season finales.
Despite that trouncing at Tynecastle, Rangers still progressed in the League Cup, and met Division B opposition, Kilmarnock in the Semi Final, on Oct 4th.
Rangers were totally outplayed by their supposedly inferior opponents, and despite some excellent saves from George Niven, Rangers went out to an 88th min fortuitous fluke of a goal..
The following two Saturdays saw Rangers disastrous October continue, as they lost both League games to Hibernian and East Fife.
From Nov 1st onwards however, Rangers turned things around, and would lose only 2 of their next 32 games, as they marched towards the Double.
In the Scottish Cup Rangers seen off, Arbroath, Dundee and Morton, before drawing Celtic in the Quarter Finals.
A crowd of 95,000, packed into Ibrox to watch Rangers defeat their old rivals 2-0.
Hearts were defeated 2-1 in the semi final before a staggering 116,262 paying punters.
In the Final itself, 129,762 turned up to watch Rangers and Aberdeen battle out a ferocious 1-1 draw.
Aberdeen were the better side, and centre forward Paddy Buckley might well have scored four goals himself, had it not been for the magnificence of George Niven in the Rangers goal.
In the 27th minute of the match, Niven dived at the feet of Buckley to prevent a certain goal, and sustained a dangerous head injury that forced him to leave the field.
He returned, stitched and bandaged, for the second half to perform heroically, denying Aberdeen any reward for their sustained pressure.
Bill Struth was quoted that night as saying
"In all my years I haven't met a more courageous man than Niven.
He lay on the treatment table and had four stitches inserted inside and outside his ear.
He never said a word.
He suffered with what must have been excruciating pain and all he asked was that he be allowed back on the field."
The replay four days later saw Rangers stutter yet again, but a well worked goal early in the second half from Billy Simpson saw Rangers gladly collect their first piece of silverware, following those two barren seasons.
( 447,724 people had paid their hard earned to watch Rangers last four Scottish Cup ties)
There was still two league games to play, with Rangers requiring 3 from 4 points to take the Title back from Hibernian, on Goal Average.
Dundee were beaten 2-0 on the Saturday at Ibrox.
A draw in their final game v Queen of the South (a) on the Thursday would bring the Championship home.
Incredibly, 24 hours before that vital game, both Rangers full backs, George Young and Johnny Little, were forced to play in an International match for Scotland (v Sweden) at Hampden.
The following day they lined up for Rangers.
It was a tough pressure filled game, and Rangers were dealt a heavy blow shortly before the break, when Queen of the South took a 1-0 lead.
If the score stayed as it was, Hibernian would have taken the Title for the Third Year on a trot,
but it was not to be.
A gutsy second half performance from Rangers saw them rewarded with an equaliser from Willie Waddell, 15 minutes from time.
Rangers had won the coveted Double, and the rookie George Niven had played in every single match.
Here is the Line up of that famous (and often overlooked) 52-53 Double winning side
Niven, Young and Little; McColl, Woodburn and Cox; Waddell, Grierson, Simpson, Prentice and Hubbard:
The next two seasons saw major changes taking place at Ibrox.
Bill Struth would step down as manager at the end of the 53-54 season, with Scot Symon taking over, as Rangers suffered another couple of barren seasons.
Niven shared goalkeeping duties with Bobby Brown in Struth's final season, but was quick to establish himself as first choice in Symon's debut season in charge.
The next two seasons (55/56 and 56/57) saw Rangers win back to back League Championships.
Niven kept goal for Rangers in 88 of 91 total games played in those two seasons.
That 55-56 team with Niven in goal, conceded only 27 goals in 34 League games,
That figure, was the fewest goals to games that any Rangers defence had conceded in the previous 25 years, or would concede in the next 20 years.
(between 1930-31 and 1975-76).
The 57-58 season was best forgotten for both Rangers and Niven.
Rangers won nothing, and Niven managed only 14 appearances, compared to the up and coming youngster, Billy Ritchie who kept goal in the 40 other games played that season.
The 58-59 season saw Rangers and Niven re establish themselves as No 1.
Niven was an ever present as Rangers won the Championship for the third time in four years.
Niven was still Rangers goalie as the sixties beckoned, and the 59-60 season saw Rangers win the Scottish Cup, and go all the way to the Semi Final of the European Cup.
Wee George played in 53 of 56 games that season.
The 1960-61 season was to be George Niven's last season as a Rangers goalie,
as Rangers won the League Championship, the League Cup and went all the way to the Final of the inaugural European Cup Winners Cup.
Niven collected his Fifth League Championship Medal with 22 League appearances that season.
He finally got his hands on a League Cup Winners medal in that last season as well, when he was recalled to the first team for the Final, following Billy Ritchie's chipped ankle injury, sustained three days earlier at Tynecastle.
Rangers, with a goal in each half from Ralph Brand and Alex Scott, beat Kilmarnock 2-0 to bring home the League Cup for the first time in 12 years.
Niven went on to play in the next 27 games, before Ritchie returned from injury at the end of March.
Highlights from that last season for Niven must include the 11-0 aggregate inflicted upon Borussia MonchenGladbach, as Rangers marched all the way to the Final of the European Cup Winners Cup.
In the first leg in Germany, with the game somewhat still in the balance at 2-0, Niven denied Borussia any glimmer of hope when he saved a penalty in the 30th minute.
This, in no small way deflated the Germans to the point that Rangers would run up a record score over the two legs, and one had to feel sorry for Niven who had to sit through the return leg at Ibrox in torrential rain, without ever having to touch the ball.
The players who entertained the fans to a feast of clever and slick passing football that night,
was a totally different team to that great team of eight years earlier.
Niven, Shearer and Caldow; Davis, Paterson and Baxter; Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.
Few, if any, players in our history can claim to have been lucky enough to have played alongside the talent that George Niven did in his Rangers career.
He not only played in Two instantly recognisable Rangers teams, he also was there to witness the emergence of another generation about to etch their names in the history books of Rangers Football Club, in Messrs Greig, McKinnon and Henderson.
