Rangers History Ralph Brand

MO_TxTruBlu

MO_TxTruBlu

Well-Known Member
Ralph Brand played in what many still consider to be the finest Rangers XI ever assembled.
Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow, Greig, McKinnon, Baxter, Henderson, McMillan, Millar, Brand, and Wilson.
All 11 of them were Scottish Internationalists, when that actually meant something.
In that team there is The Greatest Ranger Ever, The Finest Player Ever, Our best ever Left Back, our most prolific Goal scoring Winger, and a World Class Winger on the other flank.
So when the auld yins go on about that great era in the first half of the 1960's, and wax lyrical about Caldow, Greig, Baxter, Henderson, Millar, Wilson etc. it is easy to see why Ralph Brand is often overlooked.
Brand was there through it all though, playing some 250 + Games in that golden 5 year period, scoring more Goals than anyone, and collecting 10 Winners medals (3 League Titles, 3 Scottish Cups, 4 League Cups).
He formed a Striking partnership with Jimmy Millar, that has set the bar for all striking partnerships, before and since.
Brand was a student of the Game, when that was a rarity.

He was an Inside Forward (a No 10), which may differ to how the modern game views a No.10.
Rangers over the years have had some legendary No.10's, all the way back to the 1890's, the great Kitey McPherson, with 322 appearances, and 173 Goals that carried us through to the early 1900's.
Tommy Cairns 1914-27 with 475 appearances, and 10 years as our Captain.
The legendary Bob McPhail who scored 275 Goals in 443 Games for Rangers from 1927-40,
Ralph Brand certainly deserves his place up there alongside them, and he was more prolific than any of them,
with his return of Goals to Games at 65%.
To put that into perspective, Ally McCoist has a return of Goals to Games at 62%.

Ralph Brand was signed on a Provisional Contract as a 15 year old by Bill Struth, after the great man had watched him on TV in the 1952 Schoolboy International v England at Wembley.
Brand would turn professional in 1954 as Rangers were about to enter a new era, with a changing of the guard, as Bill Struth retired, as only the second manager in our 82 year History.
Scot Symon, a former player, and very successful manager at lowly East Fife, who he took from Div B, to 3 Cup Finals (winning two of them), and a consistent top 4 place in Div A, before being lured to England's top division to take charge of Preston North End, who he took to the FA Cup Final in his first season, was the obvious successor to the great Bill Struth.
Scot Symon's task at Ibrox was not an easy one. 1953-54 had been Rangers' poorest season in 26 years (they had finished 4th in the League) and was very much an ageing side.
The ridiculous sine die suspension imposed on Willie Woodburn, 9 games into Symon's first season was a devastating blow, as Woodburn was the main man, who Symon hoped to build the team around.
Symon would need time to rebuild this Rangers team, and restore them to their former glory, and he showed he was not afraid to give youth a chance, when he gave a debut to 17 year old Ralph Brand, replacing the injured Willie Waddell at Outside Right in a league match v Kilmarnock in November.
The youngster repaid him by scoring twice on his debut, in front of 40,000 at Ibrox, as Rangers thrashed Kilmarnock 6-0.
The Rangers team that day
Niven Little Cox McColl Young Rae Brand Paton Simpson Grierson Hubbard
The 10 players that Lined up alongside Brand on his debut had made over 2,000 appearances between them.
Brand would make 3 more appearances that season, two at Outside Right (7) and one at Inside Left (10).

As an 18 year old Ralph Brand had to do his National Service, so made no appearances over the next 2 seasons (1955-57), in which Scot Symon brought home the League Title in both seasons.
During that 2 year period, Symon had signed 3 Forwards, in Sammy Baird, Max Murray, and Don Kichenbrand

57-58, Rangers started the season with Alex Scott very much our Outside Right, and Sammy Baird our Inside Left, so Ralph Brand would have to wait for his chance.
The first part of that 57-58 campaign could be considered a disaster.
By the end of November we sat 8th in the League Table, 11 points adrift of Hearts, though we had 4 games in hand
(2 pts for a win back then), we had already lost to Celtic (2-3) in the League at Ibrox,
and suffered the most humiliating defeat in our entire history, to our fiercest rivals, in the League Cup Final.
In Europe, we had disposed of St Ettiene (4-3 on Agg.), but had collapsed in the first leg at Ibrox to AC Milan.
We were leading 1-0 until the 75th minute, before Milan scored 4 goals in the last 15 mins to take a 4-1 lead back to Italy.
Ralph Brand got his chance at the start of December at Inside Left, with Scotland International Sammy Baird moving back to Left Half.
With Brand in the side, Rangers went undefeated in their next 20 games.
This included a 1-0 win at the piggery on New Years day, and his first Hat Trick in 4-2 win v Third Lanark in the Glasgow Cup Final.
The 1-2 loss to Hibs in the Scottish Cup Semi Final replay in April, was the first time Brand had tasted defeat in a Rangers shirt in 25 games.
Brand ended that 57-58 season with an impressive 17 Goals in 29 appearances.

The 58-59 season saw Rangers win back their League Title in the most anti climatic fashion, as they lost their final game of the season 1-2 at home to lowly Aberdeen, with the team booed off the park, only to find out Hearts had lost to celtic, thus gifting Rangers the Title.
Brand made 29 appearances that season in the 46 official games that Rangers were involved in.
He finished the season with 22 Goals in 29 Games. Add to that his goal in 1-1 v Celtic in the Charity Cup, and the two he scored in the 3-0 victory v Arsenal at Highbury, and it was clear this boy could get goals.
Rangers lost 9 games that season, though Brand only tasted defeat 3 times. He was not in the team that lost to Raith Rovs and Hearts that saw us out of the League Cup, nor was he in the side that went out of the Scottish Cup to Celtic.
His most prolific period of that season came in a 3 week period in late Nov/early Dec. when he scored 8 Goals in 4 games, which included 2 in a 3-0 win at Kilmarnock, a Hat Trick in a 6-3 win at Queen of the South, and another brace in the 5-0 demolition of Champions and current Table topping Hearts, where Rangers scored 5 goals in the opening 34 mins (Max Murray got the other 3), knocking Hearts off the top of the Table, where Rangers would stay for the remainder of the season, as Ralph Brand collected his first League Champions medal.

59-60 Rangers opened the season with the Millar Brand pairing as a No.9 and No.10 for the first time.
Jimmy Millar a Wing Half/Inside Forward, who had made only 9 appearances in the previous season, had been forced to play Centre Forward in place of the injured Max Murray in an end of season Friendly a few months earlier and scored all 4 second half goals in a 4-0 win.
Despite Max Murray being our top goalscorer in each of the previous three seasons (99 Goals in 123 Games) this prompted Scot Symon to start the 59-60 season with Millar as his Center Forward,and Ralph Brand at Inside Left.
Rangers thrashed Hibs 6-1 at Easter Rd,with Ralph Brand scoring 4 goals, and Millar netting one on his first official stint as Rangers Centre Forward.
The headline on that Saturday's Evening Times front page was "A 'BRAND' NEW FITBA' SEASON".
The promise of this MB partnership looked good, but they only got the first four games under their belt, before Symon opted to bring back Sammy Baird at Inside Left.
Surprisingly, Brand, who had scored a very impressive 29 Goals in 35 Games over the past 12 months, would only get 11 more starts that season, whilst the more experienced Sammy Baird was preferred in 38 games,with a return of 15 goals, as Rangers marched all the way to the Semi Finals of the European Cup, and collected the Scottish Cup.
Jimmy Millar ended the season as top scorer with 36 Goals in 50 Games.
Other players who impressed that season, was the versatile forward Davy Wilson who scored 22 Goals/47 Games, and that wonderful Inside Right (8), Ian McMillan who weighed in with 20 goals. Alex Scott on the right wing chipped in with 17 goals.
 
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The 1960's were now upon us, and Symon was quietly and effectively putting together a wonderful team.
The great Jim Baxter was signed by Symon in the summer.

60-61, Rangers opened their season with a 3-1 win in the League Cup v Partick Thistle at Ibrox in front of 51,000,
as Baxter made his debut at Inside Left.
Thereafter, Baxter wore the No.6 shirt, and Ralph Brand was an ever present in that No.10 shirt for the next 57 games of that season, and what a season it was, as Rangers won the League Cup, the League Championship, and went all the way to the Final of the inaugural European Cup Winners Cup, where they defeated the great English side of the time Wolves, in the Semi Final.
In the first leg at Ibrox, Rangers were clinging desperately to a 1-0 lead, under incessant pressure, when Ralph Brand scored that vital second goal with 6 mins remaining, with his only scoring opportunity of the game.
In the return game Rangers held out for a 1-1 draw and a nice wee ditty was born that contained this lovely verse
'Now on the field below, The boys put on a show, The like they've never seen at Molineux.
And the football it was grand, From McMillan, Scott and Brand, When The Rangers came to Wolverhampton Town'.
In between those two epic games v Wolves, Rangers had surprisingly lost twice in the League, 0-2 v Kilmarnock (a), and 1-6 v Aberdeen (a), which reduced their 5 point lead at the top of the table with 4 games to play, to a 1 point lead with 2 games to play. Fortunately Rangers won those last two games, and clinched the League Title with a 7-3 win v Ayr Utd in our final league match. (Brand scored 2).
Ralph Brand scored an incredible 44 Goals that season for Rangers, which included Hat Tricks in three different competitions, against Borussia Monchengladbach (8-0) in the ECWC, against Third Lanark (4-3) in the League, and in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Queen of the South (7-0) at the Piggery.
Ralphie did like a goal against the papes (as we affectionately referred to them back then), he scored in all 4 games against Celtic that season, including the winner at the Piggery, in September, which put us through in the League Cup and eliminated them. One week later he scored again at the same venue in the League, as we molicated them 5-1.
18 Goals in the first 19 Games by the end of October, including one in the 2-0 win v Kilmarnock in the League Cup Final, saw Ralph Brand get a call up and his first Scotland Cap in November.
He repaid the managers faith by scoring twice on his Scotland debut in a 5-2 win v N.Ireland at Hampden.
Jim Baxter and Davy Wilson also earned their first Caps that season too, alongside Scotland Captain Eric Caldow, giving Scotland a new look Rangers quartet down that left side.
Rangers now had a settled XI, and were a team to be reckoned with.
Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow, Davis, Paterson, Baxter, Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.
Niven stepped in when Ritchie chipped an ankle bone at the end of October, until he returned at the end of March.
Following Ritchie's injury, Rangers played 16 consecutive games with an unchanged XI, with Niven in Goals.
The 10 outfield players played at least 47 games each that season, except for Jimmy Millar who managed 37 games.
The Front Five scored 130 Goals between them.
Scott (22), McMillan (15), Millar (26), Brand (44), Wilson (23).

Having played for Scottish League XI that defeated the English League XI 3-2 at Ibrox back in March,
Brand was overlooked for the annual Scotland v England match the following month at Wembley, with Pat Quinn (Motherwell) getting the No.10 shirt, as Scotland were trounced 3-9.
Brand was recalled for the next game, and earned 3 more full Scotland Caps in May 61' in the 3 World Cup Qualifiers against Eire (twice) and Czechoslovakia, scoring another 3 goals.

61-62 Brand carried on where he left off last season, scoring 9 Goals in the opening 7 games of the campaign.
By the time Christmas came around, Rangers had secured the League Cup, defeating Hearts 3-1 in the replayed Final
(with Brand netting one again in the Final), and disposed of French Champions Monaco in the European Cup, beating them home and away 3-2, before cruising past Vowarts (Berlin) 6-2 on Agg.
Not so good in the League. At the halfway stage, following a 0-0 draw with Hibs on Jan 6th, we trailed leaders Dundee by a massive 8 points, though we did have 1 game in hand (2 pts for a win).
Rangers would go on to win all 10 of their next League Games. Dundee had a major collapse at the end of January, going out of the Scottish Cup at home to St Mirren, then drawing one, before losing 4 League games on the trot.
A 0-0 draw between the two sides at Dens Park, left Rangers at the Top, 3 points ahead of Dundee, with 7 games to play.
In the Scottish Cup, we had seen off Falkirk (a) 2-1, Arbroath 6-0, Aberdeen 5-1 (after a 2-2 draw), Kilmarnock (a) 4-2,
and then Motherwell 3-1 in the Semi Final.
Following the 1-1 draw v Celtic(a) in the League, Rangers were very much on course to get that coveted Treble,
with only 3 games to play, all in the next week.
First up was the Scottish Cup Final against lowly St Mirren, who were battling relegation, but certainly deserved their place in the Final, having eliminated 4 First Division teams, including 3 of the top 4. League leaders Dundee(a), Dunfermline (h), and that infamous Semi Final at Ibrox, where they faced a Celtic side, that had skelped them 5-0 at Love St, just 5 days earlier, and crushed them 7-1 at the Piggery in Nov. The Fact that St Mirren raced into a 3-0 lead just past the half hour mark, was just too much for the hordes of papes to handle, so fighting amongst themselves, and bottle throwing, broke out all over the stadium, before they eventually spilled on to the pitch from both ends of the ground, in typical fashion, invading the field in an attempt to get the game abandoned. The entire ground was alive with people fighting. Mounted police appeared and helped to clear the pitch before play could continue. Both teams were taken off the park whilst the police cleared the field. Play was resumed with a ring of police around the ground. St Mirren won 3-1.
And so onto the Final itself, at Hampden in front of 127,940 paying fans, and in the most one sided final in many a year, and a dozen opportunities, it still took until the 40th min for Ralph Brand to break the deadlock, and give Rangers the lead.
Davy Wilson added a second, twelve mins after the restart, and that was the Scottish Cup in the bag.
2 League Games to play, Rangers, despite giving up a 3 point advantage over the last 5 games, still sat Top of the League with a much superior Goal Average than Dundee, so 2 wins would guarantee the Treble.
A midweek trip to Pittodrie saw Rangers go down 0-1, as Dundee beat St Mirren 2-0 to knock Rangers off top spot for the first time since Christmas. Dundee won their final game, as Rangers drew 1-1 at home to Kilmarnock, and despite winning both Cups, the season ended in disappointment, as that coveted Treble eluded them again.

The Rangers team for that 61-62 season was pretty much the same XI as the previous season, with Ritchie in Goals, and Bill Paterson (28 games) and Doug Baillie (22) sharing that Centre Half spot.
There was though, three youngsters forcing their way into the team, three players who would go on to achieve legendary status, John Greig (16 Games), Ronnie McKinnon (9) and 17 year old wee Willie Henderson (22), who by the seasons end, had pushed Scotland's Outside Right, Alex Scott, into the Rangers Reserves.

Ralph Brand had another amazing season, playing in 57 of 58 Rangers Games, with a return of 40 Goals.
He won 4 more Scotland Caps, with a return of 3 goals
He represented the Scottish League XI three times. against the Irish League (7-0), the Italian League (1-1), which included John Charles, and Denis Law, and attracted 67,896 to Hampden, and against the English League XI (4-3) at Villa Park.
Brand scored in all 3 Games, with a return of 5 Goals.

In the last two seasons, Ralph Brand had scored a total of 99 Goals for Rangers and Scotland!
 
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62-63 Brand scores twice on the opening day in a 4-1 win at Easter Rd in the League Cup.
In the ECWC Rangers met Seville, and a hat trick from Jimmy Millar, and one from Ralph Brand gave Rangers a healthy 4-0 lead to take to Spain for the ill tempered return match (0-2). Rangers would eventually succumb to Tottenham Hotspur, who would go on to be the first British side to win a European Trophy.
In the League Cup Rangers progressed to the Semi Final where they were eliminated 2-3 by Kilmarnock, in bizarre circumstances. Brand had scored twice to give Rangers a 2-1 lead midway through the first half. With half time approaching, a goal bound shot from John Greig, struck Ralph Brand's hand on the way into the net, and denied Rangers what would have been a 3-1 lead. Less than a minute later, Kilmarnock equalized, as they passed through a still bemused Rangers defence at Brand's misfortune. Kilmarnock scored the winner in the 82nd minute.
At the halfway point in the League, going into the New Year, Rangers sat top, just one point ahead of Partick Thistle after 17 Games. New Years day, and Rangers thump Celtic 4-0 at Ibrox.
The severe winter of 63' meant we would not play again until Mar 9th (67 days without a game).
This left Rangers facing the prospect of having to play 24 games in 79 days between March 9th and May 27th.

Ralph Brand played in every minute of all 24 Games, and scored 20 Goals.

In the Scottish Cup Rangers marched all the way to the Final where they would meet Celtic, remarkably for the first time since the famous 1928 Final.
Brand had scored in all previous 5 games (9 Goals) it took to get to the final,
including scoring twice in the last 15 mins (75, 88) in the replayed Dundee game, when Rangers came from 1-2 down to win 3-2 in front of 81,190 ecstatic fans at Ibrox on a Wednesday night.
The first Old Firm Scottish Cup Final since the 1920's, attracted 129,643 fans to Hampden (almost 2,000 more than last years Final v St Mirren).
Frank Haffey, he of the 3-9 England humiliation one year earlier, had arguably the game of his career, as he restricted Rangers to just one goal (by Brand of course, Ralphie always scores in the Cup Finals). Murdoch scored for Celtic, which meant we had to play them again.
Two days later, on the Monday night, Rangers travel to Broomfield knowing that a win would guarantee the League Championship, with 6 games to spare. Baxter scored a lovely solo goal just before the break, and Ralph Brand sealed it with a second goal in 47 minutes as Rangers collected their 33rd League Title.
One more game to play that mattered, and Rangers collect the Double of League Championship and Scottish Cup.
With a win of course, but that was never in any doubt.
The Scottish Cup Final replay saw Rangers totally outclass Celtic from the off, and Ralph Brand put Rangers ahead in the 7th min. Sustained pressure brought a second just before the interval, when Haffey could not hold a left foot shot from Brand, that allowed Wilson to tap home a second. Brand added a third in the 70th min, with a 25 yard drive, and Rangers toyed with their beleaguered opponents for the remainder of the game, as the easy easy chant was born.
Ralph Brand had scored in every round of that Scottish Cup run with a total of 12 Goals in 7 Games.
Another exceptional season for Brand, scoring 40 Goals in 57 Games,

63-64 and this wonderful Rangers team finally achieve that much coveted Treble.
Rangers went into the campaign without the injured Jimmy Millar, but started exactly where they had left off last season, defeating Celtic 3-0, this time at the piggery, in the League Cup section. Two weeks later and another 3-0 victory v Celtic, this time at Ibrox with Ralphie scoring one. Another two weeks go by and we meet them again at Ibrox in the League, as Rangers come from behind to win 2-1, with yours truly, Ralph Brand tucking away the winner.
The loss of Millar did not seem to affect the team as first feared, as his teenage replacement Jim Forrest proved to be a sensation at Centre Forward, scoring 27 Goals in his first 20 games of the season, including 4 in the League Cup Final, in a 5-0 rout of Morton at Hampden (Att. 105,907).
At the halfway stage in the season, Rangers trailed Kilmarnock by a single point, with only 5 points separating the top 5 teams.Jimmy Millar got his first goal of the season on New Years day, when he scored the only goal of the game at the Piggery (and not for the first time).
In the Scottish Cup, Rangers progressed comfortably, and as luck would have it, we drew Celtic in the Quarter Finals at Ibrox, where we sportingly applauded them onto the park, before duly beating them for the fifth time that season, with a comfortable 2-0 win.
Brand, who had not scored for two months, found his scoring touch again at the start of April, when he scored a quite beautiful opening goal in a 2-1 victory at Tynecastle, that virtually wrapped up the League Title, with 3 games to play, and a 6 point lead. Three days later, he again scores one, in a 2-0 win v Dundee Utd as Ibrox welcomes the Champions.
Next up is Motherwell at Ibrox, and Brand scores twice, as Rangers comeback from a half time defecit, to win 5-1.
So onto the Scottish Cup Final, one game, we win, we get that Treble.
Our form was good, and our route to the Final saw us score 20 Goals, and concede only 1, in the 5 ties.
Dundee mind you, had scored 30 Goals, but conceded 9 in their 6 games, including a 4-0 tanking of Kilmarnock in the Semi Final.
Six of the players who lined up for Scotland in their 1-0 victory over England at Hampden (their third win in succession against the auld enemy), just a fortnight earlier, were on display at Hampden that day.
Gilzean, and Hamilton from Dundee, and Greig, Baxter, Henderson and Wilson from Rangers.
Rangers fielded an unchanged side for the fourth game running, with the players that had played the most games throughout the season, with the exception of Jim Forrest, who had picked up a season ending injury at Pittodrie 6 weeks earlier (39 Goals in 39 Games). George McLean was preferred to Ian McMillan at Inside Right.
Ritchie Shearer Provan Greig McKinnon Baxter Henderson McLean Millar Brand and Wilson.
It was widely regarded as the greatest Scottish Cup Final of all time. A pulsating first half that could easily have seen Rangers score half a dozen goals, but for the heroics of Bert Slater in the Dundee goal, he was simply magnificent, having the game of his life.With less than 20 mins to go Jimmy Millar broke the deadlock with a header from a Henderson corner, that Brand dummied and wrong footed Slater. Within 60 seconds Dundee had equalised through a quite superb goal from Kenny Cameron. The game looked to be heading for a replay, when in the last minute, Henderson who had switched flanks, cut in from the left, and played a ball to the back post that saw Millar rise majestically and send a fantastic looping header into the opposite corner of the net. Within 60 seconds, a one two between Brand and Henderson, saw Brand feed Wilson on the left, and as his shot was parried out by Slater, there was Ralph Brand slamming in a third, off the inside post, from an acute angle.
This great Rangers side had completed the Treble.
Ralph Brand had now scored in three consecutive Scottish Cup Finals, four if you include the 1-1 draw with Celtic from the previous season.
He was definitely the Cup Final man, having scored in both successive League Cup Final victories in the 61' and 62' seasons.
Brand finished that 63-64 season with 29 Goals in 49 Games.
Just in the previous four seasons, Ralph Brand had scored a total of 153 Goals for Rangers (220 Games), and collect
3 League Championships, 3 Scottish Cups, and 3 League Cups.
 
64-65 was to be Brand's final season at Ibrox, but he still weighed in with 11 goals in his first 14 games, including Hat Tricks against St Johnstone and Airdrie, and bagged a couple in the 3-1 win over Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup at Ibrox. He collected another League Cup winners gong in October, as Rangers defeated Celtic 2-1 in the Final.
Brand who had worn his traditional No.10 shirt throughout the previous 9 League Cup games, switched to Outside Right for the Final in place of the injured Henderson, as Rangers went with a forward line of
Brand, Millar, Forrest, Baxter and Johnston.
This was Rangers Sixth consecutive domestic trophy, and their 11th out of a possible 14 domestic trophies in four and a half years.
In early Nov. Rangers beat Red Star Belgrade 3-1 in the European Cup Play off at Highbury, with Brand scoring the third. Highbury was somewhat of a favourite ground for Brand, having scored there twice previously in April 59' with 2 goals in a 3-0 win v Arsenal, and scoring against them again in May 63' in a 2-2 draw.
Brand actually scored 5 goals in 3 games v Arsenal, having scored 2 in a 4-2 win against them in Dec 60' at Ibrox.
Brand fell out of the picture at the end of November, and would make only 7 appearances in the second half of the season.
Fittingly, his last official appearance in a Rangers shirt, came on the final day of the season, and of course,
it was Ralph Brand who scored the only goal of the game, in a 1-0 win at Third Lanark.

Ralph Brand at the age of 28, was sold to Manchester City in the Summer of 65' for £30,000

His Rangers collection was 4 League Championships, 3 Scottish Cups, and 4 League Cups
He scored more goals for Rangers in the 1960's than any other player.
His career at Ibrox saw him score 220 Goals in 339 Games.
He represented the Scottish League XI, 5 times, scoring 8 Goals.
His International career saw him score 8 Goals in 8 Games for Scotland
His goalscoring record should certainly have warranted more Caps, and surely would have, but for the unfortunate fact that Scotland's greatest ever forward and No.10, Denis Law, was up there with World's best in the 1960's.

A quote from Ralph Brand some years later
"My highlight was just playing for Rangers.Walking into the dressing each week and seeing the No.10 shirt was mine was a special feeling."

It was a special feeling for those of us fortunate enough to have witnessed Ralph Brand, and that great Rangers side in the first half of the 1960;s.
 
@MO_TxTruBlu are these your own words or an extract from another source?

Being a young pup, I'll read properly later and no doubt learn a thing or two.

Cheers.
 
Too young to remember watching him properly, though I was well aware of his scoring exploits, my father told me that, though wearing number 10, Brand was the real centre forward in that team, with number 9 Jimmy Millar playing as a "deep lying centre-forward" (jargon of the time), more of a playmaker.
 
Lost count of the number of goals Brand got arriving in the box just as our wingers had skinned their man on the bye line and were lookin for a target. Scott, Henderson and Wilson musta loved him and Millar.
 
nasalsinatra said:
I am old enough to have seen Ralph’s debut for Rangers. He would have been about 18. A Glasgow Cup tie at Ibrox against Third Lanark. He played at outside-right instead of Alex Scott. I remember Alex scoring a hat-trick on his debut. I think Ralph did the same. A wonderful player. A great Ranger.
Click to expand...

Brand made his debut as a 17 year old v Kilmarnock, and scored twice in a 6-0 win in Nov. 1954 in Symon's first season.
He missed the next two seasons doing his National Service.
He did score his first Hat Trick v Third Lanark (4-2) in a Glasgow Cup Final replay at Ibrox at the end of March 1958.
It was his 23rd appearance, and he had still never tasted defeat in a Rangers shirt.
 
I saw Ralph Brand playing at Ibrox but unfortunately it was for raith rovers, I still feel privileged to have seen a legend playing
 
That was the Rangers that I grew up with and we were up there with the very best. We always felt that we would win in any game even getting a decent result albeit a defeat, at Ibrox against the greatest team that I had ever seen, Real Madrid of that era. We did get humped in the second leg in Madrid but that Madrid team was something else altogether!
I always in loved going to Ibrox and in those days I attended the Ibrox sports days, the Glasgow police sports days and anything else that was held there as the feeling of just being there was something special. I feel privileged that I seen all those great players play for us but to be honest, a wee bit sorry that we simply took them for granted as well.

W.A.T.P.
 
Great days that I loved as a wee boy growing up in the 50’s and early ’60’s. What a team. Ralphie Brand epitomised the work effort of that winning team. He may not have been as oustanding as Slim Jim or a dribbler like wee wullie, but he read the game like an old fox and popped up at the right moments. He could drift in from the left without being seen and snatch a goal. The only other player like that was the great John White, so Ralphie was in good company. A natural poacher if ever there was one. However, he needed Jimmie. The entire team needed him. Without Jimmie, that team was never the same again. They managed one last great effort in ’66 SCF replay.
Thanks Mo for a very informative & worthwhile look back at one of our team’s treasures.
 
Fantastic piece of writing went to my first game circa 62/63 and was at cup final v Dundee.Went to school with a guy called Phil Brand whom I believe was a nephew of the great man.
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
The 1960's were now upon us, and Symon was quietly and effectively putting together a wonderful team.
The great Jim Baxter was signed by Symon in the summer.

60-61, Rangers opened their season with a 3-1 win in the League Cup v Partick Thistle at Ibrox in front of 51,000,
as Baxter made his debut at Inside Left.
Thereafter, Baxter wore the No.6 shirt, and Ralph Brand was an ever present in that No.10 shirt for the next 57 games of that season, and what a season it was, as Rangers won the League Cup, the League Championship, and went all the way to the Final of the inaugural European Cup Winners Cup, where they defeated the great English side of the time Wolves, in the Semi Final.
In the first leg at Ibrox, Rangers were clinging desperately to a 1-0 lead, under incessant pressure, when Ralph Brand scored that vital second goal with 6 mins remaining, with his only scoring opportunity of the game.
In the return game Rangers held out for a 1-1 draw and a nice wee ditty was born that contained this lovely verse
'Now on the field below, The boys put on a show, The like they've never seen at Molineux.
And the football it was grand, From McMillan, Scott and Brand, When The Rangers came to Wolverhampton Town'.
In between those two epic games v Wolves, Rangers had surprisingly lost twice in the League, 0-2 v Kilmarnock (a), and 1-6 v Aberdeen (a), which reduced their 5 point lead at the top of the table with 4 games to play, to a 1 point lead with 2 games to play. Fortunately Rangers won those last two games, and clinched the League Title with a 7-3 win v Ayr Utd in our final league match. (Brand scored 2).
Ralph Brand scored an incredible 44 Goals that season for Rangers, which included Hat Tricks in three different competitions, against Borussia Monchengladbach (8-0) in the ECWC, against Third Lanark (4-3) in the League, and in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Queen of the South (7-0) at the Piggery.
Ralphie did like a goal against the papes (as we affectionately referred to them back then), he scored in all 4 games against Celtic that season, including the winner at the Piggery, in September, which put us through in the League Cup and eliminated them. One week later he scored again at the same venue in the League, as we molicated them 5-1.
18 Goals in the first 19 Games by the end of October, including one in the 2-0 win v Kilmarnock in the League Cup Final, saw Ralph Brand get a call up and his first Scotland Cap in November.
He repaid the managers faith by scoring twice on his Scotland debut in a 5-2 win v N.Ireland at Hampden.
Jim Baxter and Davy Wilson also earned their first Caps that season too, alongside Scotland Captain Eric Caldow, giving Scotland a new look Rangers quartet down that left side.
Rangers now had a settled XI, and were a team to be reckoned with.
Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow, Davis, Paterson, Baxter, Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.
Niven stepped in when Ritchie chipped an ankle bone at the end of October, until he returned at the end of March.
Following Ritchie's injury, Rangers played 16 consecutive games with an unchanged XI, with Niven in Goals.
The 10 outfield players played at least 47 games each that season, except for Jimmy Millar who managed 37 games.
The Front Five scored 132 Goals between them.
Scott (22), McMillan (15), Millar (27), Brand (44), Wilson (24).

Having played for Scottish League XI that defeated the English League XI 3-2 at Ibrox back in March,
Brand was overlooked for the annual Scotland v England match the following month at Wembley, with Pat Quinn (Motherwell) getting the No.10 shirt, as Scotland were trounced 3-9.
Brand was recalled for the next game, and earned 3 more full Scotland Caps in May 61' in the 3 World Cup Qualifiers against Eire (twice) and Czechoslovakia, scoring another 3 goals.

61-62 Brand carried on where he left off last season, scoring 9 Goals in the opening 7 games of the campaign.
By the time Christmas came around, Rangers had secured the League Cup, defeating Hearts 3-1 in the replayed Final
(with Brand netting one again in the Final), and disposed of French Champions Monaco in the European Cup, beating them home and away 3-2, before cruising past Vowarts (Berlin) 6-2 on Agg.
Not so good in the League. At the halfway stage, following a 0-0 draw with Hibs on Jan 6th, we trailed leaders Dundee by a massive 8 points, though we did have 1 game in hand (2 pts for a win).
Rangers would go on to win all 10 of their next League Games. Dundee had a major collapse at the end of January, going out of the Scottish Cup at home to St Mirren, then drawing one, before losing 4 League games on the trot.
A 0-0 draw between the two sides at Dens Park, left Rangers at the Top, 3 points ahead of Dundee, with 7 games to play.
In the Scottish Cup, we had seen off Falkirk (a) 2-1, Arbroath 6-0, Aberdeen 5-1 (after a 2-2 draw), Kilmarnock (a) 4-2,
and then Motherwell 3-1 in the Semi Final.
Following the 1-1 draw v Celtic(a) in the League, Rangers were very much on course to get that coveted Treble,
with only 3 games to play, all in the next week.
First up was the Scottish Cup Final against lowly St Mirren, who were battling relegation, but certainly deserved their place in the Final, having eliminated 4 First Division teams, including 3 of the top 4. League leaders Dundee(a), Dunfermline (h), and that infamous Semi Final at Ibrox, where they faced a Celtic side, that had skelped them 5-0 at Love St, just 5 days earlier, and crushed them 7-1 at the Piggery in Nov. The Fact that St Mirren raced into a 3-0 lead just past the half hour mark, was just too much for the hordes of papes to handle, so fighting amongst themselves, and bottle throwing, broke out all over the stadium, before they eventually spilled on to the pitch from both ends of the ground, in typical fashion, invading the field in an attempt to get the game abandoned. The entire ground was alive with people fighting. Mounted police appeared and helped to clear the pitch before play could continue. Both teams were taken off the park whilst the police cleared the field. Play was resumed with a ring of police around the ground. St Mirren won 3-1.
And so onto the Final itself, at Hampden in front of 127,940 paying fans, and in the most one sided final in many a year, and a dozen opportunities, it still took until the 40th min for Ralph Brand to break the deadlock, and give Rangers the lead.
Davy Wilson added a second, twelve mins after the restart, and that was the Scottish Cup in the bag.
2 League Games to play, Rangers, despite giving up a 3 point advantage over the last 5 games, still sat Top of the League with a much superior Goal Average than Dundee, so 2 wins would guarantee the Treble.
A midweek trip to Pittodrie saw Rangers go down 0-1, as Dundee beat St Mirren 2-0 to knock Rangers off top spot for the first time since Christmas. Dundee won their final game, as Rangers drew 1-1 at home to Kilmarnock, and despite winning both Cups, the season ended in disappointment, as that coveted Treble eluded them again.

The Rangers team for that 61-62 season was pretty much the same XI as the previous season, with Ritchie in Goals, and Bill Paterson (28 games) and Doug Baillie (22) sharing that Centre Half spot.
There was though, three youngsters forcing their way into the team, three players who would go on to achieve legendary status, John Greig (16 Games), Ronnie McKinnon (9) and 17 year old wee Willie Henderson (22), who by the seasons end, had pushed Scotland's Outside Right, Alex Scott, into the Rangers Reserves.

Ralph Brand had another amazing season, playing in 57 of 58 Rangers Games, with a return of 40 Goals.
He won 4 more Scotland Caps, with a return of 3 goals
He represented the Scottish League XI three times. against the Irish League (7-0), the Italian League (1-1), which included John Charles, and Denis Law, and attracted 67,896 to Hampden, and against the English League XI (4-3) at Villa Park.
Brand scored in all 3 Games, with a return of 5 Goals.

In the last two seasons, Ralph Brand had scored a total of 99 Goals for Rangers and Scotland!
Click to expand...
Memories as a young lad watching some of those games,brilliant read
 
Great post again MO

It fair brought back some childhood memories. That was the best team in our history during that period imo. Certainly from a footballing standpoint.
Theres a case to be made that Scott, MacMillan, Millar, Brand, and Wilson was the most potent forward line in our history. Indeed the entire standard of Scottish football was a lot better back then with several teams good enough to give us a game. I was a little on the young side to fully appreciate Ralph Brand’s talent, but I feel honoured nevertheless to have witnessed him and that great side play,
 
Fantastic article as always.

I very much doubt there will ever be another player who will score in 4 successive Scottish Cup finals.
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
The 1960's were now upon us, and Symon was quietly and effectively putting together a wonderful team.
The great Jim Baxter was signed by Symon in the summer.

60-61, Rangers opened their season with a 3-1 win in the League Cup v Partick Thistle at Ibrox in front of 51,000,
as Baxter made his debut at Inside Left.
Thereafter, Baxter wore the No.6 shirt, and Ralph Brand was an ever present in that No.10 shirt for the next 57 games of that season, and what a season it was, as Rangers won the League Cup, the League Championship, and went all the way to the Final of the inaugural European Cup Winners Cup, where they defeated the great English side of the time Wolves, in the Semi Final.
In the first leg at Ibrox, Rangers were clinging desperately to a 1-0 lead, under incessant pressure, when Ralph Brand scored that vital second goal with 6 mins remaining, with his only scoring opportunity of the game.
In the return game Rangers held out for a 1-1 draw and a nice wee ditty was born that contained this lovely verse
'Now on the field below, The boys put on a show, The like they've never seen at Molineux.
And the football it was grand, From McMillan, Scott and Brand, When The Rangers came to Wolverhampton Town'.
In between those two epic games v Wolves, Rangers had surprisingly lost twice in the League, 0-2 v Kilmarnock (a), and 1-6 v Aberdeen (a), which reduced their 5 point lead at the top of the table with 4 games to play, to a 1 point lead with 2 games to play. Fortunately Rangers won those last two games, and clinched the League Title with a 7-3 win v Ayr Utd in our final league match. (Brand scored 2).
Ralph Brand scored an incredible 44 Goals that season for Rangers, which included Hat Tricks in three different competitions, against Borussia Monchengladbach (8-0) in the ECWC, against Third Lanark (4-3) in the League, and in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Queen of the South (7-0) at the Piggery.
Ralphie did like a goal against the papes (as we affectionately referred to them back then), he scored in all 4 games against Celtic that season, including the winner at the Piggery, in September, which put us through in the League Cup and eliminated them. One week later he scored again at the same venue in the League, as we molicated them 5-1.
18 Goals in the first 19 Games by the end of October, including one in the 2-0 win v Kilmarnock in the League Cup Final, saw Ralph Brand get a call up and his first Scotland Cap in November.
He repaid the managers faith by scoring twice on his Scotland debut in a 5-2 win v N.Ireland at Hampden.
Jim Baxter and Davy Wilson also earned their first Caps that season too, alongside Scotland Captain Eric Caldow, giving Scotland a new look Rangers quartet down that left side.
Rangers now had a settled XI, and were a team to be reckoned with.
Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow, Davis, Paterson, Baxter, Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.
Niven stepped in when Ritchie chipped an ankle bone at the end of October, until he returned at the end of March.
Following Ritchie's injury, Rangers played 16 consecutive games with an unchanged XI, with Niven in Goals.
The 10 outfield players played at least 47 games each that season, except for Jimmy Millar who managed 37 games.
The Front Five scored 132 Goals between them.
Scott (22), McMillan (15), Millar (27), Brand (44), Wilson (24).

Having played for Scottish League XI that defeated the English League XI 3-2 at Ibrox back in March,
Brand was overlooked for the annual Scotland v England match the following month at Wembley, with Pat Quinn (Motherwell) getting the No.10 shirt, as Scotland were trounced 3-9.
Brand was recalled for the next game, and earned 3 more full Scotland Caps in May 61' in the 3 World Cup Qualifiers against Eire (twice) and Czechoslovakia, scoring another 3 goals.

61-62 Brand carried on where he left off last season, scoring 9 Goals in the opening 7 games of the campaign.
By the time Christmas came around, Rangers had secured the League Cup, defeating Hearts 3-1 in the replayed Final
(with Brand netting one again in the Final), and disposed of French Champions Monaco in the European Cup, beating them home and away 3-2, before cruising past Vowarts (Berlin) 6-2 on Agg.
Not so good in the League. At the halfway stage, following a 0-0 draw with Hibs on Jan 6th, we trailed leaders Dundee by a massive 8 points, though we did have 1 game in hand (2 pts for a win).
Rangers would go on to win all 10 of their next League Games. Dundee had a major collapse at the end of January, going out of the Scottish Cup at home to St Mirren, then drawing one, before losing 4 League games on the trot.
A 0-0 draw between the two sides at Dens Park, left Rangers at the Top, 3 points ahead of Dundee, with 7 games to play.
In the Scottish Cup, we had seen off Falkirk (a) 2-1, Arbroath 6-0, Aberdeen 5-1 (after a 2-2 draw), Kilmarnock (a) 4-2,
and then Motherwell 3-1 in the Semi Final.
Following the 1-1 draw v Celtic(a) in the League, Rangers were very much on course to get that coveted Treble,
with only 3 games to play, all in the next week.
First up was the Scottish Cup Final against lowly St Mirren, who were battling relegation, but certainly deserved their place in the Final, having eliminated 4 First Division teams, including 3 of the top 4. League leaders Dundee(a), Dunfermline (h), and that infamous Semi Final at Ibrox, where they faced a Celtic side, that had skelped them 5-0 at Love St, just 5 days earlier, and crushed them 7-1 at the Piggery in Nov. The Fact that St Mirren raced into a 3-0 lead just past the half hour mark, was just too much for the hordes of papes to handle, so fighting amongst themselves, and bottle throwing, broke out all over the stadium, before they eventually spilled on to the pitch from both ends of the ground, in typical fashion, invading the field in an attempt to get the game abandoned. The entire ground was alive with people fighting. Mounted police appeared and helped to clear the pitch before play could continue. Both teams were taken off the park whilst the police cleared the field. Play was resumed with a ring of police around the ground. St Mirren won 3-1.
And so onto the Final itself, at Hampden in front of 127,940 paying fans, and in the most one sided final in many a year, and a dozen opportunities, it still took until the 40th min for Ralph Brand to break the deadlock, and give Rangers the lead.
Davy Wilson added a second, twelve mins after the restart, and that was the Scottish Cup in the bag.
2 League Games to play, Rangers, despite giving up a 3 point advantage over the last 5 games, still sat Top of the League with a much superior Goal Average than Dundee, so 2 wins would guarantee the Treble.
A midweek trip to Pittodrie saw Rangers go down 0-1, as Dundee beat St Mirren 2-0 to knock Rangers off top spot for the first time since Christmas. Dundee won their final game, as Rangers drew 1-1 at home to Kilmarnock, and despite winning both Cups, the season ended in disappointment, as that coveted Treble eluded them again.

The Rangers team for that 61-62 season was pretty much the same XI as the previous season, with Ritchie in Goals, and Bill Paterson (28 games) and Doug Baillie (22) sharing that Centre Half spot.
There was though, three youngsters forcing their way into the team, three players who would go on to achieve legendary status, John Greig (16 Games), Ronnie McKinnon (9) and 17 year old wee Willie Henderson (22), who by the seasons end, had pushed Scotland's Outside Right, Alex Scott, into the Rangers Reserves.

Ralph Brand had another amazing season, playing in 57 of 58 Rangers Games, with a return of 40 Goals.
He won 4 more Scotland Caps, with a return of 3 goals
He represented the Scottish League XI three times. against the Irish League (7-0), the Italian League (1-1), which included John Charles, and Denis Law, and attracted 67,896 to Hampden, and against the English League XI (4-3) at Villa Park.
Brand scored in all 3 Games, with a return of 5 Goals.

In the last two seasons, Ralph Brand had scored a total of 99 Goals for Rangers and Scotland!
Click to expand...
Born 1953 , so got the loyalty, -at about 8/9 and never lost it !
 
Ralphie douses his team mates with a bucket of 'champagne' as Rangers complete the Treble in 1964 with that 3-1 victory over Dundee in the Scottish Cup Final.

pa-493291.jpg
 
Remember Ralphie scoring a breakaway goal at Ibrox against the mentally challengeds at our end place went mental
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
The 1960's were now upon us, and Symon was quietly and effectively putting together a wonderful team.
The great Jim Baxter was signed by Symon in the summer.

60-61, Rangers opened their season with a 3-1 win in the League Cup v Partick Thistle at Ibrox in front of 51,000,
as Baxter made his debut at Inside Left.
Thereafter, Baxter wore the No.6 shirt, and Ralph Brand was an ever present in that No.10 shirt for the next 57 games of that season, and what a season it was, as Rangers won the League Cup, the League Championship, and went all the way to the Final of the inaugural European Cup Winners Cup, where they defeated the great English side of the time Wolves, in the Semi Final.
In the first leg at Ibrox, Rangers were clinging desperately to a 1-0 lead, under incessant pressure, when Ralph Brand scored that vital second goal with 6 mins remaining, with his only scoring opportunity of the game.
In the return game Rangers held out for a 1-1 draw and a nice wee ditty was born that contained this lovely verse
'Now on the field below, The boys put on a show, The like they've never seen at Molineux.
And the football it was grand, From McMillan, Scott and Brand, When The Rangers came to Wolverhampton Town'.
In between those two epic games v Wolves, Rangers had surprisingly lost twice in the League, 0-2 v Kilmarnock (a), and 1-6 v Aberdeen (a), which reduced their 5 point lead at the top of the table with 4 games to play, to a 1 point lead with 2 games to play. Fortunately Rangers won those last two games, and clinched the League Title with a 7-3 win v Ayr Utd in our final league match. (Brand scored 2).
Ralph Brand scored an incredible 44 Goals that season for Rangers, which included Hat Tricks in three different competitions, against Borussia Monchengladbach (8-0) in the ECWC, against Third Lanark (4-3) in the League, and in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Queen of the South (7-0) at the Piggery.
Ralphie did like a goal against the papes (as we affectionately referred to them back then), he scored in all 4 games against Celtic that season, including the winner at the Piggery, in September, which put us through in the League Cup and eliminated them. One week later he scored again at the same venue in the League, as we molicated them 5-1.
18 Goals in the first 19 Games by the end of October, including one in the 2-0 win v Kilmarnock in the League Cup Final, saw Ralph Brand get a call up and his first Scotland Cap in November.
He repaid the managers faith by scoring twice on his Scotland debut in a 5-2 win v N.Ireland at Hampden.
Jim Baxter and Davy Wilson also earned their first Caps that season too, alongside Scotland Captain Eric Caldow, giving Scotland a new look Rangers quartet down that left side.
Rangers now had a settled XI, and were a team to be reckoned with.
Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow, Davis, Paterson, Baxter, Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.
Niven stepped in when Ritchie chipped an ankle bone at the end of October, until he returned at the end of March.
Following Ritchie's injury, Rangers played 16 consecutive games with an unchanged XI, with Niven in Goals.
The 10 outfield players played at least 47 games each that season, except for Jimmy Millar who managed 37 games.
The Front Five scored 132 Goals between them.
Scott (22), McMillan (15), Millar (27), Brand (44), Wilson (24).

Having played for Scottish League XI that defeated the English League XI 3-2 at Ibrox back in March,
Brand was overlooked for the annual Scotland v England match the following month at Wembley, with Pat Quinn (Motherwell) getting the No.10 shirt, as Scotland were trounced 3-9.
Brand was recalled for the next game, and earned 3 more full Scotland Caps in May 61' in the 3 World Cup Qualifiers against Eire (twice) and Czechoslovakia, scoring another 3 goals.

61-62 Brand carried on where he left off last season, scoring 9 Goals in the opening 7 games of the campaign.
By the time Christmas came around, Rangers had secured the League Cup, defeating Hearts 3-1 in the replayed Final
(with Brand netting one again in the Final), and disposed of French Champions Monaco in the European Cup, beating them home and away 3-2, before cruising past Vowarts (Berlin) 6-2 on Agg.
Not so good in the League. At the halfway stage, following a 0-0 draw with Hibs on Jan 6th, we trailed leaders Dundee by a massive 8 points, though we did have 1 game in hand (2 pts for a win).
Rangers would go on to win all 10 of their next League Games. Dundee had a major collapse at the end of January, going out of the Scottish Cup at home to St Mirren, then drawing one, before losing 4 League games on the trot.
A 0-0 draw between the two sides at Dens Park, left Rangers at the Top, 3 points ahead of Dundee, with 7 games to play.
In the Scottish Cup, we had seen off Falkirk (a) 2-1, Arbroath 6-0, Aberdeen 5-1 (after a 2-2 draw), Kilmarnock (a) 4-2,
and then Motherwell 3-1 in the Semi Final.
Following the 1-1 draw v Celtic(a) in the League, Rangers were very much on course to get that coveted Treble,
with only 3 games to play, all in the next week.
First up was the Scottish Cup Final against lowly St Mirren, who were battling relegation, but certainly deserved their place in the Final, having eliminated 4 First Division teams, including 3 of the top 4. League leaders Dundee(a), Dunfermline (h), and that infamous Semi Final at Ibrox, where they faced a Celtic side, that had skelped them 5-0 at Love St, just 5 days earlier, and crushed them 7-1 at the Piggery in Nov. The Fact that St Mirren raced into a 3-0 lead just past the half hour mark, was just too much for the hordes of papes to handle, so fighting amongst themselves, and bottle throwing, broke out all over the stadium, before they eventually spilled on to the pitch from both ends of the ground, in typical fashion, invading the field in an attempt to get the game abandoned. The entire ground was alive with people fighting. Mounted police appeared and helped to clear the pitch before play could continue. Both teams were taken off the park whilst the police cleared the field. Play was resumed with a ring of police around the ground. St Mirren won 3-1.
And so onto the Final itself, at Hampden in front of 127,940 paying fans, and in the most one sided final in many a year, and a dozen opportunities, it still took until the 40th min for Ralph Brand to break the deadlock, and give Rangers the lead.
Davy Wilson added a second, twelve mins after the restart, and that was the Scottish Cup in the bag.
2 League Games to play, Rangers, despite giving up a 3 point advantage over the last 5 games, still sat Top of the League with a much superior Goal Average than Dundee, so 2 wins would guarantee the Treble.
A midweek trip to Pittodrie saw Rangers go down 0-1, as Dundee beat St Mirren 2-0 to knock Rangers off top spot for the first time since Christmas. Dundee won their final game, as Rangers drew 1-1 at home to Kilmarnock, and despite winning both Cups, the season ended in disappointment, as that coveted Treble eluded them again.

The Rangers team for that 61-62 season was pretty much the same XI as the previous season, with Ritchie in Goals, and Bill Paterson (28 games) and Doug Baillie (22) sharing that Centre Half spot.
There was though, three youngsters forcing their way into the team, three players who would go on to achieve legendary status, John Greig (16 Games), Ronnie McKinnon (9) and 17 year old wee Willie Henderson (22), who by the seasons end, had pushed Scotland's Outside Right, Alex Scott, into the Rangers Reserves.

Ralph Brand had another amazing season, playing in 57 of 58 Rangers Games, with a return of 40 Goals.
He won 4 more Scotland Caps, with a return of 3 goals
He represented the Scottish League XI three times. against the Irish League (7-0), the Italian League (1-1), which included John Charles, and Denis Law, and attracted 67,896 to Hampden, and against the English League XI (4-3) at Villa Park.
Brand scored in all 3 Games, with a return of 5 Goals.

In the last two seasons, Ralph Brand had scored a total of 99 Goals for Rangers and Scotland!
Click to expand...

Some read Mo.

Absolutely brilliant.
 
A fantastic bit of research @MO_TxTruBlu. I was at Cathkin with my Dad when Ralph Brand scored his last goal for us. A real end of season game if I recall correctly.

I was too young to really appreciate Ralph Brand but his goal scoring statistics tell no lies. A magnificent player and servant for The Rangers.

I have told this story before so I will bore everyone with it again. Whenever I hear Derry’s Walls being sung at games in recent years, my mind goes back to the days when I was a nipper perched on one of the crush barriers. My Dad used to change the “sword and shield” line to “and Ralphie Brand”. I have been known to sing that line particularly in the footballing presence of the Unmentionables.
 
JamesMcNaught said:
Before my time but maybe early 60s team would be hard to surpass. I know we lost to Spurs but wasn’t that pre Baxter? How would we have done if Baxter hadn’t broken his leg ?
Click to expand...

Baxter played in the Spurs games. He broke his leg a couple of seasons later and we then played Inter Milan without him. Inter were arguably the best team in the world at the time and we lost on aggregate by 1 goal.
If memory serves we lost 3-1 in Milan thanks to a crazy 5 minutes after half time when we lost the 3 goals. We won the return at Ibrox 1-0.
Would Baxter have made the difference? He was a special player and I like to think he could have been the difference for us over 2 legs? What might have been!!
 
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