Rangers History Seasons To Be Cheerful 1933-34

MO_TxTruBlu

MO_TxTruBlu

Well-Known Member
On this day (Nov 18th 1933), Rangers suffered a surprising 1-3 loss at St Johnstone, that left us trailing the still undefeated Motherwell by 6 points at the top of the table, at the halfway stage of the season.

From this point on, Rangers would go through the rest of the season undefeated, (16 Wins 3 Draws in the League), taking the League Championship with 4 points to spare (Our 7th Championship in 8 seasons).
They also won the Scottish Cup that season, defeating St Mirren 5-0 in the Final.
Four days later they wrapped up the Double with a 3-1 win at Falkirk in the League.
In addition to that famous Double, Rangers also beat the English Champions Arsenal 5-1 on aggregate, 2-0 (h) and 3-1 (a) in the British Championship.
We collected the Glasgow Cup, defeating Celtic, then Clyde in the Final, and also the Glasgow Merchant's Charity Cup, defeating Partick Thistle, then Celtic in the Final.

In the 45 games that it took to complete the double, Rangers scored 144 Goals.
If you add the BC, GC, CC, then we scored a total of 156 Goals, in 52 Games.
Jimmy Smith was top scorer with 49 Goals in 43 Games
Bob McPhail scored 25 Goals in 34 Games.
Our back up Centre Forward, Jimmy Fleming scored 28 Goals in 20 Games !
14 of those goals coming in 2 games in one week in January, when Fleming scored a record 9 goals in one game, in a 14-2 victory over Blairgowrie in the Scottish Cup.
One week later, Jimmy Fleming scored 5 Goals in a 6-0 win at Dundee. Not bad for a 32 year old back up Striker!
Those three (Smith, McPhail and Fleming) combined to score a total of 102 Goals in 97 Games

Notable attendances that season
49,000... 2-2 v Celtic at Ibrox (League)
67,000... 4-2 v Motherwell at Ibrox (League)
69,543....0-0 v Hearts at Ibrox (Scottish Cup)
53,000....1-0 v Aberdeen at Ibrox (Scottish Cup)
60,119... 1-0 v St Johnstone Scottish Cup Semi Final at Hampden
113,403... 5-0 v St Mirren Scottish Cup Final at Hampden.


A remarkable season in our history, when you consider we no longer had the services of Two of our greatest players ever, with over 1000 appearances between the two of them.
Alan Morton had retired at the end of the previous season, and Sandy Archibald, only featured twice after that 1-3 loss to St Johnstone.

.........................................................Jerry Dawson

..............................Dougie Gray................................ Whitey McDonald

............Davie Meiklejohn ................ Jimmy Simpson ........................George Brown

Bobby Main........James (Doc) Marshall....... Jimmy Smith .........Bob McPhail ........Willie Nicholson

Reserves : Jimmy Fleming (18), Alex Venters (16), Sandy Archibald (15)
 
Here's the dinner menu from September 1933.
dZwpLie.jpg



"Diners were treated to Petite Marmite, Grouse Pudding and Haggis among other things!"

Arsenal vs Rangers Dinner Menu 1933 | National Football Collection

Starting under the reign of Herbert Chapman, Arsenal have played a series of friendlies with Glasgow Rangers at both Ibrox and Highbury between 1933/34 and
www.thenationalfootballcollection.org.uk
 
Jimmy Fleming's goalscoring exploits as back up remind me a bit of Max Murray's (in this regard I'm only looking at the stats...maybe it's skewed).

Murray was banging them in whenever he got the call, especially a purple 3 year patch.

Fleming of that time also maybe has a wee bit in common with another player you have written about before...Alex Willoughby who was often playing second fiddle, but also had outstanding numbers at times.
 
Who needs The New Era, when we have MO_X?

But here's from The New Era anyway.

''Season 1933/34 stood out in neon lights, sparkling in another clean sweep which found us winning once more the league and the three cups.

No opposition could withstand our volcanic power.

Our supporters who followed us throughout the country, roared in joy as we galloped ahead with only two defeats in 50 mateches.

Records had to be rewritten. New space found in the clouds as the side produced the pyrotechnics.''

''The air danced with sunshine when our boys hit the crest.''
 
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I wonder if any other player can equal that record of scoring 14 goals in 2 games.

You read it but still can't believe it.
 
wee bud's pit boots said:
Who needs The New Era, when we have MO_X?

But here's from The New Era anyway.

''Season 1933/34 stood out in neon lights, sparkling in another clean sweep which found us winning once more the league and the three cups.

No opposition could withstand our volcanic power.

Our supporters who followed us throughout the country, roared in joy as we galloped ahead with only two defeats in 50 mateches.

Records had to be rewritten. New space found in the clouds as the side produced the pyrotechnics.''

''The air dqanced with sunshine when our boys hit the crest.''
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Willie Allison had a great writing style.
 
dh1963 said:
I wonder if any other player can equal that record of scoring 14 goals in 2 games.

You read it but still can't believe it.
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I'm assuming this is Jimmy Fleming's nine at Blairgowrie and five a week later at Dundee.

My old man passed it down to me as it was passed down to him from my granda.

The wee village of Blairgowrie was in the grip of SC fever that season.

The locals were all in the Post Office to hear the outcome of the game?

14-2 a cry went up.

Who fir? A wag cried out.
 
If the story is to be believed, the Blairgowrie game had an amusing postscript. The local newspaper reporter phoned back with the score and when he said “14-2”, he was asked “who to?”.
 
wee bud's pit boots said:
I'm assuming this is Jimmy Fleming's nine at Blairgowrie and five a week later at Dundee.

My old man passed it down to me as it was passed down to him from my granda.

The wee village of Blairgowrie was in the grip of SC fever that season.

The locals were all in the Post Office to hear the outcome of the game?

14-2 a cry went up.

Who fir? A wag cried out.
Click to expand...
One early Rangers memory I still have is my dad giving me a Wee Blue Book that used to come out pre season and it had a wee article in it paying tribute to Jimmy Fleming who had died shortly before.
 
Angus Og said:
N
No Championship trophy
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Another great article @MO_TxTruBlu. Re the missing league championship trophy, Motherwell won the league in 1931-1932 but I don’t think the title on the photo is wrong. There is something in my mind that there other photographs around that era where there was no league championship trophy shown in the team photo although we won the league the previous year.
 
The Meik's Crombie said:
Another great article @MO_TxTruBlu. Re the missing league championship trophy, Motherwell won the league in 1931-1932 but I don’t think the title on the photo is wrong. There is something in my mind that there other photographs around that era where there was no league championship trophy shown in the team photo although we won the league the previous year.
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Here's 1934-35 and no league trophy either. I wonder if it was it was just a league flag that was presented.

PPTJinp.jpg
 
Templbluenose said:
Here's 1934-35 and no league trophy either. I wonder if it was it was just a league flag that was presented.

PPTJinp.jpg
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I think you are right @Templbluenose although I am not sure the reason for the missing trophy. I did read somewhere back in the day that the important trophy to win was the Scottish Cup and not the League. Seems strange nowadays although at this stage, I am desperate for any silverware.
 
dh1963 said:
I wonder if any other player can equal that record of scoring 14 goals in 2 games.

You read it but still can't believe it.
Click to expand...

I doubt that anyone other than Jimmy Fleming and Roy of the Rovers have ever scored 14 in two games in a week,
but,
that very same season (1933-34), our own Jimmy Smith scored 10 goals in 4 days, in our opening two games of the season.
He scored 4 in a 5-1 v Airdrie, on the Saturday, then 3 days later he scored 6 in a 9-1 win v Ayr United.
The 9-1 win, Rangers played the second half a man short, with Bob McPhail been forced off 5 mins before the break.
 
Great read again Mo. The Struth dynasty was in top gear during those years and it must have been brilliant to be able to watch those great Rangers sides in action. An era when we produced a steady stream of unrivaled talent.
 
Ronnietheranger said:
Great read again Mo. The Struth dynasty was in top gear during those years and it must have been brilliant to be able to watch those great Rangers sides in action. An era when we produced a steady stream of unrivaled talent.
Click to expand...
Those stats have to be seen to be believed!As an aside Bobby Main was my maths teacher at School.
 
daviesmithsbookie said:
Those stats have to be seen to be believed!As an aside Bobby Main was my maths teacher at School.
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We had only 6 recognised Outside Rights in the 65 years between 1917 and 1982

Sandy Archibald 1917-33
Bobby Main 1933-38
Willie Waddell 1938-54
Alex Scott 1955-62
Willie Henderson 1962-71
Tommy McLean 1971- 82

Bobby Main is probably the least recognised of all of them, but he certainly played his part.
That 1933-34 was the first season he became a regular, finally replacing the great Sandy Archibald, who I believe still holds the record for the most League Appearances ever for Rangers.
As hard an act as Archibald was to replace, Bobby Main had an exceptional season, scoring in all 3 Cup Finals that we won.
Off the top of my head, I cannot think of anyone who has scored in Three Cup Finals in the same season.
So impressive was Main in that first season as a regular, that he was selected for the Scottish League XI to face the English League at Ibrox in Feb 34' in front of 59,000 at Ibrox.
 
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