The Signing of Maurice Johnston

All we could ask from our point of view was that he kept his head down & go out and give it his all in a Rangers shirt, and I think he did ....... although he nearly fucked it when sent home early from Italy a year later during pre-season !!

The added bonus was it absolutely crushed the filth, and still consumes them to this day. Which is nice.
 
I didn't believe it was real when I heard the rumour that morning.

Total shock when it happened.

Not just because of religion, but more because he had just apparently re-signed for Celtic and he had been pretty open about his devotion to them and dislike of us.

It quickly became a huge GIRFUY to the Celtic fans though.
 
I was stunned by it but international games were on council tv all the time and you could see how great a striker he was.

On the religion thing a family member was friends with someone who babysat his daughter Dionne and Mo said he found it funny as he wasn’t bothered about religion. Admitted blessing himself was just to wind the Rangers fans up although he’d obviously been raised as a cathorlic. The big issue was crossing the divide after being such a high profile player. He had balls of steel.
 
It was a defining moment for me, as a lifelong Rangers fan who was 25 when he signed.

Until then , the general consensus was that ourselves and the Yahoos were two sides of the same coin: mainly WoS based, largely working class supporters who loved their team but had a significant minority of bigots and were playing a pale version of Northern Irish sectarianism.

After Johnson signed, we saw the underbelly of Sellik's support. They had been more than happy to see us portrayed as anti-Catholic and to point out that they had been *stifles laughter* 'open to all' from day one - you'll still hear them trot this out.

Basically, desperate to point out that we were bigots and they weren't.

And look what happened when Johnson signed?

A Sellik man all his life, the sort of player who crossed himself ostentatiously on the field of play - not as a gesture of piety, but a tribal statement of identity. Who'd been sent off for headbutting a Rangers player. Not just liked by the Yahoos, adored by them.

Judas, betrayal, infamy, traitor.......every perjorative word dragged out, hyperbole beyond measure, every single Tim apoplectic about him signing.

Not a single one - or their many media apologists - said anything like "that's great, a big step to ending sectarianism,' or 'good to see Rangers enter the modern world' or anything about his quality as a player, or how brave he was doing this, or how progressive Rangers, Souness, Murray etc had been.

Just condemnation, anger, spite, vitriol and malice.

It showed, beyond reasonable doubt, that the Sellik support had (still has) a massive problem with sectarianism and were at least as bigoted and neanderthal as anyone else, ourselves included.

They didn't want an end to what they described as Rangers' anti-Catholicism - in fact they wanted it to continue so they could play the role which comforts them and takes the to their happy place: as the plucky, downtrodden but enlightened underdog.

They're still at it to this day. That's why they bitch about VAR, ;masonic 'refs and the like.

It is hardwired into their collective psyche, it's in their DNA.
 
Definitely a huge "JFK moment" in my life.

I was a boy on my milk round, I'll never forget the milk van going along Glasgow Road, turning left onto Hawkhead Road (Paisley), just at the corner of Barshaw Park.

There's a bus stop at the park, there's a guy reading his copy of The Sun with the front page emblazoned with "Mo Joins Gers'.

I remember my first words being "I hope it's Malpas" while realising that Maurice Malpas joining Rangers would barely make the back page, much less the front.

I'll never forget the face of the guy that drove the van, as big an Earl Haig as I've ever known almost going purple he was that apoplectic.
 
Funnily enough i've just been listening to the H&H Dominant episode which features the signing of Johnston (the whole series is a great listen by the way).

The prevailing mood around me and my mates was 'don't mind signing a catholic but why did it have to be him?'. He was considered at that time to be a 'rabid', mainly due to his behaviour while playing for them and it seemed unthinkable that he could ever wear our jersey. I think by the time he hit that late winner against the beggars in November the vast majority had accepted him, maybe not as a hero but at the very least, an asset to the team.
 
I hated the wee mentally challenged bastard at the time because of his antics in previous games against us particularly the Stuart Munro incident in the LC final ,but he grew on me and gradually I accepted him .
 
Marcellus Wallace said:
Everyone was in a state of shock for days maybe even weeks.
My recollection- and I was 13- was that the shock turned to anger on both sides pretty quickly. The exception was in Rangers fans my age. We were buzzing. Too young to be deeply caught up in the religious or political storm. The GIRUY was obvious abs immediate and it killed their joy at winning the Scottish Cup stone dead and ruined their summer.
It was a glorious time that arguably some of their fans have still to recover fully from.
The reason me and my mates were excited was because he’d become an unbelievable striker and we couldn’t wait to see him paired with Super Ally!
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100%, I was 8 going on 9 at the time so couldn't recall him playing for them (although I knew he had. He was scoring in almost every game for Scotland in the italia 90 qualifiers and I was buzzing we had signed a great Scottish striker to play alongside Ally.

The 'forgive me father I have signed' meltdown only sweetened the deal.
 
Fran Sand Dancer said:
I wasn't alive when Rangers signed Maurice Johnston, through modern eyes it still feels like a significant moment in our history but I don't think anyone who wasn't there can really grasp the feelings of shock that came with it.

To cut a long story short I'm working on something and looking to hear thoughts from people who were around at the time, were you happy with the signing? Did the GIRUY factor outweigh everything else? How did you and those around you react? etc

Cheers in advance.
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I think there was a charity match being played at Hampden a good few years after he retired and it was ex Gers v ex them and he was gong to play a half for each team, that mob allegedly threatened him and he didnt play in the game at all.
 
I was at work when one of my workmates mother phoned and told him it was official. I saw it as a GIRFUY moment. They had paraded him as a new signing and sang about him in th Cup Final as if it was lift off for a new era. It was a real boot in the baws for them. We were going to have to break the no RCs practice at some point, so added to GIRFUY, Mojo was a great player.
While most of the Bears I knew saw it as a great signing, a lot said let's see how it goes. No one said anything about not going back. There was one guy I knew of who excluded all Mojo's goals and kept a separate league table.
 
Fran Sand Dancer said:
I wasn't alive when Rangers signed Maurice Johnston, through modern eyes it still feels like a significant moment in our history but I don't think anyone who wasn't there can really grasp the feelings of shock that came with it.

To cut a long story short I'm working on something and looking to hear thoughts from people who were around at the time, were you happy with the signing? Did the GIRUY factor outweigh everything else? How did you and those around you react? etc

Cheers in advance.
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The signing of Johnston was a seismic moment in Scottish Football.
Basically Rangers were seen as an exclusively Protestant club playing wise.
For Glasgow Rangers to sign a high profile Scottish RC was a huge culture shock primarily across the city but it would be wrong to say it was universally accepted by the Rangers support although the vast majority of Rangers supporters did.
Indeed season tickets were torn up and a minority never returned.
In the seat immediately below me one of the group did exactly that.
In fairness he was the only one of their group that did that.
Across the city Johnston was reviled by them and still is to this day and perhaps why he moved to USA and stayed there near the end of his playing career.
Being paraded at the piggery in their strip and signing for Rangers a couple of days later did not help.
Johnston established himself as a Rangers player and firmly accepted when he scored against them in the 89 th minute of an Old Firm game when we won 1-0.
Their support were in full voice just prior to Johnston scoring in anticipation of the draw.
They were apoplectic in misery when he scored.
One of my most joyous moments watching Rangers.
 
Fran Sand Dancer said:
I wasn't alive when Rangers signed Maurice Johnston, through modern eyes it still feels like a significant moment in our history but I don't think anyone who wasn't there can really grasp the feelings of shock that came with it.

To cut a long story short I'm working on something and looking to hear thoughts from people who were around at the time, were you happy with the signing? Did the GIRUY factor outweigh everything else? How did you and those around you react? etc

Cheers in advance.
Click to expand...
I was not happy, like the majority of Rangers fans who had grown up through the 60's and 70's,
I was proud of our traditions, and felt that we had betrayed those traditions massively,
in signing the most bitter and detested of all papes around at the time.
Not doubting his talent as a player, it was a huge signing, but I felt it was more about appeasing the media, and Souness' ego, than it was about the quality of the player we were signing.
We could have signed anyone at that time, but why did it have to be that bitter wee scrote.

Of course, the seethe coming from them across the city, the epicaricacy, and the 88th minute winner against them, did make it somewhat palpably acceptable.
 
I was working for SRC in Finance in Glasgow which was rammed full of Tims.
As usual travelled from Lanarkshire into the town by train and on route to the station would pick up a copy of the Sun and seen the front page , laughed at it as 'typical Sun news'. So gets into office and holds up the front page to the rest of my team , faces were like not amused, eyes rolling like clouds during thunder storms thought nothing of it but during the morning things were gathering pace until finally the press conference as MoJo is ushered in to the Blue Room now it IS OFFISHAL!
I was walking about with a grin as wide as the Clyde with these mutants sick.
 
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MO_TxTruBlu said:
I was not happy, like the majority of Rangers fans who had grown up through the 60's and 70's,
I was proud of our traditions, and felt that we had betrayed those traditions massively,
in signing the most bitter and detested of all papes around at the time.
Not doubting his talent as a player, it was a huge signing, but I felt it was more about appeasing the media, and Souness' ego, than it was about the quality of the player we were signing.
We could have signed anyone at that time, but why did it have to be that bitter wee scrote.

Of course, the seethe coming from them across the city, the epicaricacy, and the 88th minute winner against them, did make it somewhat palpably acceptable.
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The vast majority of my mates loved it. Rangers were signing a brilliant striker and getting it right up Celtic at the same time.
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
I was not happy, like the majority of Rangers fans who had grown up through the 60's and 70's,
I was proud of our traditions, and felt that we had betrayed those traditions massively,
in signing the most bitter and detested of all papes around at the time.
Not doubting his talent as a player, it was a huge signing, but I felt it was more about appeasing the media, and Souness' ego, than it was about the quality of the player we were signing.
We could have signed anyone at that time, but why did it have to be that bitter wee scrote.

Of course, the seethe coming from them across the city, the epicaricacy, and the 88th minute winner against them, did make it somewhat palpably acceptable.
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this is what I was told by older bears
 
While he was here the number of goals our strikers scored compared to pre/post Mojo was significantly lower.

I much preferred Drinkell, Fleck and of course Hateley to Johnston as an alternative or strike partner to McCoist.
 
Anybody got that clip of Mo in changing/training room on some kind of electric chair with McCoist and co in the background pishing themselves?
 
Noddy said:
The vast majority of my mates loved it. Rangers were signing a brilliant striker and getting it right up Celtic at the same time.
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Fresh faced Teenagers, I suspect, on the Souness revolution, having endured the early 80's and narrowly missed out on growing up in the 60's/70's. A different breed.
 
Ubik said:
While he was here the number of goals our strikers scored compared to pre/post Mojo was significantly lower.

I much preferred Drinkell, Fleck and of course Hateley to Johnston as an alternative or strike partner to McCoist.
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Not sure what you mean but MJ scored more than either of the guys you mention. If you’re suggesting he wasn’t better than them then I disagree. He was a terrific player
 
The question is . Would Rangers fans nowadays be happy for the club to sign an ex Celtic player and self confessed Celtic fan. I doubt it, but that is what we faced back then and it was a lot to reflect on and no wonder there was such furore. Fortunately for us and for him, he banged in the goals and won the fans over. If he hadnt I dread to think what it would have been like in our fanbase. It proved that Rangers fans had moved on , all we wanted was players playing the best they could for us, no matter what their background was. Celtic fans remained in the dark ages as they still do.
 
He was loathed by our fans when he played for them. Absolutely despised. And not just because he was Catholic.
So to see him in the blue room with the club blazer on after having allegedly signed for them again a few weeks before was fcking bonkers.
 
Otis Blue said:
The question is . Would Rangers fans nowadays be happy for the club to sign an ex Celtic player and self confessed Celtic fan. I doubt it, but that is what we faced back then and it was a lot to reflect on and no wonder there was such furore. Fortunately for us and for him, he banged in the goals and won the fans over. If he hadnt I dread to think what it would have been like in our fanbase. It proved that Rangers fans had moved on , all we wanted was players playing the best they could for us, no matter what their background was. Celtic fans remained in the dark ages as they still do.
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You say that the signing proved that the fans had moved on, but that you doubt that such a signing would be accepted now? Are you saying that the attitudes of our fans has gone back the way?
To be honest, given the multitude of players we've signed since who are probably catholic given their nationalities and have been accepted without question, the only thing which I find odd is the continual singing of songs with 'add-ons".
 
Hated him at Celtic, thought he was a horrible wee bitter c@nt, wasnt particularly bothered about the religion, it was reported around the time that Celtic had a mass for players and Mo Johnston didnt bother going. When we signed him I was totally shocked but he was a great player. Won me over with his workrate and goals.

I saw a few arguments at games to start with, the various viewpoints getting aired. One of my best mates was the spitting image of Mo Jonston at the time and he hated it as the haters used to get onto him. He took to wearing a hat at games to hide the ginger hair :D
 
A lot was made of our fans burning season tickets and how we were all nasty bigots but, managed to completely ignore where all the abuse was coming from.

Anyway I only knew one guy who didn't go but, even at that he didn't rip up the season ticket, just gave it away whilst Mo Jo was there.

Fwiw my dad was against it saying it wasn't about signing a Catholic it was signing THAT Catholic that was the issue. He reckoned Mo openly hated us. Between that and headbutting Stuart Munro was enough for him.

I was really young and still remember coming home from the Aberdeen game when he scored his first goal. When I got home my Granda said to me 'i can't believe you were singing his name, I heard you on the radio'. Took me years to work out how he could possibly know. Auld shite :D
 
Don't forget the reaction from the Rangers support/PUL community/ Orangemen in Northern Ireland. It was 'bombshell' news (pun not intended). Mo Johnston was signed only the day before the 11th night bonfires and therefore just before The Twelfth marches (signed on 10th of July 1989).

From what I recall there were mixed feelings about the signing over the Twelfth. Many of the PUL community/Rangers supporters celebrated it as a GIRUY night at the Bonfires on the 11th. I recall some Orangemen who were Rangers supporters were not too enamoured at the news. Others were more pragmatic.

I think the view was it wasn't the signing of an RC was the problem in as much it was the signing of Mo Johnston. I think the sending off at the 1986/87 League Cup Final Rangers 2 v 1 Celtic, where Mo Johnston crossed himself he made his way off was remembered amongst his hatred of Rangers.
 
I have said it before and I will say it again, us winning 55 and stopping their 10iar light* has had the same impact on a generation of their fans as MoJo signing for us had on their das generation.

I honestly think if we won in Seville last year the Scottish Government would have had to expand Carstairs by 25% to meet the capacity.
 
Fran Sand Dancer said:
I wasn't alive when Rangers signed Maurice Johnston, through modern eyes it still feels like a significant moment in our history but I don't think anyone who wasn't there can really grasp the feelings of shock that came with it.

To cut a long story short I'm working on something and looking to hear thoughts from people who were around at the time, were you happy with the signing? Did the GIRUY factor outweigh everything else? How did you and those around you react? etc

Cheers in advance.
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I was 14 and was devastated. Absolutely hated him , he was their equivalent of our super ally . To add he was also hated by us , to the level of Lennon and Scott Brown . 86 skol cup final , he spat at cooper and blessed himself getting sent off . Souness was determined to sign a catholic to shut up the bigots in the support as he saw it . In hindsight yes I suppose we needed to sign one , but not him . The day he signed I was raging and didn’t go back for months . I still maintain to this day we didn’t need him . I remember our supporters club’s dinner that season Walter smith came . He was speaking , and told us “ i didn’t want him , it was Graeme”. Also and don’t know how true but rumors were that Cooper left us as he refused to play with him . And when Walter was made gaffer he left that close season . To sum up , I never liked him lol
 
We were on holiday in Florida when it happened- pre internet/mobiles of course.

We phoned home to check in with my older sister who’d stayed at home and she says by the way Rangers have signed Mo Johnston.

She wasn’t a football fan and my dad spent 5 mins telling not to be daft it was Celtic that had signed him.

When she finally convinced us it was true we both had mixed feelings- nothing to do with the religious element but more the memories of his performances for them.

It wasn’t long before his performances and goals showed it to be a great signing and as GIRUYs it will never be surpassed.
 
Signing an R.C. was long overdue especially a high profile one,
Rangers had signed R.C.s before but the fact was conveniently ignored and the club didn’t seem to feel the desire to advertise the fact,When we signed MoJo it got the monkey of our backs and I don’t thing we’ve looked back since.
 
BlueHaze said:
Signing an R.C. was long overdue especially a high profile one,
Rangers had signed R.C.s before but the fact was conveniently ignored and the club didn’t seem to feel the desire to advertise the fact,When we signed MoJo it got the monkey of our backs and I don’t thing we’ve looked back since.
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Can you imagine that day if we knew our team would be full of them one day and players blessing themselves wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow . For me things shouldn’t have changed
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
I was not happy, like the majority of Rangers fans who had grown up through the 60's and 70's,
I was proud of our traditions, and felt that we had betrayed those traditions massively,
in signing the most bitter and detested of all papes around at the time.
Not doubting his talent as a player, it was a huge signing, but I felt it was more about appeasing the media, and Souness' ego, than it was about the quality of the player we were signing.
We could have signed anyone at that time, but why did it have to be that bitter wee scrote.

Of course, the seethe coming from them across the city, the epicaricacy, and the 88th minute winner against them, did make it somewhat palpably acceptable.
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Agree, when Souness floated the idea of signing Ray Houghton the Rangers support expressed their opposition en-masse at the Hibs game at Ibrox.
Mo Johnstone was the Leigh Griffiths of the time, a classless gobshite
who went out his way to express his dislike for us.
I said at the time if we accepted him, we would accept anything.
I always felt we lost more than we gained by signing him.

Mo Johnstone went on to perform brilliantly for Rangers and iirc behaved himself as a Rangers player. Times have changed but there might be some selective memory about his signing.
 
Hehaw said:
I have said it before and I will say it again, us winning 55 and stopping their 10iar light* has had the same impact on a generation of their fans as MoJo signing for us had on their das generation.

I honestly think if we won in Seville last year the Scottish Government would have had to expand Carstairs by 25% to meet the capacity.
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See this us winning 55 has demoralised them. It is absolute p1sh.

Go and ask a yahoo if they are happy with their lot today and I'll guarantee the tainted ten doesn't bother them in the slightest.

It's like us walking out of Ibrox after humping PSV 4-1 in the autumn of 1999. How many of us were thinking back to the May of 1998? Not one of us.

They've became stronger because a wee Dutchman at Ibrox has handed them 60 mill in automatic CL cash in one sodding year.
 
Blue and white ‘75 said:
Can you imagine that day if we knew our team would be full of them one day and players blessing themselves wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow . For me things shouldn’t have changed
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Still think about what the reaction would have been when I first started going,A Rangers player running onto the pitch and crossing himself,Uproar would be an understatement.
 
Bought the Sun Monday morning paper shop on the corner of Hillington and PRW couldnt believe the headline couldnt wait to get into work my auld man was raging he hated the Rangers and despised Johnson from that day good times had no problem with his religion just that he played well for us and he did .
 
1872 said:
I was at Torbett Towers when he played against them for the first time for Rangers. They were whipped up in to an absolute frenzy of rage which was off the charts. Which was nice B-D

To be fair to him he actually came out to warm up on his own happy to take their abuse. He could have walked out surrounded by team mates but he chose to come out himself

He missed a couple of good chances though.
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He didnt miss the target in the next game at Ibrox though ..bedlam in the 89th minute , i even joined in singing the Super Mo song which i swore i’d never sing .
 
Otis Blue said:
The question is . Would Rangers fans nowadays be happy for the club to sign an ex Celtic player and self confessed Celtic fan. I doubt it, but that is what we faced back then and it was a lot to reflect on and no wonder there was such furore. Fortunately for us and for him, he banged in the goals and won the fans over. If he hadnt I dread to think what it would have been like in our fanbase. It proved that Rangers fans had moved on , all we wanted was players playing the best they could for us, no matter what their background was. Celtic fans remained in the dark ages as they still do.
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Yet they are never taken to task about their unbridled hatred. Not them or their club.
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
I was not happy, like the majority of Rangers fans who had grown up through the 60's and 70's,
I was proud of our traditions, and felt that we had betrayed those traditions massively,
in signing the most bitter and detested of all papes around at the time.
Not doubting his talent as a player, it was a huge signing, but I felt it was more about appeasing the media, and Souness' ego, than it was about the quality of the player we were signing.
We could have signed anyone at that time, but why did it have to be that bitter wee scrote.

Of course, the seethe coming from them across the city, the epicaricacy, and the 88th minute winner against them, did make it somewhat palpably acceptable.
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Agree with all of that except the final paragraph. I couldn’t care less whether they were huffed or chuffed. My acceptance of anything in life will never be determined by how it makes them feel.
 
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