On the very day that White was appointed Rangers manager on Nov 1st 1967, Celtic were off in South America competing for the World Club Championship.
1967 had seen Celtic win their first back to back titles in 50 years (since 1917), before going on to be crowned Champions of Europe, whilst we had lost the ECWC Final in extra-time in Nuremberg, and had the depression of Berwick (our worst result in 95 years of illustrious history) still fresh in the mind. Jimmy Millar, Jim Forrest, George McLean and Davie Wilson had all departed that year.
Yes, the young and inexperienced 34 year old Davie White had it all to do;
here he was, taking over a Rangers side that had failed to win the Championship in any of the previous three seasons (our longest drought in 50 years) and he also happened to be up against Celtic's greatest ever manager and team.
White started incredibly well and went on to win 19 of his first 20 League games in charge, amassing a staggering 39 out of a possible 40 points. The only 'blemish' being a 2-2 draw at Celtic Park on Jan 2nd, which happened to be our THIRD game in only FOUR days, having scored 9 goals in the previous two games (using only 15 players).
We were Top of the League. We were playing some really attractive, adventurous and stylish attacking football. We were banging them in.
We gubbed Raith Rovers 10-2, we put 6 past St Johnstone, 5 past Partick Thistle and Stirling Albion, scored 4 against Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Stirling and Dundee(twice). In Europe we hammered the much fancied Germans (Cologne) 3-0 at Ibrox, lost 1-3 (aet) in Germany, but it mattered not, we were through to the Quarter Finals. In the Scottish Cup, we had seen off Hamilton 3-1, and then drew 1-1 at Dens Park.
The replay came in the middle of Rangers being forced to play 4 games in 8 days:
Sat Mar 2nd 6-2 v St Johnstone(h)
Mon (replay) 4-1 v Dundee (h) aet
Wed (Lge) 2-1 v Dunfermline (a)
Sat (SC 3) 1-1 v Hearts (h) ...
(Over 100,000 watched the two cup games at Ibrox) and then the replay v Hearts four days later on wed March 13th.
Willie Johnston, (who White had seen as more than just a winger and had him play alongside Ferguson as a striker) had scored 12 goals in his last 11 League outings, and was back in the side for the replay. We thought we were unbeatable. The game looked to be heading for extra time for the second time in a week, when in the 87th minute of a really tight hard fought game, Donald Ford struck the winner for Hearts. Rangers were out the Cup. Incredibly, this was White's only defeat in his first 30 domestic games in charge.
Two draws in April, and his First League defeat in the final minute of the final game of the season cost us the League by 2 points, despite notching a record number of points since League re-construction in 1955-56 (the 61 points collected that season would have won the Championship in 11 of the past 12 seasons). This was in fact the highest percentage of points won by any Rangers side since Bill Struth's first season, back in 1920-21.
Celtic who had the incredible record of 30 Wins 3 Draws and 1 Defeat took the Championship with 63 points. To give an idea of what White was up against, in his first season -following our 2-2 draw with Celtic on Jan 2nd, Celtic went on to win ALL 16 of their remaining League games. Prior to that defeat on the last day of the season, White had gone 25 League games undefeated. This, added to Scot Symon's last 12 League games in charge (undefeated) actually saw Rangers set a new Scottish record of 37 consecutive League Games undefeated.
In the Fairs Cup we also got to the quarter-finals before meeting Leeds Utd in March where two goals in six minutes at Elland Road in the second leg were enough to see Leeds progress with a 2-0 aggregate. There was 80,000 at Ibrox for the home game, and 43,000 at Ibrox to watch the away game on close circuit TV. Leeds Utd went on to win the Trophy.
We did all this despite Alex Ferguson being our main striker.
1968-69. His only full season in charge.
White made two major signings.
He smashed the Scottish transfer record and outbid the English Champions Everton to snap up Colin Stein from Hibs for £100,000 (Stein became an instant hero scoring back to back hat tricks in his first two games). He paid St Johnstone £50,000 for Alex McDonald (arguably Rangers best value for money signing ever). He also made ambitious attempts to sign English League players: Bobby Hope and Charlie Cooke, as well as Vojvodina's keeper Ilija Pantelic. We dominated and comfortably beat Celtic at both Parkhead and Ibrox in the two league games (4-2 and 1-0).
We were firing on all cylinders, and quite frankly seemed unstoppable, an example being one week in the middle of March (15th - 22nd), when we beat Clyde 6-0 at Ibrox in the League on the Saturday (Colin Stein who scored another Hat trick was ridiculously ordered off)then four days later hammered Atletico Bilbao 4-1 at Ibrox in the Fairs Cup, followed three days later with a scintillating display of football at Parkhead, where we crushed Aberdeen 6-1 in the Scottish Cup Semi Final.
Unfortunately, Colin Stein's disciplinary record (aided and abetted by a certain Celtic Chairman on the SFA Disciplinary Committee ) saw to it that Colin Stein would be suspended from the end of March until May 1st (1 day after the season ended, should a Cup Final replay be necessary): this saw us drop 6 points in the final 6 games, and concede the League to Celtic by 5 points. Just to give you an indication of how much of a loss to us, and a threat to others, Colin Stein was at that point - following his suspension, and having not kicked a ball for 6 weeks, Stein played four games for Scotland in a two week period between May 3rd and 17th, and scored in all four games (against Wales, N.Ireland, England and Cyprus) netting seven goals.
In the Scottish Cup we had disposed of Hibernian, Hearts and Airdrie before meeting Aberdeen in the semi-final at Parkhead where we thrashed them 6-1 in that memorable display. In the Final, with Colin Stein suspended, White opted to play Alex Ferguson rather than Sandy Jardine, purely because of the Aeriel threat of McNeill at corners. I can still see Ferguson standing back in almost admiration as McNeill rose unchallenged to put them one up after only two minutes.
From what I remember, we actually went after them for the next forty minutes and took the game to them. Ferguson had the chance to restore parity when Fallon parried a thunderbolt from Greig, that came out to Ferguson who could have tapped it in for the equaliser, only for the buffoon to fall over his own feet, and another chance went begging. Two horrendous mistakes ( by Persson and Martin) two minutes before the break, both seized upon by the 20 year old George Connolly, resulted in two goals to give them a 3-0 lead at half time. We lost the game 0-4. Over 350,000 attended those 5 cup games.
In the Fairs Cup we went all the way to the Semi Final, defeating Vojvodina (2-1 agg), Dundalk (9-1), Dws Amsterdam (4-1), Atletico Bilbao (4-3) before losing 0-2 to Newcastle Utd. The tie was basically lost at Ibrox as Rangers were held to a 0-0 draw, despite numerous chances and yet another missed penalty from Andy Penman costing us a place in the final. Newcastle United went on to win the Trophy.
1969-70 (well the first few months of...)
Having brought the legendary Jim Baxter back home, his faith was repaid immediately when in his first game back at Ibrox, the now not so slim Jim masterminded a famous 2-1 comeback victory over Celtic in the League Cup Section qualifier that had the crowd in raptures. In the Cup Winners Cup we beat Steau 2-0 at home, and held out in Bucharest for a 0-0 draw where White cleverly employed John Greig in a sweeper's role.
In the second round, despite losing 1-3 away to Gornik,confidence was still high that we could overcome them at Ibrox. Baxter scored a stunning goal after 18 mins, and it all looked to be going to plan as Rangers sustained pressure continued for the first hour....and then cruelly the game changed...
Gornik started to play and scored three quite brilliant goals in the final half hour as they toyed with Rangers, looking as if they could score at will. Lubanski (who was recently voted Poland's greatest player of the last 50 years) was just superb. Gornik were applauded off the park.
In the morning Davie White was gone.
In his two seasons in charge Rangers had finished 2 points and 5 points behind Celtic, and I think we were 2 points ahead of them (though they had two games in hand) when he got fired.
(Hibernian were top the League at that time).
White was replaced by Willie Waddell, the former Rangers legendary winger, who had also won the Championship as a manager in 1965 with Kilmarnock, before returning to journalism with the Daily Express, where he was heavily critical of Rangers, and White in particular, referring to him as 'the Boy David'.
(With Waddell in charge, the next three seasons saw Rangers finish a cruelly embarrassing 12, 15 and 16 points adrift of Celtic in the Championship - 2 points for a win back then.We also failed to beat Celtic in 10 of the 11 games we met them with Waddell at the helm.)
For me personally, as an 11 year old, it was hard to take.
For those that had witnessed the Baxter years of dominance, it had to have been a seriously bitter pill to swallow.
For those that had been around since the end of WWII and had only ever seen Celtic win one title previously, it had to be sheer hell.
For the 50 plus year olds, who had grown up and lived through the Bill Struth and Scott Symon eras, it must have been absolute torture for them to endure a Celtic side that had lifted the title only three times in the thirty eight years between 1927 and 1965, to have to now suffer a Celtic side that had won the Title four times in succession.
It was not Davie White's fault, but he had to go.
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