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Walter Smith OBE was the fan who moved from the terraces to the dug-out. He was taken to his first match as a five year old by his grandfather and grew up dreaming of playing for the team.
Smith was born in Carmyle in Glasgow in 1957 and started out at Ashfield juniors. He signed professional terms at Dundee United and apart from an 18 month spell at Dumbarton spent his entire career there. At the age of 29, a pelvic injury threatened his career and he was appointed assistant manager to Jim McLean. Shortly after becoming a director at the club he was approached by Rangers who wanted him to become assistant manager to Graeme Souness. It was a call that could not be refused so in April 1986 he joined Rangers.
In his time as assistant he won 3 league championships and 3 league cups and proved himself to be an able deputy. When Souness left in April 1991 to manage Liverpool the chairman David Murray knew the man for the job and it took him only two days to appoint Walter Smith as Rangers manager.
Smith's finest season was in 1992-93 when Rangers won the treble and did not lose for seven months; they went 44 games without defeat in all competitions, including a 10-match run in the Champions' League. In Europe they came within 1 goal of reaching the European Cup Final; needing a victory in Marseille they could only manage a 1-1 draw. Smith's greatest achievement, however, was completing their ninth successive championships in 1996-97.
On 7 May 1997 Rangers won 1-0 against Dundee United with Brian Laudrup heading a dramatic winner. The strike clinched 9-in-a-row and equalled Celtic's record which had stood since the seventies. It was his 12th major honour he had brought the club since succeeding Graeme Souness and was certainly his most important. It made Smith one of the greatest managers in Rangers' history.
When Smith announced his intention to resign at the end of season 1997-98 he received a deserved standing ovation from the packed hall at the clubs AGM in October 1997. Smith had given his all for the club and no Rangers manager has ever won so many trophies in such a short spell as he did.
At the end of a luckless season he left to become manager of Everton, where after 4 years of success in keeping the club out of relegation trouble he was sacked. He would be replaced by the first foreign manager in the clubs history, Dick Advocaat.
