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Willie Waddell arguably contributed more to Rangers than anybody else, over a period of 56 years he was a player, a manager, a general manager, a managing director, a vice-chairman, and finally an honorary director.
Waddell was born in Forth in Lanarkshire on the 7th March 1921 and began his career at Eastfield Heatherbell before signing for Rangers as a schoolboy in 1936. He made his senior debut in a match against Arsenal in a 'Battle of Britain' clash and scored the only goal in a 1-0 win. He would go on to win four Championships, two Scottish Cups and 17 full caps for Scotland.
After he retired in 1956, he worked at the Glasgow Evening Citizen as a journalist. In 1957 he became Kilmarnock manager and guided them to their only Championship in 1964-65. Later he made a return to journalism at the Scottish Daily Mail before returning to Ibrox in December 1969 following the dismissal of David White.
As Rangers manager he presided over two of the most significant days in Rangers' history, the second Ibrox disaster on the 2nd January 1971 and the European Cup Winners' Cup final on the 24th May 1972.
Waddell's finest hour occurred after the disaster. The tragedy occurred as Rangers were playing Celtic at Ibrox before a crowd of 80,000 people. In the very last minute Jimmy Johnstone scored for Celtic, only for Colin Stein to equalise with just 15 seconds left to play. Rangers' fans spilling down Stairway 13 met disaster. In the crush people began to topple on to of one another. The domino effect sent the huge crowd sprawling down the stairway. The result was that 66 people were crushed to death and 145 injured in one of football's worst disasters.
Waddell took command of the situation ensuring that the club was represented at each of the sixty-six funerals and that Rangers contributed £50,000 to the Lord Provost's Appeal Fund for the relatives. In the aftermath Waddell decided it would never happen again, by turning Ibrox into a modern, sophisticated stadium based on Borussia Dortmund's Westfalenstadion.
His proudest moment must surely have been after the European Cup Winners' Cup win in 1972. Waddell steered his team past Rennes, Sporting Lisbon, Torino and Bayern Munich before facing Moscow Dynamo in the final at the Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona.
Rangers won 3-2 with goals from Colin Stein and two from Willie Johnston before Estrekov and Makovikov replied for Moscow. After the match Waddell left his post to become general manager handing over the reins to his assistant Jock Wallace.
Willie Waddell died on 14 October 1992 at the age of 71. He had served the club for 56 years in all positions and will go down as one of the greatest names in the club's history.
