FORMER Rangers star John MacDonald is the quintessential boy who lived the dream.
The 60-year-old joined the club as a teenager in the 1970s before going on to win two League Cups and one Scottish Cup during a rollercoaster eight-year spell at Ibrox.
He was part of some of the most memorable matches in the club’s history but admitted he may not have become a Rangers player at all with the late-great Bobby Robson keen on signing him for Ipswich Town.
He recalled: “In my day you used to play with your school on a Saturday morning, the BBs on a Saturday afternoon and the boys club on the Sunday.
“I was actually playing with the school team, we had a semi-final out at Nethercraigs and there happened to be an Ipswich scout there.
“We won 7-5 and I scored five of the goals for our team so he pulled me after the game and invited me down to Ipswich.
“For the next couple of years I went down there every holiday, they were flying us down and I ended up flying down with the likes of Alan Brazil.
“As well as going down there I got into the Glasgow schoolboy team and one of the scouts was following me about.
“In school one day the chief scout, Laurie Cummings, came up and got me in front of the assistant head, he was trying to get me to go to Thistle because he was a Partick Thistle man.
“He said, ‘Would you not like to play with Glasgow Rangers?’, and as you do I said, ‘Yeah!’
“So he said, ‘Right, I’ll come back up tomorrow and get you to sign the forms.’
“I went home and said to my dad, ‘I’m quite happy at Ipswich, I don’t really know if I want to sign.’
“My dad came up with me the next day to meet up with Laurie and eventually we decided to sign the S form.
“I got a lovely letter from Bobby Robson, he expressed his disappointment that I decided to go to Rangers but he said if it doesn’t work out and you don’t feel like it then get back onto us and we’ll look after you.
“But I signed the S form and never looked back.”
It wouldn’t take MacDonald long to fall foul of the dressing room banter as he joked: “The guys in the dressing room were all fantastic and they tried to take the piss out of you because you were the new guy.
“The first day I went into training, I walk into the dressing room and I’m looking about.
“Johnny Hamilton said, ‘Just put your stuff above there son,’ it was the first peg as you go in.
“I start getting changed and then Joe Mason walks in and says, ‘What fucking possessed you to put that up there? That’s fucking Greigy’s spot!’”
As well as dressing room pranks, MacDonald was christened with the nickname ‘Solo’, the origins of which he explained: “I started as a winger, I always wanted to score goals.
“For my school, I was more of a centre forward but I was out on the wing for my boys club.
“That’s how I got my nickname.
“When we were playing with the reserves, because when I played on the wing I didn’t pass to anybody, Davie Armour said, ‘Just give the ball to Solo!’, so that stuck.”
It wouldn’t be the only nickname that MacDonald would be referred to as. He’d be called ‘Polaris’ after the UK's nuclear submarine missile programme.
MacDonald explained: “It started after a Hibs game.
“I got brought down and we won a penalty. Their director, Tom Hart, came out in the papers on the Monday and slaughtered me for diving and then it just all started, the whole ‘Polaris’ thing.
“Christ, you’d be lucky if I got half a dozen penalties in my whole career at Ibrox but supposedly I’m a diving bastard?”
“I’d sometimes get Rangers fans shouting, ‘Oi, Polaris!’, they’d piss me off more than anybody else when they started all that.”
Despite the jibes, MacDonald would endear himself to the Ibrox faithful with crucial goals on the biggest stage of Scottish football.
The 1979 Dryburgh Cup final lives long in the memory for, arguably, the greatest ever goal scored by a Ranger when Davie Cooper displayed breath-taking skill to beat four Celtic players before calmly slotting the ball into the back of the net.
An 18-year-old MacDonald would score the opener in the 3-1 win at Hampden in August 1979 but he admitted it was a competition manager John Greig didn’t want to take part in in the first place.
He said: “Greigy didn’t want to go into that tournament.
“I was injured at the end of the previous season, we were away to Hibs in the last league game and we needed to score a goal to get into the Dryburgh Cup.
“Billy Urquhart hit a shot from about 30 yards that flew into the top corner so Greigy stood up cursing him!
“I came on as a sub against Berwick, we beat them in the first game and then we got Kilmarnock in the semi’s and I came on as a sub, scored the two goals and we won 2-0.
“We had the Tennent’s Caledonian Cup semi-final on the Friday, the Dryburgh Cup final on the Saturday and the final of the Tennent’s Caledonian Cup on the Sunday so Greigy said to me, ‘You’re not playing on Friday son, you’re playing on Saturday.’
“I was like, ‘Aye right! As if I’m going to play against Celtic’, but I was panicking thinking, ‘Am I going to go out here?’
“I done a few laps around Drumchapel on the day of the game knowing my Celtic pals were out, they were telling me, ‘We hope you get beat but enjoy yourself!’
“When he named the team and I was playing, that was it, just nerves.
“I was sick as a dog but after I scored the goal I kind of went on my knees just at the byline and spewed my ringer up!”
Sandy Jardine would net the second after rampaging from his own half and firing into the corner before Cooper would upstage him with a moment of sheer brilliance.
MacDonald would be treated to a front-row view of said goal but joked he nearly took the ball off him: “He just beat me to it because I was about to stroke it in, but I just stayed out his road and let him put it in himself.
“You were just waiting to see what he was going to do next, whether he was going to pass it or what.
“On his day he was untouchable, he just had to be in the mood.
“He used to moan in training because Greigy would bring in two-touch or three-touch, Coop didn’t like that, he liked to go and beat people but he was a fantastic player.
“It was a 4-3-3 we played in those days, I was on the left-wing, Coop was on the right-wing and the centre forward would either be Derek Johnstone, Colin McAdam or big Derek Parlane. I just tried to feed off them because you know if Derek’s going to win it in the air or if he’s not going to win it in the air, he’d stop the defender getting it and I used to take a chance and get in behind the defence.
“That was the way I liked to play, on the line, anticipate it and if I’m winning the ball then you go and get onto the end of it which I did a few times.”
Despite coming out on top in the Dryburgh Cup final, MacDonald would be on the receiving end of a painful Old Firm defeat the following May when Celtic beat Rangers 1-0 in the infamous 1980 Scottish Cup final.
The match would end in disgraceful scenes as riots broke out involving both sets of supporters which resulted in the sale of alcohol being banned at football grounds to this day.
MacDonald recalled: “We never really seen much of the rioting, we were ushered up to get our medals right away and then into the dressing room but our wives had a few problems.
“They were sitting outside waiting because we had two buses that obviously wanted to leave to go back to Ibrox.
“One of the buses carrying the wives and the workers at Ibrox never returned until about an hour after our bus.
“Seemingly the vice-chairman Jack Gillespie’s wife had jumped on our bus and they were sitting waiting on her coming out and she was already away.
“There were a few angry people!”
The following year would provide MacDonald with his footballing highlight as he netted twice in a 4-1 rout over Dundee United in the 1981 Scottish Cup final replay.
It's a match he looks back on fondly: “That’s probably one of my favourite finals.
“Me and Coops never got to play in the semi-final because Greigy thought it’d be too rough for us so we got sent to Tynecastle to play with the reserves which we were raging with.
“For the final, we were subs, big Derek (Johnstone) was up in the stand but for the replay, he decided to play me, Coop and Derek.
“We won 4-1, Coop and I scored three goals between us, it was fantastic, it was the highlight of my career, I loved it.”
MacDonald would add a League Cup winners medal to his collection the following season when the Light Blues defeated the Arabs again at Hampden but would miss out on a cup double despite netting the opener in the Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen as the Dons ran out 4-1 victors after extra time.
The following campaign, MacDonald would, again, help Rangers reach two cup finals before succumbing to defeat against Aberdeen and Celtic in the League Cup and Scottish Cup respectively. It would be a season that would see MacDonald served an unprecedented four-game ban for headbutting Dons midfielder Dougie Bell.
He joked: “I’m pals with Dougie and I still give him stick for it.
“I don’t even think I got sent off for that, I think I got sent off because of the rammy that happened after it. Big Derek (Johnstone) jumped over about five players to try and nut Doug Rougvie and I got an extra four-game ban. That was the first time that had ever happened.”
“The club didn’t want to appeal it but my union rep was wanting to appeal it because there was nothing in the rules that they could give me an extra four-game ban.”
The 1983-84 season would bring about a change in manager as John Greig resigned following a poor run of results. Jock Wallace would return to the hot seat and would add the League Cup to the Ibrox trophy room as the Light Blues defeated Celtic 3-2 thanks to an Ally McCoist hat-trick.
MacDonald would play his part in the famous victory himself but Wallace’s arrival ultimately spelt the end of his Rangers career.
He explained: “The first time I met Jock, I was playing in a couple of reserve games and he just gave you dog’s abuse, it didn’t matter what age you were. He was a hard man but he seemed to have mellowed when he came back the second time.
“That’s when my time started to come to an end because big Jock liked guys who would kick you and run all day.
“He took unwell a couple of times at the end of my time, just before he got sacked and Alex Totten took over and he played me in all the games.
“I remember we played three games against Morton in the one week, a Scottish Cup tie, we drew 3-3 and I scored, we won 3-1 in the replay, I scored and I made two of the goals as well and then we beat them in the league as well and I scored.
“When Jock came back, I played one game, the next game I was a sub and then the next game after that I was out the window again and back in the reserves.
“But these things happen in football, managers have got their own ideas, if they don’t involve you then that’s tough.”
Despite not seeing eye-to-eye, MacDonald says he certainly knew how to get the battle fever on: “If he had something to say he would say it, you didn’t get anything thrown at you, you just didn’t answer him back, if you didn’t do that then you’d be alright and he wouldn’t come over and grab you by the throat.
“We used to be going to the games, at the likes of Tannadice and just before we would get to the ground he put the songs on and big Jock would walk up the middle of the bus and he’d go by you and shout, ‘Louder! Sing louder!’”
Wallace would depart Ibrox in April 1986 with Graeme Souness taking over and revolutionising the club that had struggled badly in the league for several years.
It wouldn’t be long before MacDonald was following him out the door when he departed a few months later upon the expiry of his contract.
READ MORE: The Celtic fan whose dream was to make it at Rangers - Calum Gallagher interview
It’s still a day that hurts 35 years later.
He recalled: “Souness released about 10 players in the summer but I was on a month-to-month contract playing in the reserves. It was Walter (Smith) who said to me, ‘Once your contract’s finished you can go.’
“It doesn’t matter where you go after Rangers, it’s not going to be Rangers.
“I had tears in my eyes walking across the road to my car. I remember that, thinking, ‘Crikey, what are you doing ya numpty!?’
“Even when they told me I was free to go, I just kept wanting to play in the reserves until my contract had run out.
“I went down to Charlton for a month and played a few games down there but London was just a bit too much for me. I didn’t fancy going down there as a 25-year-old with a wife and kid and another kid on the way.
“So after a month I got a phone call from Barnsley and Allan Clarke took me on, it was good times I enjoyed it down there.”
Still a massive bluenose, MacDonald is often seen at Ibrox on matchdays although he also has a close connection with the manager of the team from the green half of the city.
The MacDonald family are friends with Ange Postecoglu’s cousin and the current Celtic boss was smitten with Ibrox before joining the Parkhead club.
MacDonald explained: “Ange and his wife were over here about five years ago on holiday.
“My wife took them to Ibrox and Parkhead and he was very impressed with Ibrox because it was Greigy who showed him around.
“Greigy also told my wife that day that Arsenal had made a bid for me!
“We played Arsenal in a pre-season friendly in 1980, we beat them 2-0 and I scored twice, so he never told me about that.”
He may not have had the chance to make a name for himself at Highbury but John MacDonald will be forever etched into Ibrox folklore.
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