John Greig Lifetime Achievement
JOHN GREIG will receive the William Hill SFWA Lifetime Achievement award at our annual dinner on Sunday, May 28.
The following piece is written by Michael Grant of The Times and will appear in the programme on the evening as the Association pay tribute to a legend of Scottish football and crown the winners of our prizes for the 2022/23 campaign.
John Greig is literally still a towering presence at Rangers, more than 60 years after he began the extraordinary one-club career which saw him occupy roles as player, captain, manager, coach, PR chief, director, honorary life president, and ambassador.
Perhaps there were other duties too? Greig certainly would have said "Yes" if he was asked to serve Rangers’ cause in any way.
When the club unveiled a statue in 2001 as part of a memorial to those who died in the 1971 Ibrox Disaster, the figure chosen was Greig, the dignified Rangers captain on that terrible day.
Their great defender’s image is carved in bronze outside the stadium where he played for almost two decades.
Those who remember Greig’s playing days emphasise his incredible commitment, will-to-win and leadership.
They might just as easily highlight his success or his longevity, both of which were equally exceptional.
Even up against the emergence of Jock Stein’s Celtic, Greig averaged almost an honour per season over the course of his long career.
There were five league titles, six Scottish Cups and four League Cups.
In Europe there was the personal peak of captaining Rangers to glory in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup Final against Moscow Dynamo in 1972, guaranteeing his legendary status in the Scottish game.
In Greig’s era there were other near-misses in Europe. Rangers were Cup-Winners’ Cup finalists in 1961 and 1967, and Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-finalists in 1969.
His remarkable career spanned 16 seasons – and almost 800 games – before he moved from the Ibrox dressing-room to the manager’s office in the summer of 1978.
Having been born and brought up in Edinburgh, where he was a boyhood Hearts fan, Greig joined the Light Blues in June, 1960.
He was prominent in a great Rangers team which won a 1963-64 Treble under Scot Symon, and another one which lifted two more in the mid-and-late 70s under Jock Wallace.
Greig became captain in 1965 and retained the armband for 13 seasons.
He was a prominent Scotland player too, capped 44 times including 21 games in a row.
Indeed, his most-famous goal came wearing dark blue, in a 1-0 win over Italy in a World Cup qualifier in 1965, which was watched by over 100,000 at Hampden.
As Rangers manager, there was a cup double in 1978/79, his first season, plus another Scottish Cup and League Cup before he resigned in 1983.
He returned to Ibrox in a PR role in 1990, enjoying a few good-natured exchanges with journalists as he handled the club’s media relations.
He later joined the Ibrox board of directors and, in 2015, was named honorary life president, and an ambassador.
Honours have always come Greig’s away. He was the Scottish Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year in both 1966 and 1976, was given an MBE for services to football in 1977, and was voted the Greatest Ever Ranger by their fans in 1999.
At 80, "Greigy" is the latest, fitting recipient of the William Hill SFWA Lifetime Achievement award.