All Our Yesterdays: The Hibees Class of '71

[Gunnerhibby]

As a follow up to saturday's excellent 1-4 win at Dens Park by the Hibees, one of our elder statesmen on the Bounce, Haarlem Shuffler, recalls the days of the early Turnbull's Tornado's.

The Hibees Class of 71' visited Tayside in a similar situation to Tony Mowbray's team, not having recorded a victory at Dens in 4 years, playing with panache, style and pressing for a lofty league position. Here is Harleem's 'memoirs' ...

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Wee bit o' an anorak alert here but, spurred on by talk of games past on the forums, I reached for my trusty '71-72 album. Those who watch any tv programmes with 'extreme' in the title may like to flick back to the forums at this point ... This is puhsonal, jah?

Regular readers may be aware of previous visits to this album and may also be able to guess at how sad my youth was.

However, when I freed the album from its grime-infested location in an old cardboard box whose main contents involve bike chain-oil - I uncovered the following wee gem...


Dundee 1 (*Duncan)
Hibs 2 (O'Rourke, Hazel)

Attendance: 4000

"Hibs played very well to win this game at Dens Park, where they hadn't won for four years. They were really all over Dundee, who never got moving, and who lost control in midfield right from the start. All in all, a fine performance from Hibs."

Team:
1. Herriot; 2. Brownlie, 3. Schaedler; 4. Stanton, 5. Black, 6. Blackley; 7. Edwards, 8. Hazel, 9. Gordon, 10. O'Rourke, 11. Duncan.
Sub: Baker


A few things occur to me on readin this.

Let's get the anorak thing out the way first.
Check out the punctuation of the team listing.
This was standard in those days (stop me if I'm repeating myself or if you've fallen asleep). Number and name. Semi-comma after the end of a SECTION (goalie; defenders; midfielders; attackers). It was ALWAYS THE SAME. Does anyone know when this usage was discontinued? Bizarre.

Now aside from my immature but totally unbiased report, doesn't this spookily describe Saturday's game? Apart from the total goals, of course. Same breaking of a four-year hoodoo. About the same crowd too, I think... Plus ca change, plus........

In a stupendous coincidence, Hazel shared with Ally Brazil the eerily accurate name of a well-known nut. He was carp as far as I can remember but did used to pop up with the odd needed goal from time to time. Good with his head though. A true nutter

If we think we have problems now with goalies and players named after colours (Brown!), in those days it was twice as bad, and the colours were twice as boring: BLACK and BROWNlie and BLACKley.

Lastly, what a forward line, eh? 4/5 brilliance.

What a midfield, eh? Reliable as the Great Wall of China.

What a defenders, eh? Couldnae ask for more.

What a goalie, eh? Heriot. All Saves Great and Crap.

To give you an idea of the times, the top home gate that year was 40,000 v Celtic, we were runners-up in the cup (aargghh) and finished fourth in the league.


An average year in the life of the TORNADOS

* = no relation (as far as I know)[/b]