Hands Off Hibs 25 years on.............

[PatHead]

Was thinking about it this morning and had a wee browse on the t'internet to look at articles videos of that time. It really brought a lump to my throat and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Reminded me why I am proud to be a Hibby.

I remember going to the Rally at Easter Road with my brother who is an Arab and he wore his scarf to show support. There were a number of other non Hibs supporters who did the same. Many Hibs fans walked up to shake his hand in gratitude at the support. If I remember there were no Celtic or Rangers (remember them) fans who attended. Same now as then, they basically couldn't give a flying fig about it.

It was an emotional time and made me think about why I spent so long boycotting Tynecastle. As the guy says in the article below for every Jambo that had sympathy for you 2 or 3 others couldn't wait to rub your face in it. It is ever since then they have developed the superiority complex and thought of themselves as a big club..

Once again can I thank every one of us who stood up to be counted or quite simply we wouldn't have a club now and I don't know what I would do on a Saturday!

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/mercer...rasp-1-1243663

That article was written in the days when the Scotsman and Evening News were worth reading.

[Keith_M]

Is it really 25 years ago? Jeezo I'm getting old.


I was away on Holiday when the Rally was on, so only ever seen it on TV. I had actually drifted away from watching Hibs at the time but the state the Club were in was what made me start going again, to support them as best I could.

I was at the first derby at the start of the following season. I can honestly say it was the most poisonous atmosphere of any game I've ever attended.

Oh and some yams have since tried to re-write history but I can't remember many of them backing Hibs at the time. Most of them were of the view that they wanted to see Edinburgh with only one club.

[flash]

We had the bizarre spectacle of a hibs fan trying to attack John Robertson who ironically had been one of our staunchest supporters throughout that summer.

[Kato]

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As the guy says in the article below for every Jambo that had sympathy for you 2 or 3 others couldn't wait to rub your face in it.

True, but Hearts fans know how to re-write history and given the events of the last couple of years are even better at it now.

According to them, all Hearts fans were against the "merger" and there were "hundreds of Jambos" at the rally ( I saw about 5-6 at the most) - so without them Hibs would be dust. Not only that Mercer's actions "saved" Hibs, even though Pilmar Smith admitted when a copy of the petition was handed in at Tiny that it wasn't a merger at all and any "new club" would be called Heart of Midlothian. They also claim that Duff and Grey were jailed for their part in Hibs history even though Grey has never done time and Duff was jailed years later for mortgage fraud in Swindon, nothing to do with Hibs. Finally they'll tell you that Hibs "cheated" by shedding debt after going into administration even though we never went into administration (it was receivership) and Farmer paid all the football clubs' debt in full even though he didn't have to. Further to that when Hibs owner pays our debts to this day this is somehow cheating but when Hearts owner doesn't and funnels dodgy cash through them a soda-syphon it's not cheating at all.

Bunch of weirdos the lot of them.

[JimBHibees]

Remember that and can remember there were a few Hearts fans there though handful at best (20 at the very most). Joe Baker kissing the pitch was very emotional, even moreso now given he has passed away. Can remember a few fans of other teams a couple of Airdrie fans come to mind.

[Peevemor]

There's some good stuff to be found on that episode here

http://users.quista.net/fraserp/

[Mathias Jack]

I'd just turned 9, birthday party at the Jack Kane Centre on the Saturday afternoon. My Dad wanted to take me to the HoH rally, Mum was having none of it. I dug my heels in; if I couldn't go to ER first, i'd not be going anywhere! Needless to say, I won

Remember it being a scorcher, and going to the east, my Dad sitting me on one of the terraces. I know JimBHibees has already mentioned it, but i'll never forget Joe Baker kissing the turf.

GGTTH

[Bad Martini]

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Bunch of weirdos the lot of them.

Aye. You could say that.

Or, you could call them a shower of puddle drinking, eyes-to-close-together-to-be-normal, not quite right in the napper, believers of yamathematics who wear dodgy and absolutely stupid looking russian hats, refer to themselves as the beautiful people and "the famous" (employers of criminals, weirdos? add your own end to that) and who genuinely still believe the second coming of their Messiah will occur soon, the Brazilian world cup stars are still in transit, the hotel foundations are being laid and 400,000 of their similarly afflicted brethern are winging their way into the rat infested, asbestos riddled, non-compliant-with Uefa ****hole, flat packed, big pink bus shelter wongadome.

On reflection, I'll take ALL our problems over their "success" any day.

Bams.

ENDOF

[KeithTheHibby]

Let's never forget that Mercer was a total ****. GGTTH ya fat Tory *******.

[matty_f]

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Let's never forget that Mercer was a total ****. GGTTH ya fat Tory *******.

[alexhibs]

I went to ER for the playoff game against Rangers and sat in the Famous Five Stand. The last time I was in that stand was around 1998'ish ( season ticket holder ) so I had a look at the Hibs One Hundred board and searched for my name ( memory not so good now ) and felt proud / emotional to see my name there, knowing I had contributed to the club.

I was a mere boy of 27!!!!

Brought back a load of memories

[Hibernia&Alba]

A quarter of a century ago.....wow.

I was just a kid, but it was a bad time for everyone. The reaction of the Hibs support, and all who helped save the club, was wonderful: a real community spirit.

[Notahappyhibee]

How times flies by. I was on HMS Alacrity based in based Plymouth when it was all happening so never really got any news of what was going on,


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[Deansy]

Yup - I remember Robbo walking onto the stage at the Usher Hall and the tremendous ovation/reception he got !. I swore to myself then that if we survived, I'd never bad-mouth him again. Proud and happy to say I've stuck to my word.

[Ringothedog]

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Was thinking about it this morning and had a wee browse on the t'internet to look at articles videos of that time. It really brought a lump to my throat and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Reminded me why I am proud to be a Hibby.

I remember going to the Rally at Easter Road with my brother who is an Arab and he wore his scarf to show support. There were a number of other non Hibs supporters who did the same. Many Hibs fans walked up to shake his hand in gratitude at the support. If I remember there were no Celtic or Rangers (remember them) fans who attended. Same now as then, they basically couldn't give a flying fig about it.

It was an emotional time and made me think about why I spent so long boycotting Tynecastle. As the guy says in the article below for every Jambo that had sympathy for you 2 or 3 others couldn't wait to rub your face in it. It is ever since then they have developed the superiority complex and thought of themselves as a big club..

Once again can I thank every one of us who stood up to be counted or quite simply we wouldn't have a club now and I don't know what I would do on a Saturday!

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/mercer...rasp-1-1243663

That article was written in the days when the Scotsman and Evening News were worth reading.

Brings back memories. Gary Joyce and myself had more radical ideas. I was tannoyed at the rally and basically threatened and told to let HOH deal with Mercer.

[emerald green]

I remember standing in the East that day with my late father, near the spot where he used to stand watching the Famous Five winning three league titles (should have been five).

Whenever that day comes up, I also think about the "Wallet Mercernary" banner draped over the barriers.

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Emotional day. After the rally at ER I headed to the Stone Roses concert at Glasgow Green in my HOH tshirt

. As for Robbo more balls than the Riccarton 3 out together was their silence not bought on their departure?

[Big L]

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Yup - I remember Robbo walking onto the stage at the Usher Hall and the tremendous ovation/reception he got !. I swore to myself then that if we survived, I'd never bad-mouth him again. Proud and happy to say I've stuck to my word.

I was their that day, I was wi Robbo and Paddy Gallagher, for all the damage he done us on the park you had to give the wee man credit that day!

[cocteautwin]

Might have been better to have died suddenly 25 years ago rather than the long slow Petrie Cancer we've all been suffering for many years now.

[Leithenhibby]

I clearly remember all the months of uncertainty and the worry of losing our club. Recall the 6 o'clock news and Moira Stewart say that Mercer had failed in his bid. I can't lie, my bottom lip was out of control with such wonderful news.

I still have the posters from the campaign

[Kato]

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Might have been better to have died suddenly 25 years ago rather than the long slow Petrie Cancer we've all been suffering for many years now.

Might to you, but in reality definitely not.

[Bostonhibby]

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Was thinking about it this morning and had a wee browse on the t'internet to look at articles videos of that time. It really brought a lump to my throat and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Reminded me why I am proud to be a Hibby.

I remember going to the Rally at Easter Road with my brother who is an Arab and he wore his scarf to show support. There were a number of other non Hibs supporters who did the same. Many Hibs fans walked up to shake his hand in gratitude at the support. If I remember there were no Celtic or Rangers (remember them) fans who attended. Same now as then, they basically couldn't give a flying fig about it.

It was an emotional time and made me think about why I spent so long boycotting Tynecastle. As the guy says in the article below for every Jambo that had sympathy for you 2 or 3 others couldn't wait to rub your face in it. It is ever since then they have developed the superiority complex and thought of themselves as a big club..

Once again can I thank every one of us who stood up to be counted or quite simply we wouldn't have a club now and I don't know what I would do on a Saturday!

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/mercer...rasp-1-1243663

That article was written in the days when the Scotsman and Evening News were worth reading.

I was living hundreds of miles away at the time but the shock turned to anger to action and ultimately pride in what Hibbies and other right thinking folk did.

Mercer had no feel for football or the history and that was his ultimate undoing - he treated the whole thing as another business deal, funded by someone else's money and manipulated in part through his cohorts - Rowland and BOS chums to name but a few.

I got the offer to purchase from him at the time and there's no question it was about shutting us down and generating profit from Hibs property assets - he rather naively believed the fanbase of his mutant legacy organisation would also grow - a rugger type at heart who was a rampant thatcherite in an era where dubious deals and manipulations was the norm.

A concerted campaign on all fronts was fair enough as far as I was concerned - the bustards behind Mercer as well as the man himself weren't exactly playing the takeover game honourably either - if he found things a bit tough he should have stuck to what he knew and stayed away from Hibs.

To this day his takeover vehicle (Hearts) still suffer from his and his likes approach to funding and running their club. I am proud to remain one of the fans from that era who will never give a penny to their bankrupt little club and as one of the other posters has said, what a price they have paid for a couple of trophies since.

[Kato]

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Mercer had no feel for football or the history and that was his ultimate undoing - he treated the whole thing as another business deal......

I still remember the surprise and shock in his voice when he gave a press conference and revealed to the gathered journos that football was "tribal". No **** Wallace, whatever next - water's wet?

Clueless idiot who didn't know what he was dabbling with and didn't care for any of it other than the bottom line.

[tamig]

Was flying back from Corfu on the day it happened. Didn't have a clue what was happening until I got off the bus from Glasgow at St Andrew Square. Saw the billboards on the EEN stand and bought a News. Couldn't believe what I was reading. Had a flat on ER at the time so dropped the g/f (now wife) off with the cases and ran round to the ground. I immediately felt this was a battle we would win when I saw 5000 other Hibbies there. Really felt I was part of something. The team that wouldn't die. FTB GTF.

[tamig]

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Might have been better to have died suddenly 25 years ago rather than the long slow Petrie Cancer we've all been suffering for many years now.

Lol. Do you think it's terminal then? We are rising again. Get a grip.

[flash]

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Might have been better to have died suddenly 25 years ago rather than the long slow Petrie Cancer we've all been suffering for many years now.

This post is wrong on so many levels.

[Pretty Boy]

I was 4 at the time.

Memory is obviously sketchy but I remember going down to ER the day the news broke with my Granddad and there being dozens if not hundreds of folk just waiting about desperate for news. I think we ended up in Sunnyside as the wheels of Hands Off Hibs were set in motion.

I remember the rally well, seeing more than one grown man in tears as Joe Baker kissed the turf, I think Tony Higgins gave a rousing speech as well as many others. We were lucky to have guys like Dougie Crombe, Kenny MacLean snr and many others fighting our corner.

[brog]

I, with several others, took the H o H petition to Downing St. Nelson Mandela was in the witch's house & we led the ANC supporters in the street with a chant of Nelson Mandela says Hands Off Hibs!
The thing which really p's me off to this day is people talking about it being a merger. Not only was it not a merger, it had nothing to do with football. It was capitalism at it's worst, fuelled by the greed of 2 already wealthy men, Mercer & Rowland whose only way forward was to asset strip mainly us, but also the Yams, another thing their fans were/are too stupid to recognise.

[Sergey]

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I, with several others, took the H o H petition to Downing St. Nelson Mandela was in the witch's house & we led the ANC supporters in the street with a chant of Nelson Mandela says Hands Off Hibs!
The thing which really p's me off to this day is people talking about it being a merger. Not only was it not a merger, it had nothing to do with football. It was capitalism at it's worst, fuelled by the greed of 2 already wealthy men, Mercer & Rowland whose only way forward was to asset strip mainly us, but also the Yams, another thing their fans were/are too stupid to recognise.

The LHSC will also be 25 years old in a couple of weeks, too.

[weecounty hibby]

I got home from work, rounded up a few of the Alloa Hibs boys and headed to the Hibs club. We had a few beers and decided that we needed to get into ER in case it would be the last time. So round we went scaled the wall. We got in and sat at the back of the old east terrace for ages. Eventually had to leave but not before we had missed the last train back to Stifling. We ended up sleeping outside Eagerly and got the first train back in the morning. Taxi to work from the station.
Myself, Spike Mandela and another Hibby from Alloa who I don't think does .net went to the Italia 90 world cup and plastered Hands off Hibs stickers from Alloa to Turin, Genoa and Rimini. We also collected heaps of signatures for the petition from fans of clubs from all over Europe.
Wish I was 21 again but could do without the stress that Mercer caused me back then