When talking to fellow members of London Hibs it seems like most of them were brought up in Hibee parts of town or went to Catholic Schools. For me it was somewhat different in the 1970’s, living in Oxgangs and going to Firrhill High school. In my final year at school I would estimate there were about 150 boys (girlies don’t really count, sorry Jayne what I meant to say was in 1970’s Edinburgh not many girls were interested in football). About 10 supported Rangers or Celtic, about 30 were not really interested, about 20 supported Hibs and the remaining 90 or so supported Hearts, although I do remember one Aberdeen fan. Incidentally that famous Hibs star of the 1980’s, Willie Jamieson, was in the year below me and came to school regularly wearing a Rangers scarf.

As is evident the Hibees were well outnumbered, although one interesting fact was the hardest guy in each year was always a Hibee. It was however well worth the abuse and spitting and occasional kicks to wear ones Hibs scarf to school on the Monday after Hibs had stuffed Hearts yet again on the Saturday. In fact one of the Hibs fans favourite games at lunchtimes would sometimes be " Do you fancy a chase from the Hearts fans?" whereupon we would go to smokers corner and taunt the Hearts fans with shouts such as 7-0 and then run like f---. Having said that there was never any real trouble or fights between Hibs and Hearts fans for that reason alone and most of the kicks and punches were done in a relatively light hearted way. We even helped each other out at derby matches. I remember one incident at a Hibs versus Hearts match at Tyncastle where a friend of mine was prevented from taking a large Hibs banner into the ground by the Police. We went round the corner and met a Hearts fan we new from school and asked him to stuff it down his trousers and try and get it into the ground for us. He agreed and once inside gave it back to us.

In those days of course there was no segregation and the fans that wanted to fight each other would stand in the shed or the Cave with a line of police keeping them apart, while the rest of the crowd was generally mixed and trouble free. A far better system than the current segregation. Anyway what used to happen was the Hearts fans from Oxgangs would stand at the bottom of the terracing while the Hibs fans would stand at the top, so they didn’t have to fight each other. After all usually on a Saturday night they would be going about together as Bar-Ox fighting the Longstone Swade, Gorgi Jungle or some other gang.

Away from school the bias was almost as bad with most of my friends in Oxgangs being Hearts fans. They would all go off together on a Saturday to Tyncastle and try and persuade me to go with them. Of course I resisted; why would I want to go and watch crap like Alan Anderson, Jim Jeffries and Donald Ford when I could go to Easter Road and watch class like John Brownlie, John Blackley, Pat Stanton, Alex Edwards, Jim O’Rourke, Alex Cropley to name but a few. As it happened a group of the Hibs fans from School started going to matches together. It was always noticeable that when Hearts were at home the bus stops in Oxgangs were always a lot busier with Hearts fans than they were with Hibees when we were at home. I assume it is still the same, perhaps a younger Hibs fan from Oxgangs who currently goes to Firrhill school could write in to the fanzine with an update of the current situation.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily coincide with those of the editor or of the London Hibs Supporters Club