Rangers Exhibition at Hampden Museum Next Month

It is safe to say that the events of 2012 have been amongst the most turbulent in the long history of Rangers Football Club. Surrounded by a series of climactic events and an almost never-ending sequence of headline stories it is perfectly understandable that the 140th anniversary of the founding of the club and the 40th anniversary of its greatest triumph were overshadowed. A few months on from that difficult period there is now an opportunity for the Scottish Football Museum to acknowledge such notable milestones within the history of one of the giants of the Scottish game.

The museum is preparing to open an exhibition which will celebrate some of the great players and great events in the club's history. The storylines will finish on the memorable run to the UEFA Cup Final in 2008 and will stretch back as far as the collections will allow us to go. The intention has not been to strip out Rangers related objects from existing displays but to bring in new material to a dedicated exhibition space. Significant items such as a Scottish Cup winners medal from the first successful campaign of 1894, when great rivals Celtic were defeated in the final, and Ally McCoist's European Golden Boot (one of two awarded to him) will therefore remain in their permanent locations within the history galleries.

A wide ranging selection of objects and ephemera will instead be introduced to the display.  Some of the greatest players to have been associated with the club will feature within the exhibition, from Alan Morton and Geordie Young, to John Greig and Richard Gough. Scottish Cup Final shirts, League Championship medals, rare programmes and gifts will all form part of the exhibition. Whilst the club's four European finals from 1961 to 1998 will be represented, special place will go to the 1972 European Cup Winners Cup Final. A shirt and medal from the historic match will have pride of place at the centre of the exhibition and, thanks to the generous support of Rangers FC, a short term loan of the European Cup Winners Cup is being arranged which will enable it to be put on display. Finally, to complete the exhibition, film footage courtesy of the British Pathe archive will bring to life some of the legendary players and memorable cup finals from decades gone by.

The exhibition will open on 1st November and run until March 2013. The European Cup Winners Cup is coming to the museum for a fixed period of time and this will be formally announced and publicised in due course.

Richard McBrearty is the Curator of the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden.  You can follow him on Twitter @R_McBrearty

The museum at Hampden is run by a charitable Trust and all profits are used by this Trust to finance the museum including exhibitions like this one.

Remember you can also sign our petition to have a museum at Ibrox by clicking here!