How Should We Honour Rangers Legends? Renaming and remembering.

Last updated : 17 July 2014 By LaudrupsHair

Davie Meiklejohn played 563 games for Rangers and won 12 league Championships and five Scottish Cups, captaining both the Rangers and Scotland. He no doubt had numerous great moments in his career but his highlight was probably scoring the winner in the 1928 Scottish Cup Final - ending a 25 year long drought.

In a more modern era, consider Davie Cooper. Whilst only winning three league titles in his 13 years at Rangers, he became a totemic figure throughout our barren spell in the mid 80s. The emotion when he sadly passed away was visible for all to see by the tributes laid at the Copland gates.

Both of the above players are indisputable Rangers legends. But how do we best honour these men? The "Hall of Fame" exists but as time passes and we see less luminary figures enter each year I don't believe it pays tribute to the true legends of our club.

Statues are often mentioned but again I don't believe this is the route we should go down. The only statue at Ibrox currently is to represent the 66 fans who never returned. To start placing numerous statues around Ibrox would dilute the impact of the memorial to the worst day in our history. And, at best, make it look a bit like an ungodly art gallery or, at worst, begin to resemble a quasi-religious theme park.

So, as you may have expected by now, we come down to the naming of stands. My argument against this is simple economics of supply and demand. Ibrox has but four stands yet Rangers have at least 20-30 true legends throughout our 142 years of history. 

Ibrox, until yesterday's announcement, had only one stand named after a Rangers figure; a man who inarguably (even in the modern world where everyone has an opinion - often wrong) had the biggest single impact on our club. 

Beyond Bill Struth the argument of who should be commemorated in this way becomes so subjective we have to start comparing players such as (for example) Tom Vallance with Ally McCoist. This debate is pointless as there is no winner. 

Four stands and many legends does not go. I believe we should not get caught up in the emotion of the current time. What do we do on the sad day that Walter Smith passes away? Or John Greig? Or Ally McCoist? 

The loss of Sandy Jardine was a desperately sad moment for all at Rangers and everyone who loved the Club, and I am glad he is being remembered by the institution, but perhaps they missed a trick: a man famous for the way he looked after his body and for the sheer longevity of his career would surely have been a good candidate for the renaming of the training complex? We've waited too long for this and cynical observers may wonder if those in charge are serious about this 'promise'.

So how should we commemorate true legends? A museum would be the ideal solution where each has their own story told to future generations. However this is not going to happen with the current board nor has it been a priority for many of the short-sighted in charge previously. We have such a rich, frankly astonishing, story to tell, warts and all, and it's beyond disappointing that we still have no adequate facility to shout from the rooftops about it.

So what is the best way for the Club to commemorate legends? Along with some other ideas it is relatively simple. Continue what we have been doing for the past 142 years - being the most successful club in the world - and produce more legends so we can debate until the end of time if Lewis Macleod (after captaining us to a record breaking 3rd treble in 2025) was indeed better than that man Jim Baxter.