SCOT Symon was the manager of Rangers when in October 1956 they played their first-ever match in the European Cup.

Rangers beat the French team, Nice, 2-1 in the first leg at Ibrox but lost the second leg, in France, by the same scoreline. The replay, on November 28, took place at the Parc des Princes stadium, in Paris; Rangers, badly missing their inspirational captain George Young, lost 3-1. The Evening Times described the three encounters as a ‘blood and thunder serial story’. The main picture (far right) shows Rangers keeper George Niven signing an autograph at Renfrew Airport when the team arrived home after the first game in France, with Symon just behind him.

“James Scotland Symon,” says the Rangers website, “was different from most football managers in that he had none of the extrovert characteristics often associated with the role. He was a quiet and reserved man who had been a Rangers player under legendary manager Bill Struth.

“By the time he was chosen to succeed the great man in 1954, Symon had proved himself not only a very good player but also a manager with the right pedigree for the job.’

Symon, it adds, was the first man to play both football and cricket for Scotland and would have had more soccer caps but for the fact of the Second World War. He was also to be the last of the old-school bosses; “after him came a new breed who would don tracksuits to join the players on the training pitch.”

Under Symon, Rangers reached two European Cup Winners’ Cup finals, in 1961, when they lost to Fiorentina, and in 1967, when they were defeated by Bayern Munich. Domestically, he steered them to their second treble of League, Cup and League Cup Treble, in 1963-64, as well as the League and Cup doubles the previous season. In all, Symon saw his players win six league titles, five Scottish Cups and four League Cups.

He is pictured here (right, bottom) in November 1957 with two other Rangers greats - Bob McPhail, who scored 230 league goals for the club, and Alan Morton.

Symon was controversially dismissed, however, in 1967; in the words of the club website, it came after he rejected a move to make him general manager and let a younger man run team affairs. The younger man was his assistant, David White who suddenly found himself in charge after just five months at the club.

Symon went on to serve as a director at Dumbarton before taking over as manager at Patrick Thistle. The picture (right, tóp) shows him in the dugout in his first game in charge, against Hibs, in September 1968 -Thistle won 2-1.

Simon died in April 1985, aged 74. The Herald’s Ian Paul wrote that Symon had “tasted the glories of football as well as its depressions.” His death had occurred just a few months after he had become reconciled with Rangers: “Not surprisingly, his sacking caused great controversy, and it was only when Rangers played Moscow Dynamo this year that the rift was healed and Symon accepted an invitation to return to Ibrox.”