Jim Baxter remembered as we salute Rangers and Scotland legend

One of Scotland’s greatest-ever players, “Slim” Jim Baxter was a left-half with a wand for a left foot, a player famed for showboating magnificently in that 1967 victory, for effortless elegance, for calm, confident artistry, and for drinking.

He was an enigma, and his mazy run through life began on September 29, 1939, when he was born at Hill of Beath, Fife. Jim likened his upbringing to something from a Dickens novel, not including 40-a-side playground matches that made possession football tricky. 

After leaving school he worked as an apprentice cabinet maker then a coal miner. At the time, he was a Hibernian fan, happily heading to Leith to watch the Famous Five forward line.

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Following spells with Halbeath Juveniles and junior side Crossgates Primrose, Baxter joined Raith Rovers in 1957, initially as a part-timer earning £3 a week in the reserves to supplement his £7 a week sorting stone from coal at Fordel Colliery. On promotion to the first team, his pay rose to £9 week, repaid in a masterful performance during a 3–2 win over Rangers at Ibrox. The Glasgow club quickly signed him up.

Now on £22 a week, the first thing Baxter did was buy a Jaguar. Quickly up to speed on the pitch, he scored his first Rangers goal in November 1960 against Clyde and, that same month, netted in an 8–0 win over German team Borussia Mönchengladbach. In 1961, he played in the first European Cup Winners’ Cup Final, a two-legged tie that Rangers lost 4–1 on aggregate to Fiorentina.

He was a winner with the ladies after his move to Glasgow, recalling: “One day, I was a Raith Rovers player who couldnae pull the birds at the Cowdenbeath Palais. The next day, I was in Glasgow and the girls were throwing themselves at me.”

Nice work if you can get it. 

Gamble on

In 1963, the night before a Scottish Cup Final replay against Celtic, Baxter couldn’t sleep. So, naturally, he went to a Dunfermline casino, winning £1,800 and heading home at 9.30am for a few hours’ kip before playing in front of 120,000 fans at Hampden. He was brilliant. Rangers won 3-0. 

In December 1964, Baxter starred in a 2–0 Rangers away win against Rapid Vienna in the European Cup. 

Alas, after taunting his opponents with the ball, one slow-witted Rapid player broke his leg. 

It was a watershed moment. During the following four months in recovery, Jim started drinking seriously.

In 1965, he joined Sunderland for a record transfer fee to a Scottish club of £72,500. Baxter played 98 games for Sunderland, scoring 12 goals. But his slide down the slippery slope continued, getting plastered the night before games – but, often as not, playing well next day.

That included international matches. In the sixties, Baxter gained 34 caps in strong Scottish teams. Despite many claims for 1967 (see below), he felt his best international performance came against England in 1963 when, reduced to 10 men, Scotland won 2–1. Baxter scored both goals.

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But April 1967 saw the most iconic moment in Baxter’s career. The game was a European Championship qualifier at Wembley against England, who had arguably won the World Cup the previous year. Ten minutes before kick-off, Baxter was reading the Racing Post. 

Advised to warm up, he stretched his left leg once. He stretched his right leg once. Then he returned to his paper.

Schooled in comedy

In the tunnel before entering the pitch, Baxter taunted England’s Alan Ball about his squeaky voice, asking if was the son of Jimmy Clitheroe, a comic entertainer who played an 11-year-old schoolboy. 

The taunting of Ball continued throughout the game, with Baxter playing a “hospital pass” that allowed teammate Billy Bremner to steam into the England man “like a train”.

But the most memorable footage shows Baxter brazenly playing “keepie uppie” in front of the England players before effortlessly flicking the ball over their heads to Denis Law. 

It was part of a scintillating performance that ended in a 3-2 victory for the good guys.

Back at club level, in December 1967, Nottingham Forest signed Baxter from Sunderland for £100,000, a risky sum for someone who enjoyed caressing a bottle as much as a football. 

Jim found a boozing buddy in legendary cricketer Gary Sobers, with the two dubbed Drunk ’n’ Sobers as they enjoyed character building nights out in Nottingham. 

Still Jim played on. At first, the local paper praised his “gliding across the pitch”. Later, it declared him “probably the worst transfer in Forest’s history”.

After 49 appearances, he returned in 1969 to Rangers on a free transfer, but by the end of that season he’d played his last game, retiring from football in 1970, aged 31.

At one point necking three bottles of Bacardi a day, a notable career development occurred when he became manager of a Glasgow pub. 

Unsurprisingly, he damaged his liver and, at the age of 55, had two undergone transplants. In February 2001, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died at his home on Glasgow’s southside on April 14, 2001. 

The day after his death, a banner was unfurled among the Hampden crowd during the 2001 Scottish Cup semi-final. It read: “Slim Jim. Simply the Best”. It was in the Celtic end.

‘A genius’

Baxter eschewed sectarianism. Close friends had included Celtic players Billy McNeill, Pat Crerand and Mike Jackson.

Legendary Aberdeen and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said of our icon: “He had touch, balance, vision and this wonderful aura that indicated you were in the presence of someone touched by football genius.

“You could go on all day about his lifestyle but what a player. 

“I don’t know if we will ever see his like again.”