By JOHN MCGARRY, SCOTTISH CHIEF SPORTS FEATURE WRITER
Published: 22:28 BST, 8 August 2026 | Updated: 12:32 BST, 9 August 2026
Forty years ago, this weekend, Hibernian and Rangers met in the opening game of season 1986-87.
The first clash of the new campaign would have been a highly anticipated affair in any event. But given it was the first match since Graeme Souness had arrived at Ibrox as player-manager, the eyes of Britain were on it.
It proved to be a true powderkeg occasion, a game so infamous that it immediately took its place in Scottish football’s hall of shame.
Here, as the sides prepare to meet again at Ibrox four decades on, Daily Mail Sport recalls the most extraordinary curtain raiser in living memory.
Scottish football was shaken to its core when news broke in the April of that year that Souness was on his way to Glasgow from Sampdoria after striking a deal with ambitious chairman David Holmes.
Then aged 33, the former Liverpool captain was to be Rangers’ first player-manager, but his presence on the field was only one of the reasons why Rangers fans stopped in their tracks.
Graeme Souness was all smiles as he breezed into Scottish football with Rangers in 1986
Seemingly armed with an open cheque book, and with English clubs then banned from playing in Europe, the legendary Scotland midfielder set about persuading established England internationals to sign for the club.
Terry Butcher and Chris Woods were unveiled after shelling out huge fees and there was the promise of much more to come. Colin West, a highly rated striker, joined them from Norwich.
Without a league title since 1978, it was clear that Rangers were going to spend big to try and bring back the glory days.
The fans immediately bought into Souness – revelling in the success he’d known at Liverpool and admiring the swagger with which he walked into the press room on the day he was confirmed. The first test for the new regime would take place in Leith.
It would be a gross understatement to suggest that the feeling in and around the ground was intense that day. Some 24,576 fans crammed into the old Easter Road, most craning their necks for a view on the old sun-kissed terraces.
Under the watch of John Blackley, Hibernian were looking to improve upon the eighth-place finish from the previous year. They’d sold Gordon Durie to Chelsea for £400,000 and reinvested the money to sign Billy Kirkwood, Stuart Beedie, Willie Irvine and George McCluskey.