ON Monday, March 18, 1968, Rangers players and directors, together with their wives, and friends, gathered for the club’s annual dinner-dance at a venue in the city. At the time, Rangers were on top of the league, unbeaten after 26 games, and two points ahead of their traditional rivals, Celtic. That weekend, they had seen off the bottom club, Stirling Albion, by five goals to nil, with Orjan Persson, their talented Swedish player, scoring a hat-trick.

The players in the photograph are, from left, John Greig, Davie Provan, Dennis Setterington, Erik Sorensen, manager Davie White, Orjan Persson, Alex Willoughby, Ronnie McKinnon, Alex Ferguson, Willie Henderson and Bobby Watson. Also pictured, on McKinnon’s right, is club director Davie Hope.

Rangers kept going until the last day of the season, when a 3-2 home defeat by Aberdeen left the door open for Celtic to take the title by two points by winning their final game, at Dunfermline. The Glasgow Herald’s Glyn Edwards was critical of Rangers after the Aberdeen game, especially of the forward line, and wrote that White and his directors “must again be prepared to go into the transfer market in a big way, primarily for a top-class goalkeeper and two inside-forwards, one a schemer and the other a potential scorer.”

On April 30, the Evening Times said the club had given free transfers to nine players and though it had retained Setterington it was prepared to listen to offers for him.