Always in Our Hearts

Someone once said that middle age is the time when we reflect on our lives the most. We think back to what we have achieved - or not - and wonder what we still have to offer. As a Hearts supporter in his late forties, I have been reflecting recently on the passing of some of my heroes of years gone by. Heroes who I watched play for my team when I was growing up. Jim Cruickshank, whose passing we all mourned last month, was one of those heroes.

Cruickie, like Donald Ford, Alan Anderson and Drew Busby, was synonymous with Hearts in my formative years that were the 1970s. I saw my first Hearts game when I was six years old, towards the end of 1968 at Falkirk’s Brockville Park. Cruickie was playing that day as were Donald Ford and Alan Anderson and it was on that afternoon that I was bitten by the Jambo bug. All things maroon influenced my childhood, my teenage years and even as a young man. I agree with Jim Jefferies when he said people referred to Jim Cruickshank simply as ‘The Goalie’. Years later this would be the moniker given to Andy Goram but to me and thousands of my generation there was only one ‘goalie’ - the man who was number one at Tynecastle in more ways than one.

Cruickie was Hearts through and through. Sure, he fell out with the club on more than one occasion but he was a man who stood up for what he believed in. Kenny Garland challenged him for the number one spot at Tynecastle for many years but, with the greatest respect, Cruickie was the fans favourite.

2010 has been a year when we also lost Bobby Kirk, Malcolm Robertson and former manager John Hagart. Kirk was a mainstay of the glorious Hearts team that swept all before them in the 1950s. His final game for Hearts came just three months after I was born but I know some older Hearts fans who still remember Kirk with a lot of affection. He was part of Hearts greatest ever team.

Malky Robertson came to Hearts at the time when the club were struggling both on and off the field. The man from Ayr United would delight us with his runs down the wing and his tormenting of defences. Sadly, Malcolm Robertson’s time in Gorgie coincided with Hearts fall from grace in Scottish football and a yo-yo period between the Premier and First Divisions. However, I remember his displays with affection and news of his death a few months ago at just 59 made me ask why some people have to be taken away from us so early.

Robertson was signed by John Hagart early in 1977. John passed away in June this year and there was no one more passionate about Hearts than he. He was the manager when Hearts finally succumbed to the pressures of the new ten team Premier Division and were relegated for the first time in their history in 1977. Those of us who frequented Tynecastle at that time were devastated by this turn of events but no one felt the anguish more than Hagart. He resigned in the immediacy of Hearts demotion. The story goes that Hearts wanted him to carry on as his experience and infectious enthusiasm for the game would be just what Hearts required for immediate promotion. Nevertheless, John Hagart was a man of integrity and he left Tynecastle.

Hearts as a club is very much a family affair. The passing of men who have served the club with distinction is keenly felt by those who support the club. We mourned the tragically early deaths of Eddie Thomson, Bobby Robinson and going back a few years Brian Whittaker, Arthur Mann, Roald Jensen and Willie Bauld among others. This is the time of the year when we tend to look back on the twelve months that have gone by. 2010 will be remembered as a year when Hearts were resurgent under the superb leadership of Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown. Sadly, 2010 will also be remembered as the year when a Hearts legend of the 1950s, Bobby Kirk and three Hearts icons of the 1970s - John Hagart, Malcolm Robertson and now Jim Cruickshank - passed away. Those of us who grew up with them will not forget their contribution to a footballing institution.

John Hagart 1937-2010

It was with great sadness this week that I heard of the passing of another Hearts stalwart from years gone by. John Hagart is a name synonymous with Hearts first ever relegation from the top flight of Scottish football in 1977 - but Hearts fans remember him as a man of integrity, charm and a passion for their club that was sadly lacking in some of his successors in the ensuing three decades.


His predecessor at Tynecastle, Bobby Seith, appointed Hagart to the Hearts coaching staff in 1972. Seith’s time in charge of Hearts was less than successful and included the infamous 7-0 New Years Day hammering from Hibernian in 1973. Season 1974-75 was the last of the eighteen team First Division and the top flight teams knew they had to finish in the top ten to make the following season’s inaugural Premier Division. Hearts made an awful start to the season. A 5-0 thumping from Dundee United followed 4-1 thrashings from Partick Thistle and Aberdeen. Hearts were some way distance from the top ten - in fact, they were bottom of the league after the Tannadice debacle. Seith was sacked before Hearts headed to Tayside with Hagart put in charge - but he already knew the huge task he faced before United put Hearts to the sword that day. Hagart set about rebuilding confidence and Hearts won their next game - against Airdrieonians before drawing with Rangers at Tynecastle. Soon afterwards, Hearts embarked on a fourteen game unbeaten run and they duly climbed the league table, securing eighth place at the end of the season thus ensuring they would dine at Scottish football’s top table the following campaign. It had been an almighty fright, however - and sadly, the club’s board of directors did not heed the warning signs.

The following season Hearts were again fighting relegation although Hagart’s task wasn’t helped by the fact he had to make do with much the same squad of players who had struggled the previous season. However, Hagart’s infectious enthusiasm rubbed off on these players and after a sticky mid-season spell, Hearts ended the season in style. A 3-0 triumph at Aberdeen in April all but secured Hearts status and this game remains one of the finest performances I have seen from the boys in maroon. Ralph Callachan was sublime that evening and The Dons - fighting relegation themselves - simply could not cope. Hearts run in the Scottish Cup that season turned into something of a saga with replays and second replays required to overcome lower league opposition such as Clyde and Montrose. However, such efforts were rewarded with a place in the Scottish Cup Final, against all the odds and expectations. Sadly, Hearts lost the final to Rangers 3-1 but as the Ibrox men had won the league title, Hearts found themselves in the European Cup Winner’s Cup in season 1976-77 - and with that competition came John Hagart’s finest hour.

Hearts were drawn against East Germany’s Lokomotive Leipzig in the first round and a 2-0 defeat in the first leg in the former communist state meant few gave the maroons any chance of progressing. The East Germans were one of the favourites for the competition. However, on a never to be forgotten September evening, Hearts demolished Leipzig 5-1 in the return leg at Tynecastle to move into the next round. Hearts were awesome that evening and the result was one of the best in the club’s history - they were, for a short time at least that season, the talk o’ the toon!

Sadly, Hearts could not replicate that form in the league consistently and a succession of drawn games meant the maroons were at the wrong end of the Premier Division once more. November 1976 was to prove a turning point. Hearts had drawn West German opposition in the shape of SV Hamburg in the next round of the Cup Winners Cup. Again, Hearts lost the first leg in Germany although two away goals scored in a 4-2 defeat meant there were high hopes that Hearts could repeat their hammering of Leipzig in the Tynecastle return. It wasn’t to be. Hamburg showed they were several classes above Hearts and cantered to a 4-1 win on the night - 8-3 on aggregate. A fortnight later Hearts entertained Celtic in Gorgie and a superb first-half performance from the maroons - including a Willie Gibson hat-trick - saw Hearts lead 3-1 at the interval. However, calamity struck in the second half as Celtic stormed back to win 4-3. In my view, Hearts never recovered from that game and their form dropped alarmingly in the second half of the season. Things weren’t helped when Ralph Callachan was sold - against the manager’s wishes - to Newcastle United for £90,000 in February 1977. Hearts won just one more game that season and finished ninth in the Premier Division come the end of the season - suffering the embarrassment of relegation for the first time in their history.

Few Hearts fans blamed John Hagart for their team’s demise and many wanted him to remain at Tynecastle to oversee what was hoped would be a brief sojourn in the second tier of Scottish football. However, Hagart was devastated by what happened and tendered his resignation.

A year later, Hagart was back in the spotlight as assistant to Ally McLeod, Scotland’s ebullient manager and was part of the ill-fated Scotland party that went to the World Cup Finals in 1978. The less said about that escapade the better. Hagart then had a spell in charge of Falkirk before joining Rangers as reserve team coach. One of the Rangers youngsters under Hagart’s tutelage was Billy Davies, now making a name for himself as manager of Nottingham Forest.

John Hagart left the game when he departed Ibrox in the summer of 1986 at the start of the Graeme Souness era. He returned to his first trade as a joiner before enjoying a well-earned retirement. His passing earlier this week, at the age of 72, is sad news to all Hearts fans who remember a thoroughly decent, hard-working and passionate man who did his utmost under difficult circumstances for the club he loved.