Hibs had only finished fifth in the league in 1955 but they had floodlights, prestige and the foresight to see that a European competition would catch on

Although Hibernian had finished a disappointing fifth in the league in the 1954-55 season, they were entirely suited to be Scotland’s first representatives in the inaugural season of the European Cup. That was according to L’Équipe editor Gabriel Hanot, who decreed that a club’s past achievements and appeal to spectators were key to entry, rather than simply winning domestic titles.

“The feeling is one of enormous pride that Hibernian are embracing a wonderfully exciting new European competition,” said Hibs manager Hugh Shaw. “My chairman, Mr Swan, has long since advocated a tournament between European club sides. As for some of the debate about which teams should or shouldn’t play in the new competition, I leave that to others to speculate. The politics of football doesn’t interest me.” Yet politicking had gone a long way to smoothing Hibernian’s path into the competition and there was no better politician in the game than Swan.

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The participating clubs in the first four seasons of the European Cup were selected by L’Équipe. Hanot had initially invited Scottish champions Aberdeen to participate but, when informed that ties would be played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the club’s board declined as they believed playing under floodlights (which weren’t installed at Pittodrie until 1959) would give rival sides a clear advantage. There were also rumours they thought the European Cup would not generate enough income to offset the expense of air travel.

Celtic, Rangers and Hearts had finished second, third and fourth in the league, respectively, but in the era before TV revenues, none of those clubs wanted to compete in the first European Cup. “It took a couple of years for clubs and their boards to recognise the potential of the competition,” Swan later reflected. “But I like to think that at Hibernian, we’d always been an outward looking club.”

By 1954, Leith-born Swan had risen to the heights of SFA chairman. As the owner of Littlejohns bakery in Edinburgh, he was a high-profile business figure and he had always been skilled at using his contacts to ensure Hibernian were at the forefront of developments within the game. As far back as the early 1930s, with the club in the doldrums during the Great Depression, Swan (appointed chairman in 1932) had predicted that in the future floodlit matches would make football more spectator-friendly during the winter months and that clubs would one day play in all-seater stadia.

After the second world war, Swan made good on his mission statement to “make Hibernian one of the finest teams in the land”. The Famous Five forward line of Gordon Smith, Lawrie Reilly, Willie Ormond, Eddie Turnbull and Bobby Johnstone inspired them to three league titles, a run that stands up to anything achieved in Scotland by a non-Old Firm club. The club’s zenith came in 1951, when they won the league by a whopping 10 points. Swan boasted that one day Hibs would be playing in a 90,000-capacity stadium. While that never happened, 40,000-plus crowds swarmed to Easter Road to watch the buccaneering Famous Five, all of whom would eventually score more than 100 goals for the club. Their international reputation grew exponentially when they retained the title in 1952 and Hanot wholeheartedly approved.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hibs in action at Easter Road in 1951, when they won the league by 10 points. Photograph: ANL/Rex/Shutterstock

It helped that they had installed the first major lighting system in Scotland in 1954, having been impressed by the lights of Racing Club Paris three years earlier. This was a prerequisite for any journey into European football and, after visiting Edinburgh that year, Hanot purred with pleasure about “Hibernian’s willingness to embrace this exciting development”. Aberdeen steadfastly refused to play under the Easter Road lights until 1957.

Then there was Smith’s testimonial match against Matt Busby’s Manchester United at Easter Road in front of a crowd of 50,000. Hibs ran out 7-3 winners, with the Famous Five in full swing. “The match provided the finest football entertainment I have ever seen,” read the report in The Scotsman. “In football artistry it far surpassed anything seen in Edinburgh ... if all games were like this all grounds would need to be Hampdens.” Busby was almost as effusive, saying: “Although this wasn’t a competitive game in the strictest sense, players on both sides gave it their all, and Hibernian are a wonderfully gifted and fluid attacking unit. They are a truly wonderful side.”

In 1953, Hibs were invited to play in Brazil in the Octogonal Rivadávia Corrêa Meyer, a tournament the Brazilian football association called a World Club Championship. The marathon six-stop journey at least gave the players the opportunity to “watch the Coronation at every stopping point,” recalled Reilly. Despite a thrilling 3-3 draw with Vasco Da Gama, Hibs finished bottom of their group after defeats to Botafogo and Fluminense in the mighty Maracanã. But that wasn’t quite the point; in Hanot’s eyes at least, Hibs’ willingness to travel the vast distance marked them as a cutting-edge outfit.

To further emphasise the club’s willingness to experiment, they took (according to fanzine Mass Hibsteria) “three sets of boots: the usual football boot of the day, a lighter ‘shoe’ with studs, which they had bought while touring Germany, and a lighter rubber-soled shoe.” Shaw also insisted the club take three sets of jerseys of differing materials so players could adapt to the variable weather conditions. Shaw also experimented with his tactics by dropping Reilly back to dictate play, a move that would serve them well in the European Cup.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gordon Smith leads out the Hibs players against Manchester United in a friendly in 1952. Photograph: Colorsport/Rex/Shutterstock

The 16 competitors in the first European Cup were a microcosm of politicised post-war Europe. There were no representatives from the Soviet Union, as the communist governments were wary of footballers travelling west. Isolationist Football League secretary Alan Hardaker “advised” Chelsea against taking part. Saarbrucken were present and correct, invited by Hanot because the Saarland was not yet officially part of West Germany.

In truth, Hibernian were a little past their peak by the middle of the decade. Johnstone had joined Manchester City in March 1955; Smith’s pace had waned after he broke his leg in 1954; and an attack of pleurisy had affected Reilly’s form. But as West German champions Rot-Weiss Essen discovered, they were still a vibrant attacking force when in form.

“There was no lack of motivation in our ranks as it was only 10 years since the end of World War II,” recalled Reilly in his autobiography. “We may not have been bearing old grudges, but we were harbouring poignant memories.” The Hibs players were under strict instructions to keep things as tight in the first leg in Essen. But, playing in front of a 30,000-strong crowd at the Georg-Melches-Stadion – including some British troops stationed there – Reilly and his team-mates decided throw caution to the wind. “To ask Bobby Johnstone, Gordon Smith or me to do this [play defensively] was not in our make-up, and after 10 minutes, we thought ‘to hang with this’.” Despite the foul weather and boggy pitch – “we felt right at home,” confessed Smith – Hibs moved the ball around at pace and rattled in four goals without reply, with Turnbull having the distinction of being the first British player to score in the European Cup.

One of the German national newspapers reported the next day: “The Hibernian team from Scotland gave the greatest display by a British team since the war.” Although the return at Easter Road was something of a damp squib, the 1-1 draw took Hibs in the quarter-finals, where they were drawn against Djurgardens, an amateur team from Stockholm. Due to the Scandinavian winter, both matches were played in Scotland, with the Swedes opting to play their “home leg” at Partick Thistle’s newly floodlit Firhill ground. Hibs won 3-1 in Glasgow and 1-0 at Easter Road to reach the last four.

“At that point, I’d still say the competition hadn’t entirely captured the hearts of our supporters,” said Turnbull. “Perhaps because by the time we played at Easter Road, the ties were seemingly already done and dusted.” But the semi-final clash with Reims, whose magnificent winger Michel Hidalgo and striker Raymond Kopa were at their pomp, was pure box office. Despite creating the better chances, Hibs were let down by defensive sloppiness, with Michel Leblond giving Stade Reims the lead in the Parc des Princes. As Hibs marauded forward in search of an equaliser, Kopa exploited the open spaces and grabbed a late second goal for his side. At the highest level, Hibs’ gung-ho approach had let them down.

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In the second leg, 45,000 fans created a bear pit atmosphere at Easter Road as Hibs lay siege to the Reims goal, but the French side broke clear and scored a killer third goal. “In terms of chances created, we had much the better of things over the two matches,” recalled Smith. “But tactically Reims, who lost 4-3 to Real Madrid in the final, were light years ahead and could alter the pace of the game as they pleased.”

Hibs’ domestic rivals remained more than a little sniffy about the European Cup. For now. On the night Hibs played Djurgardens at Firhill, Celtic played at Parkhead and the programme notes read: “Already interest in these floodlit evening games is on the wane.” Nothing could have been further from the truth; more than a million spectators had watched the fledgling competition, with Hibs more than playing their part. Had the competition started a few years earlier, they may well have won it.

Forward-thinking managers such as Bob Shankly, who steered Dundee to the semi-finals in 1963, and Jock Stein, who led Celtic to their victory in 1967, eventually gained more recognition for their teams’ exploits. But it was Hibernian – and their modernising chairman – who first shone a beacon for Scottish clubs in the thrilling new floodlit world of the European Cup.

• This article is from issue six of Nutmeg magazine

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