What the hell is this, anyway?
At the beginning of September 2025, I realised that Scottish football was about to pass a significant milestone - the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the ten-team Premier Division, or the “no turning back” moment. Doing a little research into it, I noticed that a lot of other things happened that season, and thought it might be fun to read along as the highs and lows unfurled.
Since then, I’ve become mildly obsessed with reliving the late 1970s, so I’m still going.
Were you at the game, caller?
In September 1975, I was a wide-eyed 12-year-old, about to turn 13. I lived in Aberdeen, and had been going along to Pittodrie for four or five years, paying my 40p on the gate and sitting with my pals in the Beach End. If I remember correctly, this would have been the first season we were trusted to go off and sit by ourselves while the dads (whichever of them drew the short straw to take us to and from the game that week) went to sit among the season ticket holders in the Main Stand.
As a result, my recollections will be somewhat red-tinted.
How do you remember all this?
I don’t. Some of it is definitely still rattling around in my brain, but most of what you see here is taken from the archives of the Aberdeen Press and Journal and Evening Express, the Dundee Courier, The Scotsman, the Daily Record or the venerable Sunday Post. Let’s face it, it’s mostly from the Sunday Post, because I want to read the Broons and Oor Wullie every week.
So, is this coming out every week?
After a couple of weeks it settled into a twice-weekly thing. Occasionally there’s not much to say in midweek, but that usually hasn’t stopped me. During the summer, I scale back to once a week unless something spectacular happens (it hasn’t yet).
Why subscribe?
Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives. It’s not going to cost you anything, because I’m not doing this for the money, but subscribing lets me know someone is out there, so it helps my fragile ego if nothing else.
Why isn’t the original article on this Substack? Are you a bot?
I have another Substack, which I was using for more general observations on things, and which is where the first two posts in this series appeared. I then figured out how to make a second one so that all this historical nonsense could be in one place, and not disturb the flow of things on the main page, which I then stopped updating because this one was way more fun, and I got to read The Broons and Oor Wullie every week.
I’m not a bot - bots don’t care about Oor Wullie.
It’s got a stupid name
I know - like 90% of the stuff on the internet, I hadn’t thought about what to call it, so just came up with something vaguely 1970s and revolutionary, then made it a bit more Scottish. And it’s bairns not weans because I’m an Aberdonian.
