Old cine film footage from 60 years ago has opened a window to past glories and brought Dundee FC’s European Cup adventure back to life.
The Dens Parkers qualified for the European Cup quarter-final against Belgian champions Anderlecht following victories over Cologne and Sporting Lisbon.
Anderlecht were among the favourites, having seen off the mighty Real Madrid in the preliminary round before defeating CSKA Sofia of Bulgaria 4-2 on aggregate.
The first leg of the tie had been scheduled for February 13 in Brussels before football was brought to a virtual standstill by the unprecedented cold snap – dubbed ‘the winter to end all winters’ – and hardly a ball was kicked in anger between January and March.
Dundee against Anderlecht took place on March 6
In anticipation of a bumper crowd, Anderlecht had moved the game from Astrid Park to the Heysel Stadium – the national stadium – which could hold over 60,000 fans.
The footage was filmed by John Leddie, who worked for Dundee as a handyman and kit man for over 40 years and served under 13 different managers including Bob Shankly.
Daniel Smith from the Dee Archive uploaded the 20-minute film after finding the footage in a stash of VHS tapes given to him by Dark Blues fan Stephen Borland.
It features the journey from Edinburgh Airport to Brussels via London alongside clips of the Dundee party in the Belgian capital and the team training before the match.
The training pitch was actually a tennis court.
Dundee arrived in Brussels at 7.25pm and planned a couple of training sessions for the following day but were told they would not be allowed to train at Heysel Stadium.
They were also banned from training at Astrid Park because Anderlecht officials didn’t want the pitch cut up ahead of the team’s league match against Ghent on Sunday.
Up pops ‘Dundee vs Anderlecht’ and ‘The journey from Dundee’ and I knew we were on to something special.”
Daniel Smith.
Dundee were instead offered the use of one of Anderlecht’s two practice grounds, which were situated inside the Astrid Stadium but Shankly turned down the invitation.
Both were mud heaps, frozen and rutted on top, and Shankly didn’t want to risk any of his players.
In the end, Dundee had to make do with an hour’s training on four tennis courts.
Parts of the clay courts still had a coating of ice when training started before the frost melted and the surface became transformed into a blood-red quagmire.
Scaffold-type goalposts were rigged up and trainer Sammy Kean finished off the session by organising a seven-a-side game.
The game took place within a confined area of roughly 60 yards by 40 yards and can be seen on the cine film footage.
Dundee trained again on the courts on Tuesday night before having their first look at Heysel Stadium afterwards.
Shankly also arranged for a final session at the tennis courts the morning before the match but it was already game, set and match, according to the Belgian media.
The general opinion in the sports pages was that Anderlecht could establish a big enough lead in the first leg to take to Dundee for the return match a week later.
They were wrong.
Record-breaking crowd at Heysel Stadium
The cine film includes some very grainy footage of the game watched by 64,703 noisy fans, which remains the biggest crowd ever for any football match in Belgium.
The film gives us a clear sense of the atmosphere in Heysel Stadium.
Dundee won the first leg 4-1 with two goals from Alan Gilzean and strikes from Alan Cousin and Gordon Smith, which left the small band of travelling fans jubilant.
The Dens Parkers left Brussels the following morning to fly back to Edinburgh before receiving a great welcome from hundreds of Dundee fans at Tay Bridge Station.
Daniel said: “With the Dee Archive, I’ve always been on the look out for new stuff for the website, but the past year, I’ve been heavily trying to get my hands on old footage.
“Stephen Borland got in touch with me, as he has an extensive memorabilia of Dundee-related items and, luckily for me, three huge boxes of old VHS cassettes.
“The amount of footage that is there that fans will not have seen in many a year is massive but this one tape stuck out because when it started, it was clearly recorded on some old handheld camera from way back.
“So, I’ve let the tape run, recorded and converted it and sat down to edit the findings.
“Up pops ‘Dundee vs Anderlecht’ and ‘The journey from Dundee’ and I knew we were on to something special.
“It features the journey to the airport, footage of being in Belgium, Bob Shankly, the team training and some very grainy footage of the game – along with the journey back to London then Edinburgh.
“It’s certainly not footage I’ve ever seen or heard people speak about so I knew straight away it was a find, as any footage involving our European Cup run is hard to come by at the best of times.
“It may not be the best quality, but it’s certainly something that many Dundee fans should watch and cherish.”
More footage of the trip might have existed had it not been for Bob Shankly.
Skipper Bobby Cox took a new cine camera with him to record the trip and gave it to Shankly, who threw it high in the air when Dundee scored straight from the kick-off.
Cox’s film didn’t survive.
Preserving Dens Park history
The Dee Archive has been chronicling the history of the Dark Blues since 2019.
Daniel explained: “I used to run a few social media pages called Up Wi’ the Bonnets, which was just to share memorabilia, pictures and match footage that I had but, as time went on, it was clear I needed to do something bigger.
“The site is run solely by myself but there is plenty of individuals who have contributed massively to it, like author Norrie Price and current Dundee FC historian Kenny Ross.
“Gerard Dignan and Steve Reid have also helped out with lending me decades-worth of scrapbooks and programmes, as has Kieran George with some player profiles and Willie Reid with match highlights.
“Throughout the years, since the start, we have helped uncover new friendly games, players who were labelled as ‘Newman’ in the line-ups because we didn’t know the names before and corrections to line ups and even goalscorers.
“The majority of this has been done with Norrie and James Gellatly.”
Daniel will be keeping busy in the coming weeks and months with hours and hours of Dundee footage ready to be converted from the treasure trove of VHS cassettes.
John Leddie – who filmed the 1963 footage – died in 1997 at the age of 83 but his recording has ensured the Brussels glory night is preserved for future generations,
His efforts are a gift that Dundee football fans the world over will prize, which is quite the legacy.
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