Rangers legend Mark Walters has told how nothing prepared him for the racism he suffered during his time in Scotland – and how he feared for his safety when darts were thrown from the crowd.
Mark, 56, arrived at Ibrox in 1987 as one of a string of high-profile signings from England made by then manager Graeme Souness.
He helped Rangers win three league titles as part of the Glasgow club’s record-equalling nine-in-a-row run, as well as the League Cup before leaving for Liverpool.
Now, speaking in an hour-long BBC Scotland documentary to be shown on Tuesday, he recalls the vile racist abuse he received as one of only a few black players to have starred north of the Border.
On his debut – in an Old Firm derby at Celtic Park on 2 January 1988 – so many bananas and other objects were thrown on to the pitch that the second half was delayed so they could be cleared.
He said: “I remember getting booed during the game. Normally you don’t hear things going on in the crowd when you’re playing but I can remember being specifically targeted.
“Then came the bananas. But there was worse to come. When I jogged back to my position I saw a dart stuck in the turf, I saw a pig’s leg on the track.
“I was worried, I’m not going to lie, I was like, ‘Will I be able to walk off the pitch without getting a dart stuck in me or something?’
Watching the game back for the first time, he added: “The second half took longer to get going than usual. I do remember seeing all the stuff and then I don’t remember seeing the stuff, and now that makes sense, the fact that they had to clear it all up.
“It shows me the severity of what was happening at the time, and it does make me a little bit angry to know this, 30 years later even. We lost the game 2-0 and I got out of there as fast as I could.”
Later that month, Rangers travelled to Edinburgh to face Hearts. Walters said he had received abuse previously in England, but that nothing would prepare him “for what would be unleashed” in the capital.
Watching the footage, he realises for the first time that a young child is among the fans throwing a banana towards him.
Yet he says he had to “put up with it”.
He said: “It was intimidating, there’s no two ways about it. I had never experienced it in my life – to be avoiding bananas and coins and so forth.
“I remember us getting a corner and I had to go over and take it. Looking over at a few of the fans and the hatred in their eyes was something to behold, it was literally terrifying.
“What really hurts, watching this footage, is I now realise kids were at it too. There’s a little boy at the front. It’s disappointing there is a child. Children aren’t born that way, they learn from their peers or their parents.
“I couldn’t go to the referee and say ‘look ref, there’s coins all over the place, this is dangerous, I might be blinded’. There was nothing I could do about it. It was a case of ‘if you don’t like it, get off the field and they’ll put someone else on and replace you’.
“If I did complain I’d be classed as having a chip on my shoulder anyway. Looking back, it was a horrific time for me. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
Walters said things improved after the first few games and with the support of Gers fans, and maintains that signing for Rangers was the highlight of his career.
More than 30 years after leaving the club, he said that watching players take the knee to say that black lives matter – which he says would have been “unthinkable” in his day – had made him re-examine his time in Scottish football.
In Mark Walters: In the Footsteps of Andrew Watson, he attempts to discover why he was targeted and looks into the history of black players in Scotland.
He discovers a rich seam of early black players, including trailblazer Watson, the world’s first black international footballer, who captained Scotland in 1881 and helped lay the foundations of the modern game. Watson’s story was lost to history for nearly a century before being rediscovered recently.
Walters said: “Like 99 per cent of the footballing world, I knew nothing of Andrew Watson. I know how difficult it must have been for him to achieve the things he did in the 1800s so I have a lot of admiration for him.
“If I had known Andrew’s story when I came to Glasgow it may have made me feel less alone. I had no idea a black man helped lay the foundations of the game I love. I and everyone who followed in Andrew’s footsteps has a lot to thank him for.”
● Mark Walters: In the Footsteps of Andrew Watson is on BBC Scotland on Tuesday at 10pm.
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