Rangers strike legend Ally McCoist and current goalkeeper Allan McGregor have both shared the famous portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II which proudly hangs in the home dressing at Ibrox Stadium.
It is one of two of Britain’s longest-serving monarch who died on Thursday, aged 96, at Balmoral after reigning for 70 years. One hangs above the captain’s peg and the other above the door to the changing area for the home players. King Charles III will likely be given his place inside the Ibrox dressing room.
But one decades-long tradition in the Blue Room at Ibrox will be altered when Celtic are the visitors to the home of their rivals on January 2 next year. For more than 80 years the directors at Rangers and their guests on the first home game of the new year have made a toast to the health of the reigning monarch in what is known as the Loving Cup ceremony. And that, for the first time since Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952, will be to the King.
A month prior to that they had raised the Cup to her father King George VI prior to a 2-1 home defeat to Dundee. And in every year since, on the first home match of the new calendar year, Rangers toasted Queen Elizabeth II.
The Loving Cup can be found in the Ibrox trophy room and its story is part of club folklore. In 1937 Rangers, then the Scottish champions, were invited to play Stoke City for a fundraising match to help families of the 30 miners who tragically lost their lives due to a fire at the Holditch Colliery.
Bill Struth, the then legendary manager accepted, and 30,000 watched a goalless draw which helped raise almost £2000. In return, Potters chairman Sir Francis Joseph gifted Rangers the Loving Cup which he had commissioned to commemorate the coronation of King George VI.
Only 30 were cast from a special mould and Joseph’s only request was that the vessel should be used to toast the health of the reigning monarch before the club’s first home match of every new year. It has been a tradition ever since with the Rangers manager also taking part.
Each of the 22 top flight English clubs in the 1936/37 season received a Loving Cup, a further two went to the two promoted sides, one to the SFA for a match played at Hampden Park between Britain and the Rest of Europe, the English FA, the English Football League and the King himself.
Only five Loving Cups are understood to be left with Stoke City, Everton and Grimsby Town all joining Rangers in still carrying out the ceremony while Chelsea’s is in their museum.
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