A medal won by Rangers legend Jim Baxter is expected to fetch up to £5000 at auction next month.
The nine-carat gold gong was given to the player, nicknamed “Slim Jim”, following the Light Blues’ 2-0 Scottish League Cup final win over Kilmarnock in front of 82,063 fans at Hampden Park in October 1960. Baxter had signed for the Ibrox club from Raith Rovers in June of that year and it was his first senior honour.
The historic piece of football memorabilia will go under the hammer at a special McTear’s auction – More Than A Game: Sporting Medals & Shirts – in Glasgow on October 14. The medal is being sold by Rangers fan Douglas Gray, who was a page boy when Baxter married hairdresser Jean Ferguson in Coatbridge in 1965.
The medal was gifted to Douglas’s mum, who wore it as a charm bracelet for many years. James Bruce, McTear’s sporting specialist, said: “The medal was the first of 10 won by Jim Baxter during his time at Rangers and that in itself gives it added significance. We expect there will be a lot of interest when it goes under the hammer.”
In his first season at Ibrox, Baxter helped Rangers win the League Cup and Scottish League title. In that season they also became the first British club to reach a major European final – losing to Fiorentina in the two-legged European Cup Winners’ Cup final.
Baxter retired from football in 1970 following a second spell at Rangers. He died in 2001, aged 61, and in 2003 a statue was erected in his honour in his hometown – Hill of Beath.
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