Second Ibrox Disaster

January 2, 1971:

The second major incident occurred on Saturday, 2 January 1971, when 66 people were killed in a crush, as supporters tried to leave the stadium. The match was an Old Firm game and was attended by over 80,000 fans. In the last regulation minute, Celtic took a 1-0 lead and some Rangers supporters started to leave the stadium. However, in the final moments of the match, Colin Stein scored an equaliser for Rangers.
As thousands of spectators were leaving the ground by stairway 13, it appears that someone, possibly a child being carried on his father's shoulders, fell, causing a massive chain-reaction pile-up of people.
The tragic loss included many children – five of them schoolmates from the town of Markinch in Fife. Most of the deaths were caused by compressive asphyxia, with bodies being stacked up to six feet deep in the area. Over 200 other fans were injured.
Initially there was speculation that some fans left the ground slightly early when Celtic scored, but then turned back when they heard the crowd cheering when Stein scored the equaliser, colliding with fans leaving the ground when the match ended. The official inquiry into the disaster indicated that there was no truth in this hypothesis, however, as all the spectators were going in the same direction at the time of the collapse.
The 1971 disaster led to a huge redevelopment of the Ibrox ground, spearheaded by the then manager Willie Waddell, who visited Borussia Dortmund's Westfalenstadion for inspiration. Ibrox was converted to an all seater stadium, and was subsequently awarded UEFA five star status, now category four.

I'm somewhat familiar with the Celtic-Ranger rivalry, but I'd never heard of this incident.  It makes the Who concert disaster in Cincinnati seem minor in comparison. 

I gained a respect for the force manifested in crowds in 1992 when fans stormed the field at Notre Dame when ND came back to beat Penn State in the last minute of the football game.  The student section was pushing downward toward the field while walking down the bleachers, and the crowd would literally move me three foot or so in any direction.  I would be surged forward, only to have the compressed crowd ahead of me surge backward in reaction.  A girl near me tripped on the bleachers and fell to the ground, and we had to yank her up before she got trampled.  It was a pretty scary situation, but the crush of the crowd was tremendous.    I don't feel too bad about skipping very crowded venues these days.