Hibs mourn loss of Eric Stevenson after cancer battle

Eric Stevenson played 390 games in his ten-year stay at Hibs. Picture: SNS

Throughout the 1960s, Stevenson provided great entertainment for the Easter Road support, giving the capital club ten years of service as he played 390 games, scoring 79 goals.

A lifelong Hibs fan, Stevenson actually started his career by signing for arch-rivals Hearts as a schoolboy. He had, though, put his name to a full professional contract, the intent being it would be kept in the drawer of Hearts manager Tommy Walker until he was old enough.

The SFA, however, got wind of what had happened, leading to a £150 fine for the Gorgie club and one of £75 for Walker. Hibs stepped in to sign the youngster – born on Christmas Day 1942 in the South Lanarkshire mining village of Eastfield – and before the age of 18 he had made his debut alongside  Ronnie Simpson and  Sammy Baird.

Equally at home on either wing, Stevenson invariably sported the No 11 shirt, performing not only on the domestic stage but on those big European nights against the likes of Liverpool, Red Star Belgrade and Valencia, while his performance against AS Roma led to him being linked with a move to Italian club Lazio while he was still a teenager.

Stevenson scored in Hibs’ 3-0 win over FC Porto at Easter Road and also did so against Lisbon club Belenenses and Olimpija Ljubljana but he reserved some of his best performances for Edinburgh derbies, and was the target of some choice abuse from the Hearts support who viewed a player dubbed “The Rebel” as having rejected their club.

Perhaps the most memorable was the derby of September 1965 when, in a whirlwind start, Hibs went 4-0 up. All four goals came in the opening ten minutes with Stevenson and Jimmy O’Rourke claiming two each.

Other than one appearance for the Scottish League, international recognition eluded Stevenson – who readily admitted he enjoyed the social side of football – a fact which former Hibs captain Pat Stanton confesses still bemuses him.

He said: “Eric was a really, really good player, a lot quicker than people thought. I’ve always thought it was hard to believe a player like that was never capped for Scotland when you look back at some who have been over the years. Some deserved it, some made you wonder.

“But Eric could have played on that stage, no problem. He was an exciting player but on a personal level what I remember is when I first started, coming in from Bonnyrigg Rose – Eric lived there – we’d sometimes travel in his car and he’d give you little bits of advice.

“He was a big, big help to me and if you did well he was genuinely pleased for you. I was actually out to see Eric at his home a couple of weeks ago and although you could see he was ill he was still very lucid. Davie Hogg, another former Hibs player, was there so we had a good chat about the older days.”