ALLY McCoist has told how he once broke up a half time fight between rival Hibs and Hearts stars — while dressed as the Hearts mascot.
McCoist, 62, was still a Rangers player when he dressed up as mascot Hearty Harry as a prank during a powderkeg Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle in 1996.
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The Scotland legend told an audience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival he was on media duties at the time but had decided to go for some pre-match drinks in the capital’s George Street before the game and was “full of tequila”.
He told how he persuaded the Hearts employee who usually donned the costume to let him wear it instead, only to end up in the middle of a fracas in the tunnel.
He said: “He looks at me and shakes his head and I look back at him and I nod my head. Two minutes later I’ve got the Hearty Harry outfit on.
“It’s the first time Hearty Harry had been full of tequila.
“So I’ve got all the gear on, I’ve got Hearty Harry’s big massive head on, and I go down into the tunnel.
“I had to go downstairs before the half time whistle went but little did I know it had all kicked off.
“As I arrive in the tunnel the Hibs and Hearts players are all going off and I’m in between them.
“I’ve got big Dave McPherson in one arm and big Yogi Hughes in the other and I’m trying to split the whole thing up.
“They don’t have a clue, they think this is Hearty Harry breaking this fight up.”
He added: “I go out onto the park and I’m dancing about as Hearty Harry and going up behind the goal to the Hearts supporters and I go back in just before the teams come out.
“One of the lads at Hearts says ‘you’ll need to go out and take a bow’.
“So I go out with the Hearty Harry outfit on and the boy with the microphone says ‘have I got news for you, today wasn’t your normal Hearty Harry, no no, today Hearty Harry was none other than Scotland striker and Rangers number nine Ally McCoist’.
“So I took my Hearty Harry head off and I look and everybody has a look of total bewilderment.
“The Hearts fans are (open mouthed) and I turn to the Hibs end and they’re like ‘get to…”
The Rangers and Scotland legend was in Edinburgh to discuss his new autobiography, “Dear Scotland: On the Road with the Tartan Army“.
Now a leading football pundit, he was recently voted the most popular TV co-commentator by a landslide.
But he told a packed audience at the 1000 capacity McEwan Hall how he’s happy for the Auld Enemy England to win — but only to a point.
He said: “They say [they invented football] but they do get carried away.
“I’m very much right involved in it because I do a lot of my work down there and a lot of the English stuff.
“I do a lot on the radio with big Alan Brazil and we are the exact same — It suits us for England to do well… up to a point.
“‘Ah, good result for England, smashing, they’ll get out of the group ok’; ‘brilliant, last 16 I think they should be fine’; ‘semi finals, eh that’s enough, we can’t have any more of that’. It’s genuinely the case.
“Because the beautiful game did start north of the border, of that there is absolutely no doubt.”
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McCoist has dedicated a chapter in his book to his mentor, the late Walter Smith.
He paid tribute to the man who was his manager at Rangers and gave him the honour of being his assistant as manager of the Scotland national team.
He said: “Walter was special. I loved Walter, I really did… He was just a wonderful soft — but hard — human being.
“You’ll never hear anybody say a bad word against Walter.
“There were three men in my life who had the most effect on me — my dad and Uncle George and Walter, without doubt.
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“No doubt I’m biased but I think he should be spoken of in the same breath as (Bill) Shankly and (Sir Matt) Busby and (Jock) Stein.
“I mean, he had Rangers one goal away from a Champions League final. Not a game away, just one goal. We ended up drawing in Marseille and if we’d scored another goal we were in the final against AC Milan.”
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