year of the dons front page

With such a special achievement by Aberdeen FC during 1983 when they won not only the European Cup Winners Cup but the European Super Cup as well as the Scottish Cup, it is of little surprise that the Club was showered with gifts of all kinds to mark such a landmark series of event.

Here is the gift that was given by Aberdeen Journals, revisiting a format that was also used when the Dons won the League in season 1970-1980. The copper look anodised aluminium sheet on a wood backing board represents a front page from the Green Final, the popular Saturday evening sports newspaper that served northeast Scotland for many years.

With classic brevity, the headline is “Year of the Dons” and was not merely a celebration but also a forecast as it was gifted to the Club in the summer of 1983, well ahead of the success that was to come in December with the Dons defeating the European Cup holders, Hamburg. Perhaps the newspaper kent it was coming.