''Come here, you university
bastard,'' was the brisk term of encouragement Colin Campbell used to receive with regularity from John Lambie when he stepped out of line on the training field in the year Hibs last made the Scottish Cup final.
Having a degree in economics from Edinburgh University cut no ice with the man who preferred pigeons to politics and who was amazed that he was coaching a 21-year-old who was in his first season and who could legitimately claim to be the only professional footballer ever to come out of Benbecula.
Back in the late 1970s, Campbell was one of few footballers in Britain to have a degree from a further education establishment and the fact wasn't lost on Lambie, the Easter Road trainer, who used to wind him up about it at every available opportunity.
Those good-natured exchanges between Lambie, now on the brink of taking Partick Thistle back into the first division, and Campbell, who was the club's top striker at the time, were part and parcel of life at Easter Road back in 1979 when Eddie Turnbull was coach, Jim McArthur the goalkeeper, Des Bremner the midfield dynamo, and Hibs were getting excited at the prospect of taking on Rangers in the Scottish Cup final.
Even then, the fact the Easter Road side hadn't won the trophy since 1902 was an open sore for long-suffering supporters who felt a win was on the cards. They certainly came close over the three games it took to settle the 1979 final and it was Campbell who nearly laid to rest the hoodoo which has beset the club in the Scottish Cup.
In the first game, before 50,000 people at Hampden Park, Campbell was sent sprawling inside the penalty box by Peter McCloy, five minutes from the end of normal time with the game still goalless. Referee Brian McGinlay had a good long look then turned aside the appeals of the Hibs players, although those who have seen it on video still maintain it was a stonewall penalty.
The disputed award was one of the few highlights of two truly dreadful games which both ended 0-0. The second replay was very different, with Rangers scoring twice through Derek Johnstone while an Ally McLeod penalty and a Tony Higgins goal for Hibs took the game into extra-time. Campbell was as stunned as anyone else when, five minutes from the end of extra-time, a Davie Cooper cross was met by Arthur Duncan, the Hibs full back, whose flying header soared into his own net.
''Every time I meet Jackie McNamara, who was playing for us, the first thing he always says is, 'We were robbed of a penalty kick in the first game, big man','' said Campbell, whose career shone brightly for two seasons at Easter Road before he moved on to Dundee United.
Now 44 and the owner of the only sports shop on Benbecula, built on to the post office in the village of Balivanich, Campbell is constantly reminded of his role in those matches against the Ibrox side.
Employees in his Edinburgh sports shop give their boss a hard time, claiming he missed a sitter in the first of the three games. ''It was me against McCloy and the Girvan lighthouse made a great save; that's my story and I'm sticking to it,'' laughs Campbell.
Of that Hibs side, which also included Higgins, Bobby Hutchison, and the cult hero that was Ally Brazil, it is Campbell who had the most interesting route into first-team football.
Born and raised on Benbecula in the Western Isles, he admits it never entered his head he would become a professional footballer. There were pitches on the island but few coaches and no opposition. ''I've always felt there are plenty of tremendously talented footballers on the islands, but there aren't many people around to help them get rid of bad habits on the pitch,'' said Campbell. ''They are football-mad up there but it never enters their heads they could earn their living from playing the game, the way somebody from Edinburgh or Glasgow probably does.''
With no secondary school on Benbecula, he had to go to Fort William and stay on the mainland during term-time, before ending up at Edinburgh University. For four years he played in midfield for the university team in the East of Scotland League before Eddie Turnbull offered him a contract at Hibs at the age of 21. Four months later, Turnbull played him up front in a reserve game, liked what he saw, and turned him into a striker for the first time in his career.
Fixtures against the likes of Eyemouth United were replaced by high-profile games against Hearts and those Scottish Cup final games against Rangers. In his second, and last, year at Easter Road he was a team-mate of the great George Best, albeit in a Hibs team who were relegated.
Campbell admits he didn't appreciate the team's achievement in reaching that Scottish Cup final and never thought it would be the club's last final appearance for at least another 21 years.
''After the third game against Rangers, Eddie Turnbull came up to the back of the bus to talk to the young chaps and said we should be proud of making the final as not many players would do it. We took it with a pinch of salt; we thought there would be lots of opportunities for us to play in finals, but how wrong we were.''
Campbell still talks with fondness of Lambie, who was brushing up on his eccentricity back in the late 1970s. ''We played Manchester City in a friendly the season after the cup final and I was hit on the back of my head by their goalkeeper, Joe Corrigan, and swallowed my tongue. In those days, John was the trainer and people remember him running on to the pitch with the 'magic sponge', looking at what happened and thinking 'Christ, what do I do now?' Luckily he managed to get their trainer to pull my tongue out and I was rushed to hospital.''
The incident had a profound effect on Campbell's career and he never fulfilled the promise he showed in that first successful season at Easter Road. He was rushed back after only two weeks but Campbell was a shadow of the player he had been. The team foundered too and were relegated. Even the introduction of Best couldn't halt the decline, though his involvement remains a source of amazement to Campbell.
''I can't believe I got changed in the same dressing-room as George Best. One of my best memories was playing with him in a game against Rangers around Christmas and scoring the winning goal; I'm still chuffed with that.''
Campbell will miss today's game - he will be watching his son play football in Blackpool - but he believes his old club will win. ''It's hard to believe we were the last Hibs team to play in a Scottish Cup final 22 years ago, but I think the current side will at least equal us. If Russell Latapy and Franck Sauzee are playing, I think they'll do it, but probably only by one goal.''
