Early Life
Bettison was born in Rotherham, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 3 January 1956, the son of George Bettison, a steelworker, and Betty Heathcote. He married Patricia Favell in Rotherham in 1976.
Bettison said that he attended football matches as a spectator from time to time, following Sheffield Wednesday. He described his experience watching Sheffield Wednesday vs. Manchester City on 22 April 1970 from the Leppings Lane terraces at Hillsborough stadium:
"...the terraces had become so full...there was no room to move...I remember, at one time, being squashed against a barrier to such an extent that I was exerting all my energies to prevent injury...I dreaded any goals or near misses as this was followed by a surge of people which caused me to be squashed painfully against the barrier. After fighting my way through a crowd I found a more comfortable position. I had been in very large football grounds before and since but had never experienced anything quite like the pressure that was created in this crowd at Hillsborough."
The experience led him to state in 1989 that "I wonder, now, whether the Leppings Lane terraces at Hillsborough is somehow susceptible to retaining the pressure created in crowd build up"
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